The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

News

  • Nokian Tyres makes rubber hit the road for conservation of endangered fish in Southeast Tennessee
    Wes Boling
    Wednesday, 14 May 2025

     

    A Laurel Dace (Chrosomus saylori) collected by Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute scientists at Bumbee Creek in Rhea County, Tenn.A laurel dace (Chrosomus saylori) collected by Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute scientists at Bumbee Creek in Rhea County, Tenn. Tennessee Aquarium

    Spring City set to celebrate a rare denizen of Walden Ridge almost decimated by drought

    Wes Boling is marketing communications manager for Nokian Tyres Dayton Factory.

    SPRING CITY — Nokian Tyres will serve as presenting sponsor of Laurel Dace Day, a community celebration of an endangered fish set for Saturday, May 17, in Spring City.  

    The inaugural event led by the Tennessee Aquarium raises awareness of the laurel dace, a critically endangered fish found only in the Walden Ridge area 20 miles from Nokian Tyres’ North American factory in Dayton. 

     Laurel Dace Day features a 5K race and half-mile family fun run, followed by a festival at the Spring City Nature Park with live music, a farmers’ market, local vendors and conservation education. The event is free to attend, other than registration fees for participation in the races. 

    The sponsorship is part of Nokian Tyres’ Road to Sustainable Success initiative.


  • Trump cuts bleed UT Agriculture Institute of $31 million
    Cassandra Stephenson
    Monday, 12 May 2025

                                   The University of Tennessee burial mound on the agriculture campus in Knoxville dates to 644. The mound was constructed by native tribes of the Woodland Period and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Wikipedia Commons

    DOGE bites off $37.7 million in science and other funding from University of Tennessee system

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout. This story will be updated.

    KNOXVILLE President Donald Trump’s administration has pulled the plug on roughly $37.7 million in federal funding across 42 grants for the University of Tennessee System.

    The majority of the loss — $31.2 million — comes from eight terminated grants at the UT Institute of Agriculture. The institute houses the university’s agriculture research arm as well as its statewide educational organization providing resources to Tennessee farmers and communities in all 95 counties. It also houses the UT College of Veterinary Medicine and the Herbert College of Agriculture.

    The UT school system was set to receive more than $59 million across 58 awards from multiple federal departments and agencies, according to records reviewed by Tennessee Lookout. The grant terminations apply to $51.4 million of that total, $37.7 million of which has not yet been spent.

    UT’s Knoxville campus saw another 25 awards terminated representing $2.1 million in funding. 


  • Bees, fish and plants show how climate change is disrupting nature in 2 key ways
    Courtney McGinnis
    Wednesday, 07 May 2025

    beesA bee pollinates an almond tree in an orchard. Concerns are growing that there is an increasing disconnect between pollinating plants and their pollinators due to climate change.  David Kosling/U.S. Department of Agriculture

    The problem with climate change isn’t just the temperature. It’s how fast the climate is changing.

    This story was originally published by The Conversation. Courtney McGinnis is a professor of biology, medical sciences and environmental sciences at Quinnipiac University.

    Historically, Earth’s climate changes have generally happened over thousands to millions of years. Today, global temperatures are increasing by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade.

    Imagine a car speeding up. Over time, human activities such as burning fossil fuels, have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the Sun. This is like pressing the gas pedal. The faster the driver adds gas, the faster the car goes. 

    The 21st century has seen a dramatic acceleration in the rate of climate change, with global temperatures rising more than three times faster than in the previous century.

    The faster pace and higher temperatures are changing habitat ranges for plants and animals. In some regions, the pace of change is also throwing off the delicate timing of pollination, putting plants and pollinators such as bees at risk.

    Some species are already migrating

    Most plant and animal species can tolerate or at least recover from short-term changes in climate, such as a heat wave. When the changes last longer, however, organisms may need to migrate into new areas to adapt for survival.


  • Editorial: Stop unnecessary and damaging despoliation of the Little Tennessee River
    MountainTrue
    Monday, 05 May 2025

    1 Best equip in Little T Angela MartinPaddlers observe contractors hired to clean up Hurricane Helene debris in a stretch of the Little Tennessee River that was largely spared the ravages of the storm.  Angela Martin/MountainTrue

    Tell Army Corps, county officials to stop deforestation and river disturbance on the Little T

    This editorial was provided by MountainTrue.

    FRANKLIN, N.C. — The Little Tennessee River is home to 100 fish species alone — some found nowhere else in the world. The river and its adjacent greenway are also a beloved recreational resource for Macon County residents and tourists alike. But over the past few weeks, the banks of the river have been under assault by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors, removing hundreds of trees, many of which were still alive. Take action now to prevent further damage to the river!

    While large-scale debris removal continues to be a high priority in many parts of Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Little Tennessee River did not experience those same impacts; it saw only normal flooding. Apart from a few localized areas, like the Cullasaja River across from Walmart, there is no need for disaster recovery-type debris removal in Macon County waterways. And yet, contractors started near Tryphosa Road in Otto and have been working their way down the river, removing trees and debris from the river channel and banks in areas where no flooding impacts occurred. 


  • TN General Assembly slashes state wetlands protections
    Cassandra Stephenson
    Wednesday, 23 April 2025

    West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank 2048x1365 Water collects among trees at the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank — a wetland restored from its days as farmland — near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tenn.  Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout

    Bill’s supporters call it a win for private property; opponents say it’s a loss for all Tennesseans

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    NASHVILLE — A bill slashing regulations for an estimated 80 percent of Tennessee’s non-federally protected wetlands headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk this week after receiving approval from the General Assembly.

    The bill’s West Tennessee Republican sponsors — Rep. Kevin Vaughan and Sen. Brent Taylor — said the legislation removes onerous and seemingly subjective mitigation requirements for landowners and developers. 

    Environmental advocates and scientists said the legislation paves the way for the destruction of Tennessee’s natural resources.

    The bill passed 71-21 with one abstention in the House, and 25-6 in the Senate.

    Since the 1970s, wetland regulations in Tennessee have required developers and landowners to seek permission from the state before draining or altering wetlands. The swampy areas can host diverse species, soak up rain water and filter it as it seeps into groundwater tables, recharging aquifers. Alterations to wetlands required developers to pay for mitigation — efforts to preserve or restore other wetlands nearby. 


  • Updated 4/18: Smoky gray: Former Smokies leader warns of more funding cuts; popular campsites remain closed; still little information on cuts at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
    Elan Young, Ben Pounds and Thomas Fraser
    Friday, 18 April 2025

    Elkmont CampgroundCampers are seen enjoying a morning at Elkmont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Elkmont is one of the Smokies campgrounds still open. National Park Service

    National parks advocate and former Smokies official warns of funding shortfalls as closures continue, concerns persist, and people resist

    KNOXVILLE — Funding for national parks has never amounted to much, and the federal government will cut even more if people don’t speak out in defense of the country’s natural and ecological crown jewels.

    That was the message from Phil Francis, chairman of the Coalition to Protect American National Parks and former acting superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He spoke to an audience at Knoxville’s Schulz Bräu Brewing Company hosted by Discover Life in America. Francis said that due to rising concerns his organization grew from 500 members to over 4,000 during the Trump administration. The coalition, he said, includes many people like himself who used to work for the park system, including the former superintendent of Acadia National Park.

    Francis advocated that others should lobby government officials to continue to support the parks.

    “If you don’t speak up, it makes it a lot more difficult,” he told the audience. 


  • Wetlands protections built an industry. Rollbacks could erode it.
    Cassandra Stephenson and Delany Dryfoos
    Wednesday, 16 April 2025

    Paul Stoddard Gate 2048x1365 1 Paul Stoddard, a principal at environmental consulting firm EnSafe, unlocks the gate to the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank in Shelby County. EnSafe planted more than 50,000 trees to restore portions of this 250-acre wetland, creating credits for developers to purchase to offset destruction of wetlands elsewhere.  Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout

    Interests of all stripes push to preserve state wetlands protections against pro-developer pressure

    This story is part of the series Down the Drain from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting collaborative based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. 

    LEWISBURG Fourth-generation Middle Tennessee cattle farmer Cole Liggett lined up with scientists and environmental advocates in March to urge Tennessee lawmakers not to gut the state’s historically strong protections for wetlands.

    Wetlands protection has been good business for Liggett. In addition to raising cattle, he’s a manager at Headwaters Reserve, a firm that developers pay to preserve and restore wetlands and streams so they can destroy them elsewhere, called mitigation banking. If lawmakers follow through on a plan to deregulate an estimated 80 percent of the state’s isolated wetlands, that will upend the industry in Tennessee and drive up prices for developers still required to pay for mitigation, Liggett testified.

    Liggett works in a growing industry that operates more than 2,500 mitigation banks nationwide, earning an estimated $3.5 billion in revenue in 2019, according to a 2023 study funded by the Ecological Restoration Business Association. 

    The industry is built on demand spurred by the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act, which requires developers to offset their damage to wetlands by building or restoring wetlands nearby.

    But recent federal actions to shrink the scope of that law are pushing states to choose how strictly they will regulate wetlands. The consequences of those decisions not only threaten further degradation of land, water and wildlife, but also the fortunes of an industry that has made a big business out of conservation.


  • Editorial: I’m from Oak Ridge. Federal cuts threaten my career as a scientist.
    Sarah Nelson
    Monday, 14 April 2025

    bafkreicdlcqwzycxaxv422ixsse37f6ahdbqscuwdp426fsdfwqbmcptoySarah Nelson stands with a copy of The Journal of Undergraduate Research, which ran her first scientific publication in 2003. It was researched during her time as an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Nelson is now a senior research scientist.  Derek Armstrong via BlueSky  

    Federal science cuts, in Oak Ridge and beyond, threaten American health and innovation

    Sarah Nelson, MPH, PhD, is a senior research scientist in Seattle studying the genetic causes of complex health conditions. Hellbender Press has previously reported on changes to Oak Ridge federal facilities since the start of the second Trump Administration. This op-ed was originally published by KnoxNews.

