• Approximately 1,500 black bears live in the national park.

    Great Smoky Mountains

    National Park NC,TN

Resource Roundup: April-May, 2009

Click on each Resource Management Program to learn about some of their projects.

Air Quality

  • Environmental Education = Cleaner Air, study finds

Cultural Resources & Archeology

  • Recording the past: photographing the former splendor of Elkmont
  • Recording the present: photographing culturally significant comfort stations
 

Fire

  • Fire history research   
  • New funding to research the connections Between fire and endangered bats  
  • Controlled burns—setting fires in the Smokies
  • Uncontrolled burns—putting out wildfires in the Smokies

Fisheries

  • Studying fish DNA and RNA to understand Smokies’ fish populations
  • New display protects rivers
  • Redesigning roads to let fish pass
  • Volunteer river clean-up
  • Find us at Troutfest!
  • Keeping tabs on water chemistry
 

Inventory & Monitoring

  • Ant awareness: invasive Needle Ant at Oconoluftee
  • New biohazard cabinet protects scientists from disease
  • Freezes, fire, & worms: research results on new possibilities to manage invasive earthworms

Vegetation

  • Gama Grass division and planting in Cades Cove
  • Willow stake planting in Cades Cove
 

Wildlife 

  • Bat caves closed to protect bats from White-nose Syndrome
  • Call for public help with elk

Partner Projects

  • Zoonotic diseases survey

Return to Dispatches from the Field: Issue 3.

Did You Know?

Fontana Lake is formed by Fontana Dam.

At 480 feet, Fontana Dam, located on the southwestern boundary of the park, is the tallest concrete dam east of the Rocky Mountains. The dam impounds the Little Tennessee River forming Fontana Lake and produces hydroelectric power.