Backcountry Office & Permit System Restructuring Proposal
Park management is considering a proposal to improve visitor services by restructuring the park's backcountry reservations and permitting processes as well as assisted backcountry trip planning services. The purpose of this document is to brief park partners, cooperators and stakeholder representatives and to solicit feedback on this proposal.
Park Planning Projects:
Park planners are now defining the alternatives in sufficient detail to allow modeling of their expected natural and cultural impacts as well as the estimated cost of each alternative.
Elkmont Historic District Planning Website
The Final Environmental Impact Statement and General Management Plan Amendment was signed June 30, 2009.
North Shore Road
On February 6, 2010 an agreement was signed between the Department of Interior (DOI), the State of North Carolina, Swain County, NC, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that ended 67 years of indecision over the future of a proposed new North Shore Road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Construction of the proposed 34 mile-long road was a requirement of a 1943 Agreement between the same four parties, which was executed during the depths of World War II, when a new TVA dam flooded NC Rt. 288, cutting off access to residents of 44,000 acres of private land between the new the Fontana Lake and the existing park boundary.
Under that 1943 Agreement, TVA bought the 44,000 acres which were added to the national park, displacing the residents. In exchange the DOI agreed to construct a new road along the North Shore of Fontana Lake to replace the flooded road after the war, provided that Congress appropriated the funding. About 7 miles of the proposed road were built in the 1970's before the NPS suspended further efforts due to excessive cost and environmental damage.
Some Swain County residents continued to press for completion of the Road, and in 2001 Congress appropriated $16 million to resume work on the road, triggering preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS resulted in a December 2007 Record of Decision to pursue a monetary settlement to Swain County in lieu of further construction as the alternative that best protects the resources of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 2007 estimated cost of full construction was $729 million.
The new 2010 Agreement extinguished any responsibilities under the 1943 Agreement and calls for a settlement totaling $52 million to be paid to Swain County over a period of years. It authorizes the DOI to make payments of $12.8 million immediately, with the remainder subject to yearly appropriation.
The issue of whether or not to construct the new road has been a divisive factor between the park and its neighbors in North Carolina for generations. While there are still individuals who will always insist that the Road should have been constructed, the park is relieved to have put this obligation to rest, and expects the new 2010 Agreement to bring closure for thousands of others.
Tremont Development Concept Planning Website
The National Park Service is nearing completion of a project to improve the facilities at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont through the preparation of a Development Concept Plan/Environmental Assessment. The objective is to evaluate existing facilities as they relate to meeting current program needs, and to develop conceptual designs for alternative facilities that will better support the Tremont program. The final Environmental Assessment will be released for public review in late February, 2010.
Briefing Statements:
Environmental Assessments:
Strategic Plan:
Resource Education:
Laws and Policies:
- Compendium of Regulations
Regulations applying specifically to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Title 36 Regulations covering all National Park Service units.