    OAK RIDGE — My mother has been cleaning out the attic in her Oak Ridge house and very reasonably decided my sisters and I should become the stewards of the memorabilia from our childhoods and early adulthoods. The box she recently mailed me included my first scientific publication, from my undergraduate summer internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Mammalian Genetics Section (the “Mouse House”) in 2002.

    Over 20 years later, I am a senior research scientist and author on 60+ scientific publications mostly related to understanding how genetic variation contributes to different human diseases.

    Even before I received that box in the mail, I had been reflecting on why I chose a career in scientific research — mainly because, since January, I am no longer sure if and how I will be able to continue pursuing it. Federally funded scientific research is being attacked and dismantled by the administration of President Donald Trump, threatening the entire scientific enterprise. The situation is dire, and I urge you to join me in staying informed and speaking out against these existential threats to science. 


  • State fisheries experts study fate of striped bass in TVA dam upgrade
    Matthew Cameron
    Thursday, 10 April 2025

    1733318664847Russell Roper displays a 43-inch striped bass caught at Ft. Loudoun Dam. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is considering the effects of a TVA dam upgrade at Cherokee Lake on striper populations.  TWRA

    TWRA assessing potential impacts to popular game fish from changes to Cherokee Dam aeration system

    Matthew Cameron is a wildlife information specialist at Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. 

    JEFFERSON CITY — The Tennessee Valley Authority has announced plans to replace the current aeration system at Cherokee Dam with new turbine technology by 2026. These upgrades, designed to improve water quality downstream, may have unintended consequences for aquatic wildlife in Cherokee Reservoir — particularly striped bass. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is currently evaluating these potential impacts.

    The existing oxygenation lines in Cherokee Reservoir were originally installed to meet TVA’s requirement for minimum dissolved oxygen levels in water discharged below the dam. However, an unexpected benefit of this system has been the creation of a cool, oxygen-rich refuge in the reservoir during summer months — a critical survival zone for large striped bass. These fish rely on cooler, well-oxygenated water to make it through Tennessee’s hot summers, and Cherokee Reservoir provides limited natural options. 


  • UT joins forces with two state agencies to promote healthy forests and their wildlife in Tennessee
    Katie Donaldson
    Monday, 07 April 2025

    Growing acorns on a twig among oak leaves              One of the goals behind a recent partnership among UTIA and state agencies is the promotion of heartier food species such as this oak. The new five-year agreement between the UTIA Tree Improvement Program, the Tennessee Division of Forestry and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency focuses on developing locally adapted and genetically improved seed for future Tennessee forests.  Allison Mains/UTIA

    UTIA Tree Improvement Program and state agencies work together to protect and conserve the state’s forest resources

    Katie Donaldson is a communications specialist for the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources.

    KNOXVILLE — A new, five-year agreement establishes how the state of Tennessee and a program in the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will study and produce tree seedlings to promote the protection and conservation of Tennessee forests.

    The UTIA Tree Improvement Program (UT-TIP), the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF) and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) partnered on the agreement.

    “Honoring our land-grant mission, we are excited about this partnership to responsibly research, develop, manage and conserve forest resources across the great state of Tennessee,” said Keith Carver, UTIA senior vice chancellor and senior vice president.

    UT-TIP manages numerous seed orchards in East, Middle and West Tennessee with help from state and federal partners. It uses the orchards to provide the East Tennessee Nursery with locally adapted and genetically improved seed. 


  • Editorial: Despite the rhetoric, responsible growth is a bipartisan goal
    Coffee County for Responsible Growth
    Monday, 07 April 2025

    Large field with rolled-up straw bales and a wooded ridge in the back

    Coffee County is under development pressure, but it’s not a political fight

    This editorial was provided by Coffee County for Responsible Growth, but applies to planning and development debates throughout the Southeast.

    MANCHESTER — We keep hearing the claim that land protection, conservation and zoning are “liberal issues.”

    Let’s set the record straight: That’s simply not true.

    Protecting Coffee County’s farmland, water, infrastructure and rural way of life isn’t a political talking point — it’s common sense. And it’s deeply bipartisan.

    We’ve got Conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Libertarians all standing together. Not because of party lines — but because we love where we live, we recognize the importance of agriculture, and we value community. 


  • Helene: State labor regulators conclude company not at fault in flooding deaths at Impact Plastics
    JJ Stambaugh
    Friday, 04 April 2025

    impactplasticsThis still image from video shot by a victim of the flooding at Impact Plastics in Erwin illustrates the terror of the flood that killed five employees of the plant at the height of Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024.  Family of Johnny Peterson via WSMV

    Victim’s attorney: A jury will ultimately decide what happened during flooding of Erwin plant

    ERWIN — State safety officials ruled that Impact Plastics wasn’t responsible for the deaths of six employees who were killed by the catastrophic flash floods caused by Hurricane Helene in September.

    But while company representatives were pleased with the outcome of the findings released April 3 by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA), both state law enforcement officials and private attorneys representing the victims’ families said that Impact Plastics hasn’t been cleared of wrongdoing just yet. 

    For instance, a criminal probe conducted by the TBI was still underway and District Attorney General Steven R. Finney declined on Thursday to exonerate the company. Finney called in the TBI after the six employees were killed on September 27, 2024, to determine if criminal charges should be filed in connection with their deaths.

    “At this time, the investigation concerning Impact Plastics is still pending,” Finney’s executive assistant, Chrystie Kyte, said in an e-mail to Hellbender Press. “General Finney has no comment at this time.”

    The dead included five Impact Plastics employees and one independent contractor. They have been identified as Sibrina Barnett, Monica Hernandez, Bertha Mendoza, Johnny Peterson, Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso and Lidia Verdugo. 


  • Helene: A battered Cataloochee reopens six months after hurricane
    Kendra Straub
    Thursday, 03 April 2025

    HeleneCataloocheeUpper Cataloochee Road was among the many infrastructure victims in Great Smoky Mountains National Park following Hurricane Helene. Cataloochee Valley was the hardest-hit section of the park. The park service said it intends to reopen the road April 4.  National Park Service

    Cataloochee to mostly reopen in Great Smoky Mountains National Park;  campground will remain closed following Smokies cuts; many downed trees and washouts still affecting multiple area trails

    Kendra Straub is a communications officer with the National Park Service.

    CATALOOCHEE — The National Park Service (NPS) will reopen portions of Cataloochee Valley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park beginning April 4. Cataloochee Valley has been closed since September 2024 following significant damage from Hurricane Helene. Within the park, Cataloochee Valley saw the worst impacts from Hurricane Helene.

    The following roads will open to vehicles in Cataloochee on April 4: Cataloochee Entrance Road up to Beech Grove School; Cataloochee Creek Road to the Old Cataloochee Entrance Road Bridge; and Old Highway 284. Visitors will be able to drive Cataloochee Valley Entrance Road up to Beech Grove School.


  • Play Knoxville: Put an idea pin in public recreation assets, greenways and parks
    City of Knoxville
    Monday, 31 March 2025

    knoxparksandrec planThose with ideas they want to contribute to the Knoxville Parks and Rec master plan can do so by way of an interactive map. Shown here are many of the center city’s public recreation assets. Note the size of the Urban Wilderness, a valuable natural and recreational resource accessible to the visitors and the city’s 200,000 residents.  Hellbender Press

    The city invites the public to share input on the future of Knoxville parks, including greenways and the urban wilderness; citizens can put a pin in a park with their ideas

    KNOXVILLE — The public engagement phase for Play Knoxville, the City’s Parks & Recreation Master Plan, is now underway. The master plan will help guide investments in parks, greenways, community centers and programming over the next decade.

    The planning process started in January with the formation of a steering committee of community leaders. Since then, city staff and consultants from Perez Planning + Design have conducted dozens of focus groups, one-on-one meetings with City Council and cabinet members, and site visits to nearly 70 parks across Knoxville.

    Over the coming weeks, community members will have multiple opportunities to provide input through neighborhood and community meetings; public events; direct outreach and social media engagement; an interactive mapping tool and an online survey.

    The Play Knoxville website is now live.


  • Murky dark money group backs state wetland deregulation
    Cassandra Stephenson
    Friday, 28 March 2025

    WETLANDS001 2048x1296 Tennessee lawmakers are considering a bill that would roll back regulations for “isolated” wetlands that don’t have surface connections to waters of the United States.  John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

    Legal firm’s representative’s testimony focused on property rights in midst of pro-developer legislative push in Tennessee

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    NASHVILLE — A representative from the legal firm that fought for deregulation of American wetlands at the U.S. Supreme Court spoke Wednesday in support of a Tennessee bill that would roll back protections for up to 80 percent of the state’s isolated wetlands.

    Tennessee lawmakers are considering a bill that would significantly reduce requirements for development on wetlands, swampy lands that support diverse ecosystems, soak up floodwaters and recharge groundwater.

    A state House subcommittee voted 7-2 to advance the bill to the full House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, where it will be heard on April 1. 

    The state’s current regulations predate the federal Clean Water Act, which imposed the first federal protections for wetlands in the 1970s, requiring developers to compensate for destroying wetlands by preserving or restoring them elsewhere.

    But the erosion of federal regulations in the last two years has given states more power to decide how they will define and protect wetlands. 


Earth

  • Happy Earth Day to you! Happy Earth Day to YOU.
    EarthSolidarity!™
    Tuesday, 22 April 2025

    Globe Spin

    What can YOU, and those around you, do to make your lifestyle more sustainable?

    Today is a good opportunity to make a resolution or a promise to yourself and those around you to adopt a new habit or practice that will reduce your environmental impacts. Perhaps, you have already taken such a step a while ago and you may now scale it up or add something else to it?

