Word from the Smokies: Shedding light on the nature of venomous snakes
Summer in Southern Appalachia affords many opportunities to watch and learn more about our diverse species of wildlife. 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: Smokies cities make strides toward ensuring bear, human safety with new trash bins
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to an estimated 1,900 black bears — about two per square mile — with more than 14,500 of these iconic mammals roaming the four-state mountain region.
Smokies Life wins national public engagement award
Smokies Life, formerly Great Smoky Mountains Association, received national recognition at the 2024 Public Lands Alliance Partnership Awards for its “Junior Ranger Activity Guide,” which won in a category for Outstanding Public Engagement.
Smokies Life celebrates ribbon cutting at new welcome center
One of the four nonprofit partners of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Smokies Life, now has a new home — The Great Smokies Welcome Center — a space to call its own that after recent rounds of renovations feels perfectly tailored to the organization’s mission.
This must be the place: Ode to the written word, ode to putting the paper to bed
It’s a lot quieter this week at The Smoky Mountain News. Not just because of the unusually warm weather this past weekend sparking folks to frolic and head for the hills.
Smokies Life CEO to retire
Following CEO Laurel Rematore’s announcement that she intends to retire at the end of 2024, Smokies Life, formerly known as the Great Smoky Mountains Association, has launched a national search for her successor.
Tremont Writers Conference accepting applications
Applications are open to the second annual Tremont Writers Conference, slated for Oct. 23-27 at Tremont’s campus in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, through April 30.
GSMA announces name change
After completing its 70th year supporting preservation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains Association has adopted a new name. The nonprofit will now be known as Smokies Life.
Word from the Smokies: Smokies Life celebrates trees and their stories
Have you ever tried to count the number of branches on a tree? One limb leads to many appendages from which grow several more, each with its own shape, size and direction. The prospect of keeping them sorted long enough to perform an accurate count presents a nigh-impossible task.
