Understanding the ubiquitous bobcat

Even though you may never have seen one, the stealthy predator Lynx rufus is all around us here in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Wily and elusive, bobcats are not only present but pervasive both in and out of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “Many people are surprised to learn how common they actually […]

Brian Railsback selected as 2023 Steve Kemp Writer in Residence

Great Smoky Mountains Association has announced Western Carolina University professor Dr. Brian Railsback as the recipient of its 2023 Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency. The annual residency, funded by GSMA, is designed to help writers of any medium connect in meaningful ways with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, providing space for each individual to focus on […]

First Smokies Writers Conference accepts applications through April

About this time last year, I was asked to be involved with designing the first-ever conference for writers to be held within the boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The inaugural Tremont Writers Conference is the coordinated effort of two educational park partners: Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and Great Smoky Mountains Association. […]

Mabel Meets a Black Bear teaches kids to be BearWise

As days lengthen and temperatures rise, black bears begin to move around in the woods searching for insects, nuts, and berries. They also look for food in the gateway communities outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In sync with bears’ emergence, Great Smoky Mountains Association has just released a new book teaching kids the importance […]

Discover Life in America presents conservation author on Earth Day

Doug Tallamy had been teaching at the University of Delaware for a quarter of a century when he had an epiphany: People who want to do something good for the planet have the ability to effect change immediately by choosing plants that share their energy with other beings, as opposed to those that don’t. And […]

George Ellison: Too much and not enough

When I got a text from Elizabeth Ellison on the morning of February 9 that George was in the hospital and struggling, I was actually in the Smokies that he loved — and we were having some very strange weather. The wind that morning was so fierce I nearly blew away trying to make it […]

African American project leader reflects on 2022, plans for 2023

Who were they? How did they get here? What were their lives like? These are questions that constantly resonate with me when I gaze upon clouds and mountains and dare to consider the 9,000 years of human history that lie untold within this region that we call home. Often left out of the popular modern […]

Local novelists to help lead first park writers conference

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle and Richard Powers live on opposite sides of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Soon, the two award-winning novelists will converge in the mountains to help create the first-ever conference for writers held within the national park boundary. The inaugural Tremont Writers Conference is the coordinated effort of two educational park partners, Great […]

What happens when we relocate box turtles?

My neighbor has a special affinity for turtles. For years, whenever he saw a box turtle on the highway or crossing a secondary road, he would not just move it off the pavement, he would put it into his truck, take it home to his large, old farm property in East Tennessee, and there release […]

Museum of the Cherokee Indian honors ancestors by removing sacred objects

Shana Bushyhead Condill is a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and has always considered Western North Carolina and the Smokies home. Because her father traveled to work in “Indian Country” across the US, she was born in Montana, then lived in Oklahoma and Wisconsin…