    EarthSolidarity!™ is focusing on individual and small-group initiatives that facilitate practical, local, down-to-Earth actions that can readily be replicated by many and thus add up to significant improvements in the community, the bioregion and — through equivalent locally and regionally tuned initiatives — contribute to our national and even global environmental health.

    You may have found that it’s not so difficult, and perhaps you discovered some ways of making it easier or more successful than you thought possible at first. If so, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    Encourage those next to you to adopt the same or similar action. We are looking for leaders like you that are willing to help organize or just advise small environmental action groups at the neighborhood level or within local businesses and organizations.


    University of Tennessee leads the way in this year’s local Earth Day observances

    KNOXVILLE It’s once again time to celebrate Earth Day — Earth Week, really — and as it has in past years, Hellbender Press has a few suggestions for some fun ways for families to celebrate the planet we call home on April 22 and beyond.

    The theme of this year’s Earth Day, which is its 55th observance, is Our Power, Our Planet.

    If you have items you’d like to add to the list, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    This list will be updated.

    STEAM Earth Day event

    — 6-7 p.m., Tuesday, April 22, Carter Branch Library, 9036 Asheville Highway, Knoxville. Register here.

    The University of Tennessee Office of Sustainability Earth Week

    — The sustainability office has an entire month devoted to Earth Day.

    — 3 p.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday April 22, UT Gardens, 2514 Jacob Drive: Join a cleanup of Third Creek.

    — 11 a.m.-2 p.m. April 22, 21st Mortgage Plaza, UT Earth Day Festival will feature fun games, food and drinks.

    Babies and Blooms Earth Day Festival 

    — 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April 26, INCubator, 100 Cherokee Blvd., Chattanooga 


  • First UT sustainability symposium offers a collaborative vision for the future
    Lucas Hunter
    Friday, 21 March 2025

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    All great scientific solutions start with collaboration

    KNOXVILLE — The challenges facing the planet and its inhabitants have long been too complex for any one individual or group to address, and that’s why the great advancements in modern science begin with conferences, symposiums and collaboration.

    The first Environmental Future Symposium is an effort from the University of Tennessee Office of Sustainability to present a vision of the future for area residents and University of Tennessee students. 

    Planned for the Agriculture and Natural Resources Ballroom and Plaza from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. March 27, the symposium is spearheaded by the office’s Alternative Energy and Transportation Coordinator Ben Gouffon. His vision for the event is simple: at the intersection of human-accelerated climate destabilization and a revitalization of the collapsing biosphere sits every individual and their  actions. His hope is that this symposium is an avenue for every attendee to discover what they can do for Knoxville, the university and the planet they call home.


  • Helene: Haul water, rescue pigs, help neighbors: How Warren Wilson College students confronted climate chaos
    Mallory McDuff
    Friday, 21 February 2025

    Student Farm Leader taking care of pigs 1000A student farm leader takes care  of pigs at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. Most of the college’s pigs were recovered following fatal flooding from the Swannanoa River on Sept. 28, 2024.  Warren Wilson College

    Collective action helps alleviate climate anxiety in wake of Hurricane Helene

    This story was originally published by The Revelator.  

    Mallory McDuff teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College.

    SWANNANOA, N.C. — “We need 10 people on flush crew, five to clean out the fridges in the science building, and 15 to clear trees on the roads! We’re gonna do this together!”

    This wasn’t a pep rally or a community service event. It was the morning meeting called at 9:30 a.m. each day by campus leaders in front of the cafeteria at the small college where I lived without power or water, after the climate disaster of Hurricane Helene devastated our community in Western North Carolina.

    “We know the Swannanoa Valley has been hit especially hard,” the college president told the group of students and employees. “And we are here for this college and for the greater community. This is our work together.”

    That day I joined my neighbor Tom Lam chain-sawing his way across campus with a crew of students clearing brush along the way.

    “Now gather ‘round so you can see how to sharpen this chainsaw,” Tom said in his booming Jersey voice, pulling on his suspenders after we’d cleared trees that crushed a neighbor’s car.

    I’ve spent 25 years teaching environmental education, raising two daughters, and living at this 1,000-acre campus where all students work in jobs in places like the farm, garden, forests, and even fiber arts. And I think this might be one model of how to live in community in a climate emergency.


  • UT scientists help decode the DNA of an iconic American tree
    Patricia McDaniels
    Wednesday, 19 February 2025

    Keeler Oak of Burlington, N.J.This white oak (Quercus alba) in Burlington, N.J. is known as the Keeler Oak. It is an estimated 300 years old and is emblematic of the role these massive trees can play in the forest and beyond. The white oak is a highly valuable tree, both economically and ecologically. Its seedling survival rate is declining, but University of Tennessee researchers joined others to map the species’ DNA.  Wikipedia Commons

    New research involving University of Tennessee describes the genome of the mighty white oak

    Patricia McDaniels is news and information manager for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

    KNOXVILLE — Highly valued economically, ecologically and culturally, the white oak (Quercus alba) is a keystone forest species and is one of the most abundant trees across much of eastern North America. It also faces declining seedling recruitment in many parts of its range.

    In a paper published in New Phytologistresearchers representing the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Indiana University, the University of Kentucky, the U.S. Forest Service and several more institutions described for the first time the species’ complex genome, providing insights into fundamental questions about plant evolution, tree breeding and genetic improvement efforts that could help forest managers plan for and address future forest resources.

    Lead authors of the paper Meg Staton, associate professor of bioinformatics and computational genomics in the UT Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Drew Larson, National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University, coordinated with colleagues across the nation in academia, the U.S. Forest Service, state forests and industry to obtain genetic sequence data representative of the species.

    Also central to the effort were Seth DeBolt, professor of horticulture and director of the James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits at the University of Kentucky, and Dana Nelson of the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and director of the Forest Health Research and Education Center at the University of Kentucky.

    White oak barrels are lifeblood to the bourbon industry because the color and much of the whiskey’s flavor derive from the charred wood in which it is aged.


  • UT vet school declines to treat wild birds, including raptors, songbirds and waterfowl, in deference to bird flu threat
    Sandra Harbison
    Friday, 24 January 2025

    Screen Shot 2025 01 24 at 6.16.19 PM

    Veterinary college takes precautionary measures due to bird flu resurgence

    Sandra Harbison is a media relations specialist with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.

    KNOXVILLE — High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), a very contagious and often deadly disease of poultry, can result in the deaths of entire flocks within a matter of days. Also known as bird flu, HPAI has recently been detected in wildlife and poultry in Tennessee. This virus can spread quickly between birds, including birds that do not have any signs of disease. It has been reported to impact certain mammalian species, including humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no treatment for HPAI, and the best prevention is to avoid sources of exposure.

    Out of an abundance of caution, the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM) has made the difficult decision to temporarily halt the acceptance and treatment of injured or abandoned wild birds including raptors, songbirds or waterfowl (including owned waterfowl). This precautionary measure will help protect patients, faculty, staff and students from potential exposure to HPAI.

    (The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on Dec. 18 warned hunters, birdwatchers and poultry owners of increased bird flu risk. The CDCP as of Jan. 24 considers bird flu “widespread” in wild bird populations and reports limited outbreaks in poultry and livestock workers.)


  • A hidden prairie treasure comes to light in East Tennessee
    Shelby Lyn Sanders
    Tuesday, 21 January 2025

    Whorled rosinweedWhorled rosinweed is among the many types of native grassland plants that emerged from a clearcut. The property in Meigs County near Georgetown is now protected in part by the Foothills Land Conservancy.  Shelby Lyn Sanders

    FLC biologist makes an unexpected discovery in Georgetown, Tenn.

    Shelby Lyn Sanders is director of natural resources for the Blount County-based Foothills Land Conservancy.

    GEORGETOWN — What started as a simple search for a peaceful retreat turned into an extraordinary ecological discovery.

    When Mr. Owen purchased his land near Georgetown, he was looking for a place to hunt, hike and escape city life. Little did he know he’d become the guardian of one of Tennessee’s rare prairie gems.

    The property’s true identity emerged when the Foothills Land Conservancy’s director of natural resources (the author of this piece) spotted something remarkable during her first visit — prairie dock, a telltale sign of native grassland heritage. This wasn’t just any piece of land; it was a lost prairie awakening from decades of forest cover, less than a half mile from the historic Gunstocker Glade along Highway 58.

    The timing was perfect. A 2022 clearcut had inadvertently liberated this sleeping prairie, allowing it to breathe and bloom for the first time in generations. By its second year, the land burst into life, revealing an astonishing diversity that had laid dormant for years.

    Emerging native prairie plantsHere’s an aerial view of the Owen property in Meigs County northeast of Chattanooga on the eastern Cumberland Plateau escarpment. Native prairie plants emerged from the site of a clearcut, yielding a surprisingly vital piece of prairie.  Shelby Lyn Sanders


  • Saving barrens full of life
    TennGreen Land Conservancy
    Friday, 10 January 2025

    tennessee coneflower couchville cedar gladeTennessee coneflower is seen in Couchville cedar glade, a prime example of cedar glade habitat that is a target of preservationists — such as the land acquired recently in Rutherford County by TennGreen Land Conservancy. The Couchville property is managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. It is similar in nature to the TennGreen property in Rutherford County, and is part of a nexus of such glades around the Cumberland Plateau. According to TDEC: “Couchville supports one of the largest known and best quality populations of the Tennessee coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis), which was delisted as a federally endangered species in September 2011. Couchville also provides one of the finest examples of a glade-barrens complex and protects many rare plant species. The glades are distributed where limestone outcropping and shallow soils limit growth of perennial plants and support annual species like leavenworthia, sporobolus, and sedum. The barrens species, that also includes Tennessee coneflower, occur where soils increase and grasses like little bluestem and side oats grama become dominant. The glades and barrens interface forming a complex.”  Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation

    Cedar glade habitat protected in fast-growing Tennessee county

    MURFREESBORO — To close out 2024, TennGreen Land Conservancy and Allen Patton protected 50 acres of globally unique cedar glade habitat in Middle Tennessee’s Rutherford County with a conservation easement.

