Word from the Smokies: ‘Wildflowering’ with long-time enthusiast Tom Harrington
It’s wildflower season in the Great Smoky Mountains, and beneath the long morning shadows at Chestnut Tops Trail near Townsend, Tennessee, Tom Harrington is in his element. We’ve barely reached the trailhead sign before Harrington, a hiking and “wildflowering” aficionado and park volunteer of 25 years, pauses to point out the colonies of purple flowers painting the path — purple phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida), a native wildflower whose nectar is said to make some of the best honey around.
Word from the Smokies: Couple will focus on insect field guide during park residency
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the crown jewel of the Southern Appalachians, an ancient landscape teeming with life — including what naturalist and explorer William Bartram in 1791 called “insects of infinite variety,” many of them “admirably beautiful.” Some 200 years later, naturalist E. O. Wilson would describe them as the “little things that run the world.”
Word from the Smokies: For bears, relocation is no happily ever after
The four-state mountain region that includes Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to an estimated 14,500 black bears, but one particular animal had caught the attention of a watchful police chief in one of the park’s gateway communities.
Word from the Smokies: In the fight against litter, volunteer organizations are key
Every year, millions of people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park to experience its clear mountain streams, verdant views, and diverse forms of natural beauty. The mountains exert a powerful spell — but too often, that spell is broken by the sight of plastic bottles and candy wrappers scattered beside trailheads and overlooks, fast food bags and old tires flung along roadsides and plastic bags or balloons hung in treetops.
Word from the Smokies: Shedding light on the nature of venomous snakes
Southern Appalachia affords many opportunities to watch and learn more about our diverse species of wildlife. At my home near the border of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, I see migrating and breeding birds, wild turkeys rearing poults, white-tailed deer with their fawns and the occasional black bear.
Word from the Smokies: Ranger-made goods add personal touch to park stores
Mike Meldrum could claim his current occupation as a third career — if he weren’t so careful to avoid calling it a job.
“I want to have fun and feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my time,” said Meldrum, a former park ranger whose handiwork has raised $37,000 in support of Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the last two years alone.
Word from the Smokies: Discover Life in America marks milestone in species inventory project
Mindy Fawver is retired from a career in commercial photography and graphic design, while her husband, Doug Bruce, works as an industrial alignment engineer; neither has a professional background in biology, conservation, or taxonomy. But together, the couple has documented more than 60 species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park never before recorded there.
Word from the Smokies: Park embarks on cutting-edge hellbender study
With wrinkly skin that comes in various shades of brown, eastern hellbenders aren’t easy to spot. These giant salamanders, which average 20 inches in length, spend most of their lives nearly invisible under rocks on the bottom of cool, fast-flowing streams.
Damage from Helene: Hellbenders may get endangered species listing
By now, the story of Hurricane Helene is a tragically familiar one: the endless rain, the swollen rivers, the angry water indiscriminately destroying lives and homes. The storm killed more than 230 people across five states, including 104 confirmed dead in North Carolina and 18 in Tennessee.
Word from the Smokies: Volunteer roles critical to park operations
After years of vacationing in the Smokies, Scott and Jayne Young had no trouble deciding where they wanted to retire. In 2016, they sold their lakeside home in Ohio and moved to Gatlinburg.