Tag Archives: nature

Great Smoky Mountains National Park welcomed over eleven million visitors in 2016. Throughout the year, the park encouraged people to experience the park in honor of the National Park Service Centennial. In 2016, a record 11,312,785 people visited the national park, a 5.6% increase over 2015. In addition, over 2,200 people joined Superintendent Cassius Cash by completing the Smokies Centennial ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Appalachian Piedmont Zone fire management staff plan to burn approximately 420 acres of fields east of Hyatt Lane in Cades Cove. Weather permitting, burn operations will occur between Tuesday, Oct. 4 and Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016 Visitors should expect to see firefighters and equipment along Hyatt Lane and the Cades Cove Loop Road near ...

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency along with multiple partners have developed a new task force to focus on bear management in Sevier County and surrounding communities. This new educational initiative is being referred to as the BearWise Task Force and is sponsored by the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The program focuses on informing the public how to live ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park invites the public to join park staff on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 for the 23rd annual celebration of National Public Lands Day. National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands across America. In recognition, the park is hosting a variety of service projects across the ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian (EBCI) leadership met to discuss the recently modified regulation governing the gathering of plants in national parks. The rule, which went into effect on August 11, 2016, now allows members of federally recognized Indian tribes to request to enter into agreement with the National Park Service to ...

Keep Sevier Beautiful is partnering with Douglas Lake the Beautiful to host a cleanup event at Douglas Lake this weekend after a letter to a local newspaper citing the trash within the Lake engaged citizens throughout the area to create the inaugural Island Invasion. “The islands on Douglas Lake are public land and known as a great destination for recreational ...

Tourists from Ohio captured a black bear bandit on video as it rifled through belongings in the back of their vehicle at a Gatlinburg rental cabin. According to a video posted to YouTube on Aug. 16, 2016, a group of visitors had just arrived at their rental cabin in Gatlinburg and were unpacking their luggage from the back of the ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash and City of Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner invite the public to join them on a hike along the Gatlinburg Trail in the Smokies on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016 at 9 a.m. in honor of the National Park Service Centennial. Hikers should meet in front of Sugarlands Visitor Center to begin the 4-mile, ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the temporary closure of the Ramsey Cascades Trail due to a damaged foot log caused by a fallen tree that is blocking access along the route. The foot log spans a section of Ramsey Prong which is too swift and deep to allow hikers to safely rock-hop across river. The popular, four-mile trail ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Inventory and Monitoring Branch has partnered with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the School of Arts at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, to create a new web application called Species Mapper. Everyone from park managers to school groups can use Species Mapper to explore suitable habitats for more than ...