    Called Rockdale Cedar Glades and Woodlands, Patton’s land abuts TennGreen’s Lamar Cedar Glades & Woodlands Conservation Easement, increasing this connected corridor of protected land to an expansive 256 acres. Limestone cedar glades and barrens, which are incredibly diverse but under threat from development and pollution, are found on the protected properties. This additional 50-acre easement is also within the Spring Creek HUC 12 Watershed and the Stones River Upper HUC 12 Watershed, marking it as critical habitat.

    (Hellbender Press has previously reported on the special nature and importance of cedar barrens, including one located in Oak Ridge, just on the cusp of the Cumberland Plateau, which is better known for its cedar glades).

     IMGP0083 2 ENHANCED FOR PRINT 768x541Cedar gladecress (Leavenworthia stylosa) during a prescribed burn at Couchville State Natural Area; this wildflower is only found in the Central Basin of Tennessee.  TDEC


  • Learn about using your forest as a carbon sink
    Thomas Fraser
    Wednesday, 18 December 2024

    logo200w

    KNOXVILLE — The next installment of Conservation on Tap is set for 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at Albright Grove Brewing Company, 2924 Sutherland Ave., Knoxville.

    Join forester Sean Bowers to learn about the Family Forest Carbon Program, a partnership between the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy. The program allows owners of small tracts of forest access to carbon markets, empowering them to improve the health and wellbeing of their forests and help tackle climate change.

    All proceeds from Conservation on Tap benefit Discover Life in America.

       

Air

  • While wary of DC, NC presses on at state level to slow climate change
    Eric Tegethoff
    Wednesday, 15 January 2025

    iiif service gmd gmd385 g3850 g3850 ct008648 full pct 12.5 0 defaultCirca 1798: ‘Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia; ceded by the states of Virginia and Maryland to the United States of America, and by them established as the seat of their government, after the year 1800.’  Ellicott/Thornton/Library of Congress

    Groups to carry on air quality work, defend U.S. investments and ensure voices are heard from all communities

    This story is from North Carolina News Service.

    RALEIGH — President-elect Donald J. Trump retakes office in less than a week amid promises to roll back efforts to combat climate change. A friendly Congress could follow suit. But state-level efforts to address the crisis will continue in North Carolina, at least.

    Trump has promised to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act passed under President Joe Biden, which earmarked billions for climate-resilience and alternative energy projects. Brittany Griffin with the nonprofit CleanAIRE NC says tinkering with the law would hurt the state, including its ability to prepare for more severe weather as climate change worsens. But she says there are still glimmers of hope on the state level.

    “We still have a lot of state-led policies, and then our makeup now of the General Assembly looks different. We have a governor who also is pretty well-informed and, I believe, dedicated to addressing environmental issues in our state,” he said.

    Griffin added that her organization will be working with community and legal partners to resist potentially harmful changes under the Trump administration, and ensuring that all citizens have a voice in their environment. CleanAIRE NC’s community science manager Daisha Walls is on the Environmental Justice Advisory Council for the Governor’s Office.

    Griffin noted that there are a number of ways CleanAIRE NC is helping people feel more empowered, such as through its air monitoring networks in communities across the state and clean energy transportation efforts in rural areas, and said community member involvement is important to the state’s response to climate change.

    “When they amplify their voice, it allows them to feel like they are participating in the process of shaping environmental policies as it relates to their communities,” she said.

    North Carolina lawmakers have passed climate goals under the state’s Carbon Plan that aim to reduce Duke Energy’s carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. But Griffin said the current plan falls short for the state’s underserved and impacted communities. However, it is renewed every two years and she hopes they have a larger say in the next iteration.

    “We at CleanAIRE NC would like to make sure there’s more inclusion for all communities in the planning process so they can actually more directly benefit from it,” she said.

       

  • Helene: ORNL forest disturbance tool tracks devastation wrought by wind
    Stephanie G. Seay
    Thursday, 21 November 2024

    ForWarn Helene 2 Screenshot 2024 10 30 120938The ForWarn vegetation tracking tool shows areas of red where extreme disturbance to the forest canopy occurred in Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and southern Virginia as a result of Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.  Jitendra Kumar/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

    Information will help timber gleaning, fire-hazard mitigation

    Stephanie Seay is a senior science writer and communications specialist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

    OAK RIDGE — A visualization tool that tracks changes to the nation’s forests in near-real time is helping resource managers pinpoint areas with the most damage from Hurricane Helene in the Southeast.

    The ForWarn visualization tool was co-developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory with the U.S. Forest Service. The tool captures and analyzes satellite imagery to track impacts such as storms, wildfire and pests on forests across the nation. 

    When staff with the Forest Service’s Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center in Asheville, North Carolina, were unable to work in the immediate aftermath of Helene due to utility outages, the ORNL-hosted ForWarn system continued monitoring the storm’s impact and providing reports. ForWarn indicated areas of severe disturbance to the forest canopy that were later confirmed by aerial photography. 

    “ForWarn helps quickly identify areas that may need remediation such as timber harvesting or prescribed burns as piles of felled trees dry out and potentially pose wildfire hazards,” said ORNL’s Jitendra Kumar.

       

  • Updated Oct. 12: Helene: Recovery grinds along in Smokies, multiple major watersheds; questions arise about fate of Pigeon River sediment pollutants; major disaster averted at Waterville
    T. Fraser, JJ Stambaugh, P. Penland and W. Naegeli
    Friday, 04 October 2024

    462488639 8961191437226763 607069345985306525 n 1Debris hangs from trees on the banks of the French Broad River near the main building of Hot Springs Resort and Spa. The river gauge at Hot Springs was offline during the main rain events immediately preceding the Sept. 27 floods but registered a peak just under 21 feet. The record stage is 22 feet, but that record will likely fall after review of provisional weather-gauge data by the National Weather Service.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

    Two weeks after epic floods, a far cry from normalcy; utility repairs continue; Del Rio still reels; Hot Springs limps; outpouring of help and mountain grit as battered communities take stock

    This story will be updated.
    The original story and updates continue below. We have been adding more images, videos, links, live or interactive graphs and specifics to our earlier reporting and updates.

    GATLINBURG — Great Smoky Mountains National Park staff continue to assess the damage sustained by the country’s most-visited national park during Tropical Storm Helene. (The storm was at tropical storm strength when it struck the mountains Sept. 26-27, prompting a rare tropical-storm warning for Western North Carolina).

    The Cataloochee and Big Creek areas on the North Carolina side in Haywood County were particularly hard-hit, and significant damage was reported to park cultural resources and road and bridge infrastructure. Those areas remain closed. Most roads and trails on the Tennessee side of the national park are open. Cataloochee is a valuable tourist draw during the fall rutting season of elk populations successfully reintroduced to the park in the 1990s.

     HeleneCataloocheeTropical Storm Helene destroyed Upper Cataloochee Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and damaged other park infrastructure and historical resources.  National Park Service

    Here’s an update from the National Park Service:

    “The park experienced substantial damage, particularly in North Carolina, including Balsam Mountain, Big Creek and Cataloochee Valley.

    “Within the park, the Cataloochee Valley saw the most significant impacts from Hurricane Helene and will be closed until further notice as staff address damage. Flooding from Rough Fork Creek washed out several roads in the valley. Upper Cataloochee Valley Road saw the worst damage and is not drivable. Various levels of erosion and flooding impacted all trails in Cataloochee Valley and nearly all footlog bridges in the area were washed away during the storm. Cataloochee Valley also experienced fallen trees, flooding at campsites and damaged power lines. There were impacts to historic buildings, particularly the Caldwell Barn, which park staff are currently working to stabilize.
    “The Balsam Mountain and Big Creek areas are also currently closed until further notice because of storm damage and safety concerns.

    “Most trails on the Tennessee side of the park are open; several trails on the North Carolina side are closed. The park continues to assess the trails on the eastern end of the park to find the western edge of the damage in the backcountry. Examples of trails that were severely impacted include Big Creek Trail, which saw damage throughout its length and lost a 70-foot steel bridge and its abutments. Gunter Fork Trail experienced a landslide that took out 100 feet of trail.
    “While there has been some significant damage in the eastern area of the park, many miles of trails in western sections of the park have low impacts and few downed trees. Visitors planning to hike in the Smokies are encouraged (as always) to check the park website and/or talk to staff in visitor centers or the backcountry office about current trail conditions.”

  • As focus was on Helene, a fire spewed toxic chemical plumes across metro Atlanta
    Paige R Penland
    Thursday, 03 October 2024

    Screen Shot 2024 10 08 at 10.28.58 AMToxic smoke from the Sept. 30 BioLab fire pours across Interstate 20 just east of Atlanta, shutting down the vital artery for hours and complicating evacuation efforts during the chemical fire.  YouTube

    Fourth chemical fire at pool-chemical plant since 2004 prompts widespread evacuations

    ATLANTA — The eastern side of the Atlanta metropolitan area was blanketed the morning of Sept. 30 with a fog of smoke and chlorine-scented gases, surprising residents already rattled by Hurricane Helene and an unrelated failure at the Adamsville Pumping Station

    The heavy, blue-green mist was coming from BioLab, a pool chemical manufacturing facility in Rockdale County, 23 miles southeast of downtown.

    City officials were taken by surprise. This was at least the fourth time BioLab had caught fire since 2004, but prevailing winds usually carry the toxic plume across rural counties and into the Georgia mountains. Hurricane Helene had scrambled wind patterns, however, and pushed it into wealthy, suburban DeKalb and Gwinnet counties and parts of Fulton County.

    Rockdale County had begun evacuating 19,000 Conyers residents early Sunday morning, when the fire began. Another 90,000 residents were told to shelter in place, with windows sealed shut and ventilation systems turned off.

