NPS photo.

NPS Fisheries Managers work in streams to restore native brook trout.

Welcome to Great Smoky Mountains National Park Resource Management & Science!

Ever wonder what it's like to work in a national park? Catch a bear? Track fish? Find out with “Dispatches From the Field,” a regular source of information from scientists, resource managers, and park partners.

Click on issues below to see science, research, and resource management projects firsthand, and to find information about volunteering and educational opportunities.

Quick Dispatches - projects & discoveries

• Coming soon: Linking air, water, and fish
• Coming soon: Geology of the Smokies
• Missing species!
• What is citizen science?
• Tornadoes & fire
• The search for Sweet pinesap
• Healthy air, healthy soil, healthy forests
• Winter in the Smokies
• Return of the greenhouse
• Chestnut blight and the good virus
• Replanting poached ginseng
• Invasion of the exotic earthworms!
• Cave bats in crisis 

Dispatches from the Field - in-depth profiles of Resource Management & Research

• Issue 1: Grasslands & Forests
• Issue 2: Adelgids, Hemlocks, & Streams (watch the Podcast)
• Issue 3: The Wild(life) Side of the Smokies
• Issue 4: Fish and the health of Smoky Mountain streams
• Issue 5: Air & Sky of the Smokies
• Issue 6: Cultural Resources & Archeology (watch the Podcast) 
• Issue 7: Discovering life in the Smokies  
• Issue 8: Fire in the Smoky Mountains 

More Smokies science links:

• Search within Dispatches by science topic
• Check Current Research Permits in the Smokies (new updates December, 2010)
• Visit the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center to learn more about how you can be involved in park research & science!
• For teachers: plan a park visit or bring the park to your classroom!