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Making America's Best Idea Even Better
Great Smoky Mountains National ParkWild Turkeys are plentiful in the park.
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Volunteer
 
Volunteers assist the park in a variety of ways.

Photo by Don McGowan.

The Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program allows people from all walks of life to step in and lend a hand to help the park.

   
 
While the number of visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park increases each year, funding and resources to provide for these people and their needs do not keep increasing rapidly enough to keep up with the increased visitation. The Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program allows people from all walks of life to step in and lend a hand to help the park staff assist the visitors by doing jobs that otherwise could not be done. Some of the way the VIP's help out here are by:
  • Staffing information desks
  • Serving as Campground Hosts
  • Maintaining and patrolling trails in the park
  • Presenting living history programs
  • Assisting in Resource Management projects.
To apply for the program, you simply call or write the park requesting the Volunteers in Parks information packet. It will contain more details of these and other positions available here, along with an application form you fill out and return to the park. Please keep in mind that housing in the park is not available.

To receive a packet contact :
VIP Coordinator Great Smoky Mountains National Park
107 Park Headquarters Drive
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738

Or telephone (865) 436-1265
 

Student Conservation Association
We also utilize Resource Assistants and high school work crews from the Student Conservation Association, Inc. (SCA), which accepts applications for various agencies like the Smokies. They recruit applicants for high school volunteer programs and college-age and older volunteers as Resource Assistants and Conservation Career Development Program fellows. Each year the park utilizes a number of individuals and high school crews, recruited by SCA, in Resource Management activities such as:
  • Wildlife and fisheries management
  • Vegetation management
  • Air quality monitoring
  • Backcountry management
  • Long-term inventory and monitoring activities of the resources
  • Support of the Park's Visitor Services and Parks-as-Classrooms programs
  • Support of backcountry management and trails maintenance activities.
Applications are accepted for winter/spring and summer/fall periods. For more information contact:

The Student Conservation Association, Inc.
PO Box 550
Charlestown, NH 03603-0550
(603) 543-1700
www.sca-inc.org
Spring Wildflowers
Spring Wildflowers
The Great Smoky Mountains are known as the "Wildflower National Park."
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Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Infestation
Hemlock Woolly Adelgids
Eastern hemlock trees are under attack from a non-native insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid.
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Great Horned Owls can be heard most often in January and February  

Did You Know?
More than 240 species of birds have been found in the park. Sixty species are year-round residents. Nearly 120 species breed in the park, including 52 species from the neo-tropics. Many other species use the park as an important stopover and foraging area during their semiannual migration.

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Last Updated: July 24, 2006 at 22:37 EST