    The fire itself was extinguished by late afternoon, but the sprinkler system had soaked mountains of reactive pool and spa chemicals with water. The resulting plumes of chlorine, particulates and other chemicals spread across Rockdale, prompting the county to close schools and businesses for the following day.


  • Updated Oct. 2: Helene hits the mountains: Death toll nears 200; factory scrutinized after worker deaths in Erwin; major roads and railroad links still cut; massive recovery underway; havoc in So. Appalachians
    T. Fraser, JJ Stambaugh; P. Penland and W. Naegeli
    Thursday, 26 September 2024

    Helene BlackMarbleBYC Sept 26 2024 NOAA20 v2

    Helene fallout continues; hundreds still missing; at least 60 dead in NC; flooding and wind damage still widespread in Southern Appalachians; National Guard in action; land access, supplies, communications, water and power still spotty

    This story will be updated.
    The original story and updates continue below.
    We have been adding more images, videos, links, live or interactive graphs and specifics to earlier updates, too. So, keep scrolling to glean them after touching the More… button. You may want to bookmark some of the interactive features for your own present and future use.

    erwin102Demolished vehicles are seen in the area of what used to be Red Banks Campground in the Chestoa area of Unicoi County.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

    ERWIN — The death toll from Hurricane Helene climbed to at least 180 people on Wednesday, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in 50 years with the exception of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed over 1,800 lives in 2005 in what was also a largely impoverished area.

    In one-hard hit community in the mountains of northeast Tennessee, emotions grew high as Spanish-speaking family of missing loved ones accused first responders through an interpreter of showboating, classism and preferential rescues during a tense press conference broadcast live on X.

    The mounting death toll and increasingly fruitless searches came as millions of people spent their sixth day without running water or power and an ad hoc army of first responders, volunteers and National Guard troops struggled to deliver life-saving supplies to communities throughout the Southern Appalachians that were cut off by the record breaking flash floods spawned by the storm.

    In Erwin, a town of 6,000 in Unicoi County, officials confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched into the conduct of a manufacturing company that was accused of forcing employees to keep working even as floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.


  • State your case in local quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
    Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization
    Tuesday, 24 September 2024

    KNOXVILLE — The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization seeks the public’s feedback on greenhouse gas emissions in East Tennessee. Take this brief survey and make your voice heard:

    • The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and covers topics like climate change, energy efficiency and transportation to shape ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region. The survey is open through Sept. 30 at www.knoxbreathesurvey.com
    • Residents of all nine counties within the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ­— Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union — are encouraged to take the survey and make their voices heard. 
    • The Knoxville MSA was one of 82 metropolitan areas in the U.S. selected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive a planning grant to create a regional emission reduction plan as part of the agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program. “BREATHE” is the name for the Knoxville region’s CPRG initiative. 
    • More information on “BREATHE” can be found at knoxbreathe.org
       

  • Nov. 2: Talk about the weather with NOAA scientists
    Thomas Fraser
    Tuesday, 17 September 2024

    Nov2 OpenHouseFlyer

    This event was rescheduled from a previous date.

    MORRISTOWN — The regional office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hosting a free open house featuring tours, scientific discussions and chats with area forecasters intimate with the intricacies of Southern Appalachian weather.

    Stop by the regional office, 5974 Commerce Blvd. in Morristown, any time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2 to learn about the National Weather Service as a whole, tour operations and learn what a typical work day looks like at the weather-service office.

    Highlights include chances to meet meteorologists and weather-service partner agencies; explanations of when and how severe weather alerts are issued; an introduction to weather radar and radio; hydrology discussions; and hands-on science activities for children.

       

Water

  • Calling all Vols: Help clean up Helene’s mess
    Cindy Hassil
    Monday, 03 March 2025

    helene.jpgDebris hangs from trees on the banks of the French Broad River near the main building of Hot Springs Resort and Spa. The river gauge at Hot Springs was offline during the main rain events immediately preceding the Sept. 27, 2024 floods but registered a peak just under 21 feet. The record stage is 22 feet, but that record will likely fall after review of provisional weather-gauge data by the National Weather Service. Much of the debris generated by flooding on the French Broad River in Western North Carolina made its way downstream toward Douglas Lake in Tennessee.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

    Volunteers needed for 36th Ijams River Rescue set for March 8

    KNOXVILLE  — The thousand-year rains brought by Hurricane Helene flushed incalculable amounts of garbage from multiple major watersheds in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina in late September 2024. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority, for instance, resorted to booms and cranes to corral and collect thousands of tons of garbage along more than 200 miles of Douglas Lake shoreline. The cleanup continues.

    High water downstream also carried debris and detritus of every description into Knox County via the French Broad River, which then deposited it along urban and regional lake and stream banks.

    Removing this pulse of pollution and flotsam from the Tennessee River, already known as a conduit of microplastics, could take years or generations. You can start the process March 8 along multiple TVA lakes in the area. We all live downstream.

    Here’s the release from Ijams Nature Center, one of the main sponsors of the annual event:

    Volunteer and make your community a cleaner, healthier place to live, work and play during the 36th annual Ijams River Rescue from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 8. A severe weather date is set for Saturday, March 15.

    Ijams Nature Center’s annual cleanup event brings together hundreds of individuals, families, Scout troops, businesses and church groups to remove tons of trash and tires from sites along the Tennessee River, creeks and streams. Sites are typically located in Knox, Anderson and Blount counties. 


  • Five years after the start of a series of localized disasters, new boat ramps lead paddlers to water in Big South Fork
    Thomas Fraser
    Tuesday, 07 January 2025

    bigsouthforkThe Big South Fork on the Cumberland River as seen at Leatherwood Ford in March 2020 when it recorded a record height of 39 feet. One year later, it recorded a new record height of 41 feet. The flooding destroyed four boat ramps in the area, the park service has now rebuilt them all. Big South Fork is a very popular paddling destination.  National Park Service

    Big South Fork completes substantial repairs to four boat launches damaged in series of rain and windstorms

     ONEIDA —  Workers in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area completed repairs to four popular boat launches damaged by significant generational flooding events over the past couple of years. 

    Park staff dismantled and rebuilt the boat launches at Blue Heron Mine-18, Brewster Bridge, Station Camp and Peters Bridge, all of which were severely damaged during flooding in March 2021 that arose after 8 inches of rain fell in and around Big South Fork. The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River reached 41 feet at Leatherwood Ford; three days prior it was at 7 feet.

    The second-highest flow of the river since rain gauges were installed in the park in 1984 occurred just a year earlier in 2020 when the river hit 39 feet.

    The park also experienced flooding in 2024, during which a man perished after he fell in a park waterway. Severe storms also damaged or destroyed multiple Big South Fork facilities and blocked roads and trails for weeks.

    Big South Fork includes nearly 250 miles of rivers and streams and is a destination park for water recreation, and rock climbing.


  • Helene: After weeks of dredging, CSX receives stop-work order on Nolichucky Gorge railroad destroyed by tropical storm
    Anita Wadhwani
    Wednesday, 18 December 2024

    Overturned railroad track with uprooted tree in the river gorge.Epic flooding from Tropical Storm Helene destroyed the CSX railroad bed along the length of the Nolichucky River Gorge near Erwin. TDEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this month ordered the transportation company to stop dredging materials from the river to repair its railroad line.  Jonathan Mitchell for Hellbender Press

    Company accused of illegally mining river rocks, sediment to shore up rail lines washed out by Helene

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    ERWIN — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Tennessee environmental regulators ordered CSX Transportation to stop dredging the Nolichucky River Gorge for rocks and sediment being used to shore up a rail line washed away by Tropical Storm Helene. 

    In separate letters issued to the Fortune 500 company this month, the Corps and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) warned, the company’s dredging was unauthorized — and noted CSX had continued dredging activities even after being put on notice last month by both agencies.

    The company is prohibited from performing “any excavation or dredging of material from the Nolichucky River or its tributaries in both Tennessee and North Carolina, the Dec. 2 letter from the Corps said. CSX must “immediately cease and desist” its dredging, TDEC’s Dec. 6 letter said. 

    Dredging poses serious risks to the river’s aquatic life and increases the potential of downstream flooding in the future for communities that rely on the Nolichucky for outdoor recreation and the tourist dollars it brings in, a lawsuit filed by lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center said last month. 


  • Updated Oct. 12: Helene: Recovery grinds along in Smokies, multiple major watersheds; questions arise about fate of Pigeon River sediment pollutants; major disaster averted at Waterville
    T. Fraser, JJ Stambaugh, P. Penland and W. Naegeli
    Friday, 04 October 2024

    462488639 8961191437226763 607069345985306525 n 1Debris hangs from trees on the banks of the French Broad River near the main building of Hot Springs Resort and Spa. The river gauge at Hot Springs was offline during the main rain events immediately preceding the Sept. 27 floods but registered a peak just under 21 feet. The record stage is 22 feet, but that record will likely fall after review of provisional weather-gauge data by the National Weather Service.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

    Two weeks after epic floods, a far cry from normalcy; utility repairs continue; Del Rio still reels; Hot Springs limps; outpouring of help and mountain grit as battered communities take stock

    This story will be updated.
    The original story and updates continue below. We have been adding more images, videos, links, live or interactive graphs and specifics to our earlier reporting and updates.

    GATLINBURG — Great Smoky Mountains National Park staff continue to assess the damage sustained by the country’s most-visited national park during Tropical Storm Helene. (The storm was at tropical storm strength when it struck the mountains Sept. 26-27, prompting a rare tropical-storm warning for Western North Carolina).

    The Cataloochee and Big Creek areas on the North Carolina side in Haywood County were particularly hard-hit, and significant damage was reported to park cultural resources and road and bridge infrastructure. Those areas remain closed. Most roads and trails on the Tennessee side of the national park are open. Cataloochee is a valuable tourist draw during the fall rutting season of elk populations successfully reintroduced to the park in the 1990s.

     HeleneCataloocheeTropical Storm Helene destroyed Upper Cataloochee Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and damaged other park infrastructure and historical resources.  National Park Service

    Here’s an update from the National Park Service:

    “The park experienced substantial damage, particularly in North Carolina, including Balsam Mountain, Big Creek and Cataloochee Valley.

    “Within the park, the Cataloochee Valley saw the most significant impacts from Hurricane Helene and will be closed until further notice as staff address damage. Flooding from Rough Fork Creek washed out several roads in the valley. Upper Cataloochee Valley Road saw the worst damage and is not drivable. Various levels of erosion and flooding impacted all trails in Cataloochee Valley and nearly all footlog bridges in the area were washed away during the storm. Cataloochee Valley also experienced fallen trees, flooding at campsites and damaged power lines. There were impacts to historic buildings, particularly the Caldwell Barn, which park staff are currently working to stabilize.
    “The Balsam Mountain and Big Creek areas are also currently closed until further notice because of storm damage and safety concerns.

    “Most trails on the Tennessee side of the park are open; several trails on the North Carolina side are closed. The park continues to assess the trails on the eastern end of the park to find the western edge of the damage in the backcountry. Examples of trails that were severely impacted include Big Creek Trail, which saw damage throughout its length and lost a 70-foot steel bridge and its abutments. Gunter Fork Trail experienced a landslide that took out 100 feet of trail.
    “While there has been some significant damage in the eastern area of the park, many miles of trails in western sections of the park have low impacts and few downed trees. Visitors planning to hike in the Smokies are encouraged (as always) to check the park website and/or talk to staff in visitor centers or the backcountry office about current trail conditions.”

  • Updated Oct. 2: Helene hits the mountains: Death toll nears 200; factory scrutinized after worker deaths in Erwin; major roads and railroad links still cut; massive recovery underway; havoc in So. Appalachians
    T. Fraser, JJ Stambaugh; P. Penland and W. Naegeli
    Thursday, 26 September 2024

    Helene BlackMarbleBYC Sept 26 2024 NOAA20 v2

    Helene fallout continues; hundreds still missing; at least 60 dead in NC; flooding and wind damage still widespread in Southern Appalachians; National Guard in action; land access, supplies, communications, water and power still spotty

    This story will be updated.
    The original story and updates continue below.
    We have been adding more images, videos, links, live or interactive graphs and specifics to earlier updates, too. So, keep scrolling to glean them after touching the More… button. You may want to bookmark some of the interactive features for your own present and future use.

    erwin102Demolished vehicles are seen in the area of what used to be Red Banks Campground in the Chestoa area of Unicoi County.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

    ERWIN — The death toll from Hurricane Helene climbed to at least 180 people on Wednesday, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in 50 years with the exception of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed over 1,800 lives in 2005 in what was also a largely impoverished area.

    In one-hard hit community in the mountains of northeast Tennessee, emotions grew high as Spanish-speaking family of missing loved ones accused first responders through an interpreter of showboating, classism and preferential rescues during a tense press conference broadcast live on X.

    The mounting death toll and increasingly fruitless searches came as millions of people spent their sixth day without running water or power and an ad hoc army of first responders, volunteers and National Guard troops struggled to deliver life-saving supplies to communities throughout the Southern Appalachians that were cut off by the record breaking flash floods spawned by the storm.

    In Erwin, a town of 6,000 in Unicoi County, officials confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched into the conduct of a manufacturing company that was accused of forcing employees to keep working even as floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.


  • TennGreen protects unique stream habitat amid population boom
    TennGreen Land Conservancy
    Thursday, 26 September 2024

    springcreekPreservation of the Spring Creek watershed near Cedars of Lebanon State Park will protect water resources in a rapidly growing part of the Southeast.  TennGreen Land ConservancyTennessee cave salamanders, other wildlife will benefit from creation of unique preserve

    LEBANON — TennGreen Land Conservancy joined with Headwaters Reserve LLC to protect and restore a high-risk stream habitat adjacent to Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Located on approximately 47 acres, the property’s streams and wetlands are protected by a conservation easement held by TennGreen in perpetuity.

    The waters of this property, called Cedar Forest, are within the Spring Creek watershed, which has been noted to contain more than 28 rare species, including the Tennessee cave salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus).

    Stream restoration, a vital process that breathes new life into natural aquatic environments, is a key objective of this conservation easement, offering numerous benefits to both wildlife and the community.

    This permanent protection and intentional restoration will help to remove pollutants from waters in one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties while protecting the resource for generations to come.

    TennGreen has previously conserved land in the area to expand Cedars of Lebanon State Park and Natural Area and Cedars of Lebanon State Forest.

       

  • Nov. 2: Celebrate fish at the bird park — Sturgeonfest 2024
    Thomas Fraser
    Wednesday, 25 September 2024

     

    461065902 943179334514121 6950520062395538318 n

    This event was rescheduled from its original date.

    KODAK Take a break from football, grab the kayaks, get outside and join your friends and family for Sturgeonfest 2024 on the French Broad River!

    The FREE celebration of the ancient fish, their lore and their future is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 2 at Seven Islands State Birding Park boat ramp.

    • Release a baby sturgeon into the French Broad River!

    • Enjoy food from Kennedy Grill Food Truck, Crave Food Truck, Giddy Up Coffee Truck, Central Creamery, and the King of Pops!

    • Enjoy music by the Tennessee Stifflegs!

    To put a fish in the water, reserve a FREE ticket for everyone in your party for a specific time slot. 

       

Voices

  • Have a cold one with former Smokies official at this month’s Conservation on Tap
    Hellbender Press
    Monday, 14 April 2025

    Copy of Conservation on Tap Facebook Cover 1

    KNOXVILLE — Discover Life in America has a newly established partnership with Schulz Bräu Brewing Company to host its monthly Conservation on Tap speaker series.

    The latest installment of the series at the new venue is 7 p.m. April 16. Join Conservation on Tap at Schulz Bräu Brewing Company, 126 Bernard Ave, Knoxville.

    Join us for an insightful presentation by Phil Francis, Chairman of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and former acting superintendent of GSMNP, as he provides an update on the current challenges facing the National Park Service and our national parks.

    Francis will discuss the critical resources that need protection and the staffing necessary to ensure the preservation and maintenance of these cherished public lands. This event is a must-attend for anyone passionate about the future of America’s national parks and the efforts needed to safeguard them for generations to come. Learn more at: protectnps.org.

    Come support local conservation efforts and enjoy a wide selection of 20+ beers on-tap (and plenty of nonalcoholic beverages) and some authentic German fare from Schulzes Schnitzel Kitchen.

       

  • Updated 2/28: Energy secretary on visit to an uncertain Oak Ridge shrugs at climate change; offers little concrete update on federal cuts
    Ben Pounds
    Sunday, 23 February 2025

    U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright; Rep. Chuck Fleischmann; R-Chattanooga; and Open AI CEO Greg Brockman spoke with the press during a tour of Oak Ridge-area nuclear facilities.  Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press

    Visit by energy secretary doesn’t address program cuts as former fracking CEO downplays climate change threat; visit comes following diversity program cuts; full extent of Oak Ridge impacts still unknown

    Hellbender Press typically avoids the use of anonymous sources. The sources in this story spoke on condition they not be identified so they could speak on a sensitive matter.

    This story will be updated. The original stories continue below.

    OAK RIDGE  U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright denied that climate change was a “crisis” and downplayed its threat during a visit to an international hub of scientific expertise rattled by early actions of the second Trump Administration. His visit did little to allay fears of cuts to staff and programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the most concrete signs of change have been the dismantling of diversity efforts.

    Wright visited ORNL on Feb. 28, and at a press conference defended the Trump administration’s actions on climate change, energy sources and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a group headed by Elon Musk that has recommended cutting programs and staff in various government departments.

    He did not announce any layoffs at the lab itself, however, and implied research related to climate there will continue. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is home to many kinds of related research, including at the Climate Change Science Institute. CCSI does modeling and gathers data on the climate, as well as working on solutions to the problem.

    Wright promoted research on artificial intelligence, which he called “Manhattan Project II,” and nuclear energy, and he appeared alongside Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Rep. Chuck Fleischmann R-Chattanooga and Open AI CEO Greg Brockman, who also spoke and answered questions. 

    “I don’t think you’ll see any reduction in the science that we do regarding climate change or any of these other really big questions,” said Wright in response to a reporter’s questions about how cuts at the lab might affect climate change-related research at ORNL, which his department funds through a partnership with contractor Battelle and the University of Tennessee. He said, however, he still “100 percent” believed there was no climate “crisis” and said scientific reports backed up his view. 

    “We haven’t seen an increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, floods, droughts, storms. Wildfires are on an uptick because we stopped managing our forests,” he said. “Deaths from extreme weather, which is what you hear the press and politicians’ fearmongering about, it declined over 90 percent in my lifetime as the population’s grown. So climate change is a real phenomenon. It’s just not even remotely close to the world’s biggest problem.” He also said an intergovernmental climate change report also showed economists saying climate change was not as important as issues like education, free trade and “empowerment.”

    These claims are a mixed bag of truth. While the frequency of hurricanes hitting the United States, for example, hasn’t increased, a recent Columbia University study showed the tropical cyclones’ intensity for the East and Gulf Coasts has. Also unmentioned by Wright was any impact the climate has on disease or health conditions apart from extreme weather, a subject on which experts at Tennessee’s own Vanderbilt University have sounded the alarm.

    Wright was CEO of a hydraulic fracking company, Liberty Energy, before his appointment.

    “It’s a real thing, but nothing in the science of climate change or in the economics of climate change shows it to be the world’s biggest problem,” Wright said. “When you call something a crisis, it means we don’t have time to stop and think. We’ve just got to take action. That’s exactly the opposite of what climate science is.”

    During the meeting, he also defended Musk, DOGE and Trump’s actions generally while not announcing any such cuts for the civilian research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory or the weapons maintenance at Y-12, which is managed by a different contractor. A reporter at the event mentioned an earlier instance in which workers at Y-12 National Security Complex received termination letters that were then rescinded. While the reporter asked him to offer reassurance on job security, he sidestepped that question.


  • Helene: Haul water, rescue pigs, help neighbors: How Warren Wilson College students confronted climate chaos
    Mallory McDuff
    Friday, 21 February 2025

    Student Farm Leader taking care of pigs 1000A student farm leader takes care  of pigs at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. Most of the college’s pigs were recovered following fatal flooding from the Swannanoa River on Sept. 28, 2024.  Warren Wilson College

    Collective action helps alleviate climate anxiety in wake of Hurricane Helene

    This story was originally published by The Revelator.  

    Mallory McDuff teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College.

    SWANNANOA, N.C. — “We need 10 people on flush crew, five to clean out the fridges in the science building, and 15 to clear trees on the roads! We’re gonna do this together!”

    This wasn’t a pep rally or a community service event. It was the morning meeting called at 9:30 a.m. each day by campus leaders in front of the cafeteria at the small college where I lived without power or water, after the climate disaster of Hurricane Helene devastated our community in Western North Carolina.

    “We know the Swannanoa Valley has been hit especially hard,” the college president told the group of students and employees. “And we are here for this college and for the greater community. This is our work together.”

    That day I joined my neighbor Tom Lam chain-sawing his way across campus with a crew of students clearing brush along the way.

    “Now gather ‘round so you can see how to sharpen this chainsaw,” Tom said in his booming Jersey voice, pulling on his suspenders after we’d cleared trees that crushed a neighbor’s car.

    I’ve spent 25 years teaching environmental education, raising two daughters, and living at this 1,000-acre campus where all students work in jobs in places like the farm, garden, forests, and even fiber arts. And I think this might be one model of how to live in community in a climate emergency.


  • Stand in the Middle at McClung Museum
    Thomas Fraser
    Wednesday, 05 February 2025

    Clint CarrollClint Carroll, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, will talk Feb. 27 at McClung Museum about the Cherokee philosophy of the ‘Middle Way.’

    KNOXVILLE — A central aspect of Cherokee worldview is ᎠᏰᎵ ᎦᏙᎬ (ayehli gadogv), or “Standing in the Middle,” a philosophy that humans occupy a role in a web of complex interactions between mutually dependent organisms. Standing in the Middle emphasizes the importance of balance and reciprocity in persisting relationships.

    A lecture at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at McClung Museum, 1327 Circle Park, Knoxville, will feature Dr. Clint Carroll, who will explore how Standing in the Middle informs ecology, conservation, management practices, epistemology and science communication in the face of unprecedented anthropogenic (human-caused) change.

    Light refreshments will be available before the lecture.

    Clint Carroll is associate professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, he works closely with Cherokee people in Oklahoma on issues of land conservation and the perpetuation of land-based knowledge and ways of life.

       

  • She taught us to “fight with purpose, and love without constraint:” Nikki Giovanni, literary icon and civil rights activist, dies at 81 in Blacksburg
    Angela Dennis
    Thursday, 12 December 2024

    nikkigiovanni.jpgRenowned poet, educator and civil rights activist Nikki Giovanni died Dec. 9 at 81.  Jeanine Fuller/Social media

    “Knoxville, Tennessee”

    I always like summer

    best

    you can eat fresh corn

    from daddy's garden

    and okra

    and greens

    and cabbage

    and lots of

    barbecue

    and buttermilk

    and homemade ice-cream

    at the church picnic

    and listen to

    gospel music

    outside

    at the church

    homecoming

    and you go to the mountains with

    your grandmother

    and go barefooted

    and be warm

    all the time

    not only when you go to bed

    and sleep

    — Nikki Giovanni

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout. 

    BLACKSBURG — Knoxville native Nikki Giovanni, a poet, civil rights legend and educator who empowered generations with her fearless words and unwavering advocacy for Black America, died on Dec. 9 at the age of 81 after her third cancer diagnosis.

    “The acclaimed poet, Black Arts Movement icon whose poems of wit, wonder and wisdom were celebrated in children’s books, on keynote stages and television shows, and in more than two dozen bestselling poetry collections, died peacefully on December 9, 2024, with her life-long partner, Virginia [Ginney] Fowler, by her side,” said friend and  author Renee Watson in a statement. 

    In 2023, Knoxville’s Beck Cultural Exchange Center unveiled an exhibit dedicated to Giovanni, featuring her complete book collection and personal memorabilia. The center, a cherished space for Giovanni, was a must-visit whenever she returned to her hometown.

    “Nikki was a gift to the world, generously sharing her talents with everyone around her,” said Rev. Reneé Kesler, President of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. She loved deeply and expressed that love in countless ways.”

    Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni was born on June 7, 1943, in the “Negro Wing” of Knoxville General Hospital to parents Yolande Cornelia Sr. and Jones “Gus” Giovanni. She graduated from Austin High School in 1961.

    She enrolled at the historically Black Fisk University in Nashville in 1960. At Fisk, she joined the Writer’s Workshop, a space that fostered her creativity and connected her with other aspiring Black writers who later went on to become prominent Black literary figures such as Dudley Randall, Margaret Walker and Amiri Baraka. 

    “At Fisk, she found her voice — a voice that would go on to inspire the world to dream with courage, to fight with purpose and to love without constraint. Through her poetry, she wove stories of Black resilience, beauty and liberation. Her spirit is forever etched into the soul at Fisk, an eternal light guiding us toward justice, creativity and authenticity,” Fisk officials said in a statement. 


  • Feds to restart “technical and design work” for Foothills Parkway extension
    Thomas Fraser
    Monday, 09 December 2024

    foothills map

    Conservation groups have cautioned against the zombie roadway between Wears Valley and Gatlinburg; EIS-level study uncertain

    This story will be updated.

    The National Park Service (NPS) said Dec. 9 it “will conduct additional design work and technical studies for Foothills Parkway Section 8D. This decision was based on feedback from subject matter experts and public comments received during a 30-day public comment period that ended Aug. 21.
    “The NPS will reinitiate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and inform the public of opportunities for future public engagement once this additional work is completed. A schedule for completing the additional work has not yet been established,” according to a release from NPS public affairs specialist Dave Barak.
     
    Conservation groups, including the National Parks Conservation Association, say the road would further fragment forest habitat and present unacceptable water-quality hazards.
     
    The NEPA offers a range of alternatives, however, and it was not immediately known whether the park service would again embark on a more detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) or proceed with a relatively cursory environmental assessment.
     
    A draft of the previous EIS process for this parkway project were completed decades ago, as reported by Hellbender Press.
     
    The federal government last year opened the latest round of public comment on the project, which would traverse Buckeye Knob and Cove Mountain and multiple aquatic and karst environments.

     

    Concerns raised by the public over the decades range from impacts on domestic water supplies and endangered or threatened species to the fact the roadway might be a catalyst for excessive tourism infrastructure in Townsend and Wears Valley. 


  • ORNL central to East Tennessee nuclear resurgence
    Leo Williams
    Tuesday, 26 November 2024

    kairosornlOak Ridge National Laboratory

    Demonstration reactor projects, alternative fuel among projects centered around Oak Ridge, an old-school nuclear town

    Leo Williams is the editor of ORNL Review. UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The full interactive article is available here.

    Offer your perspective on this article and the new rise of nuclear technology in East Tennessee by contacting Hellbender Press Editor Thomas Fraser at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    OAK RIDGE — In fall 2020, California-based Kairos Power announced plans to build an advanced nuclear demonstration reactor within the site of the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge.

    It was a good location for the company. The decommissioned K-25, now named Heritage Center Industrial Park, came with impressive infrastructure, including ample electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority, abundant water from the nearby Clinch River and more than 11 miles of rail line connected directly to the Norfolk Southern system. Interstate 40 was less than five miles away.

    Perhaps more importantly, the location gave Kairos’ scientists and engineers close access to an unmatched pool of nuclear expertise. ORNL, which helped start the nuclear age more than 80 years ago and remains at the forefront of nuclear research, is all of five miles away. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which hosts a prestigious nuclear engineering department dating back to 1957, is just 30 miles down the road.

    And the federally owned TVA, which has operated nuclear power plants since 1974, is developing its own next-generation nuclear reactor about three miles away.

    In particular, though, the company wanted to be near a national lab, according to its co-founder Mike Laufer.

    “The big decision for us was where we were going to put the Hermes reactor,” he said.

    “For that, we pretty quickly narrowed down that we had a strong preference to be in close proximity to a national laboratory, with capabilities that could augment our own infrastructure.”

    Hermes will be a 35-megawatt molten salt-cooled reactor that uses a new kind of uranium fuel called TRISO — short for tristructural isotropic particle fuel. The billiard ball-sized TRISO pebbles will consist of uranium, carbon and oxygen particles surrounded by carbon- and ceramic-based materials designed to prevent the release of radioactive fission products. The reactor will not produce electricity; rather, it will demonstrate the company’s technology before Kairos moves on to building much larger commercial reactors.

    Hermes Architect Rendering July2024 3x2 2048x1365Architect’s rendering of the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor facility under construction in Oak Ridge.  Kairos Power


Creature Features

  • Join the world’s largest biodiversity-related participatory science project!
    Cornell Lab of Ornithology
    Thursday, 13 February 2025
    Tap this interactive map to find events that happen all over the world during GBBC. However, people anywhere can participate by themselves or encourage family and friends to join them at their favorite birdwatching site.

     

    Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) weekend is underway

    Each February, for four days, the world comes together for the love of birds. Over these four days people everywhere are invited to spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them to us. These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations.

    Participating is easy, fun to do alone or with others, and can be done anywhere you find birds.

    Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds.

    Step 2: Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, February 14–17, 2025.

    Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings:

    • If you are a beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to tell us what birds you are seeing or hearing.
    • If you have participated in the count before and want to record numbers of birds, try the free eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website (desktop/laptop/smartphone).
     

    If you already use Merlin or eBird, all entries over the 4 days count towards GBBC. Keep doing what you are doing! No need to register or sign-up separately for GBBC.

    Note that the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project Feeder Watch are two different projects. Their observations are recorded separately. However, if you are enrolled in Project Feeder Watch and your observation days overlap with the GBBC period, you can choose to designate your feeder also as a stationary GBBC count location and submit your feeder observations to both projects. The principal purpose of GBBC, though, is to identify all birds one can see and hear. Because relatively few species of birds are attracted by feeders, it is important to obtain counts from locations beyond your feeder and beyond your own backyard to gain a better understanding of bird biodiversity.

    Find more GBBC event details, helpful tips, bird lists for your area, step-by step instructions and reports from past counts on the GBBC website.

       

  • Updated: Submit contenders soon for U.S. champion trees
    Katie Donaldson
    Monday, 10 February 2025

    National Champion Sitka Spruce Washington state at Olympic National Park photo credit e1736800302775 1800x1200The 2024 National Champion Tree Register features the largest documented trees across the U.S. such as the National Champion Sitka Spruce, which people can see in Olympic National Park in Washington.  Brian Kelley via American Forests

    Beginning in February, citizen scientists and others can help catalog our biggest trees

    Katie Donaldson is a communications specialist for the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources.

    The original story continues below.

    KNOXVILLE — The National Champion Tree Program (NCTP) will take nominations for new Champion Trees on its website starting Feb. 28. The list of eligible tree species for the 2025-2026 register includes more than 1,200 species of trees native and naturalized to the U.S., a steep increase from the 900 species eligible for the 2024 register. It is available online in the Register of Champion Trees. Nominations for potential Champions will stay open through August 2025.

    “Each year, people find ‘new’ Champions all over the country,” said Jaq Payne, NCTP director. “It could be the tree in your backyard, the tree in front of your church or the tree in one of your local parks or state forests.” For the first time in the program’s 84-year history, an additional list of “culturally important non-native” eligible species will be included to represent common, widely recognized urban species previously not found on the register.

    Champion Trees are identified based on a point system including the trunk circumference, height and average crown spread. After members of the public nominate trees, the NCTP will work with state coordinators to verify the submissions and their measurements. Verified trees will be added to the program’s data management system. National Champion Trees are crowned once every two years and must be re-verified every 10 years.


  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park embarks on cutting-edge hellbender study
    Holly Kays
    Monday, 03 February 2025

    Captured hellbederJonathan Cox (left), wetlands biology technician for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, looks in astonishment at an eastern hellbender captured while monitoring populations in Pisgah National Forest.  Ben Dalton/N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission 

    Two-year study will gain insight into hellbender reproduction; special interest in Fontana Reservoir area and its watersheds 

    Holly Kays is senior writer for Smokies Life.

    GATLINBURG — With wrinkly skin that comes in various shades of brown, eastern hellbenders aren’t easy to spot. These giant salamanders, which average 20 inches in length, spend most of their lives nearly invisible under rocks on the bottom of cool, fast-flowing streams. In a two-year research project starting this summer, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will use a combination of technology and traditional survey techniques to solve the mystery surrounding the hellbender’s distribution in the Smokies.

    “One of the major conservation questions is: Are hellbenders reproducing in our streams?” said Jonathan Cox, wetlands biology technician for the park. “And it’s really hard to find that out because their lifespan is so long that you can have a hellbender detected in a stream for multiple decades, but it may be the same individual.”

    Hellbenders can live for 30 years or more, so figuring out whether the adults alive today are reproducing successfully is imperative to securing the species’ future. Hellbender populations have declined significantly over recent decades, leading the US Fish and Wildlife Service to propose that the salamander be listed as an endangered species. A public comment period on the listing proposal is open through February 11.


  • Hybrid fire ants, born of foreign species, continue northward march
    Case Keatley
    Wednesday, 29 January 2025

    hybrid fire antA hybrid fire ant typical of those now seen in Lee County, Va. Virginia Tech scientists have teamed with the commonwealth’s agricultural extension service to find ways to combat the exotic insect.  Cole Shoemaker/iNaturalist

    Virginia Tech entomologists partner to help track and prevent the spread of hybrid fire ants

    Case Keatley is communications coordinator at Virginia Cooperative Extension.

    JONESVILLE, Va. — In Lee County, Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent Amy Byington is working to stop a tiny invader posing a big problem. 

    Hybrid fire ants, which are well-established across East Tennessee and parts of Kentucky and North Carolina, are now infiltrating far Southwest Virginia. 

    “It’s just one more nuisance,” said Byington, who leads efforts in her county to report and treat the growing issue. “I get calls every week from landowners who are discovering new ant mounds on their property.” 

    Byington partners with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) to locate and treat the mounds with insecticide bait. 

    “One of my producers recently reached out and reported they had found six fire ant mounds on their farm,” she said. “The VDACS inspector later ended up counting 58. It’s a management issue and a human issue.” 

    As of 2024, Lee County is the only county in Virginia with a presence of hybrid fire ants, although this is expected to change in coming years as ants gradually expand their territory north and east. 


  • Beat the winter blues at Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge
    Thomas Fraser
    Friday, 24 January 2025

    33rd Annual Wilderness Wildlife Week Program Guide

    PIGEON FORGE — Learn about the culture and ecology of the Southern Appalachians from a warm hotel and conference center, and then get outside and keep learning during the annual knowledge-fest that is Wilderness Wildlife Week.

    This year’s event is set for Jan. 28-Feb. 1 at The Ramsey Hotel and Convention Center, 3230 Parkway in Pigeon Forge.

    Come celebrate the natural features, creatures and cultures of the Great Smoky Mountains. This year, we’ll be inviting some of the leading wildlife experts to lead informative discussions with you. Writers, artists, photographers, musicians, biologists and naturalist will entertain and inform. This is a great opportunity to learn and ask questions about nature.

    Wilderness Wildlife Week celebrates the abundance of wildlife, variety of plants, trees and wildflowers, and the rich history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee through a series of classes, seminars, demonstrations, guided hikes, panel discussions and workshops.

       

  • 34th Sandhill Crane Festival takes wing in East Tennessee
    Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
    Saturday, 18 January 2025

    cranes sandhill 5During winter migration, visitors to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge can view thousands of greater sandhill cranes. This year’s celebration is Jan. 18-19 in Birchwood.  Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

    Beat the winter blues with food, music and celebration of a natural spectacle

    BIRCHWOOD — The Sandhill Crane Festival is underway through Sunday in Birchwood, Tennessee. This is the 34th year of the festival. Come celebrate the return of this migrant bird. Breathe in the fresh air. Hear its call. See its dance. 

    With up to 20,000 sandhill cranes returning to the area each year, you’re bound to be caught up in the spectacular display of the sandhill cranes, eagles, waterfowl and more on the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. Volunteers will be on hand with spotting scopes, but you’re welcome to bring your own binoculars. Dress for the weather, rain or shine. A potent cold front enters the area Sunday.

    Free buses shuttle attendees from the Birchwood School on Highway 60 to each of the locations. No parking is permitted at the refuge unless attendee is in possession of a handicap placard.

    The American Eagle Foundation will once again be at the Birchwood School for two live performances each day, along with Nashville recording artist, Second Nature. Vendors will be set up in the gym and home-cooked meals prepared in the kitchen, including Ms. Linda’s homemade breakfast biscuits and vegetable soup


  • Audubon Christmas bird tally hits 125 years and counting
    Holly Kays
    Thursday, 02 January 2025

    4 cbc pileated caneycreek Evan Kidd photo 600x846A pileated woodpecker is seen seeking dinner; it is a common denizen of winter Southern Appalachian forests and likely made many Christmas bird lists.  Evan Kidd via Smokies Life

    Citizen-led Audubon Christmas Bird Count tallies our feathered friends for yet another year

    Holly Kays is the lead writer for Smokies Life.

    GATLINBURG — Since its origin in 1900, the Christmas Bird Count has become a holiday fixture for ever-expanding numbers of birders across the globe, giving a valuable gift to generations of wildlife scientists — a massive trove of data on bird populations in the Western Hemisphere.

    This annual avian census, set to commence for the 125th time, began in an era when many bird species were facing steep declines, especially waterfowl prized for their feathers. The Christmas Bird Count was the National Audubon Society’s answer to the traditional Christmas Side Hunt, a team competition that encouraged participants to kill as many furred and feathered creatures as possible in a single outing.

    “The Christmas Bird Count really got started as an alternative to those kinds of hunting efforts,” said Curtis Smalling, executive director of Audubon North Carolina. “This year is the 125th annual Christmas Bird Count, and that makes it the longest-running community science project in North America.”

    Anyone can participate in the CBC, regardless of their birding skill level, by joining one of the thousands of circles, each 15 miles in diameter, that comprise the event. The organizer of each circle chooses a day between December 14 and January 5 to conduct their count. On the appointed day, all participants in the circle have 24 hours in which to tally as many birds as they can. In addition to listing the individual species spotted, they also count the number of individual birds seen and participant hours logged.

    The Great Smoky Mountains region includes circles in Gatlinburg, Cades Cove, Knoxville, Franklin, Highlands, Waynesville, Hot Springs and Asheville.

    3 Common mergansers Warren Bielenberg 768x512A male (left) and female common merganser perch on a rock. Though this species may winter in coastal areas, it tends to prefer freshwater habitat and winters in the Smokies in small numbers.  Warren Bielenberg via Smokies Life


  • Meet the candidate: Eastern hellbenders finally in line for inclusion on Endangered Species List
    Melissa Clark
    Friday, 13 December 2024

    hellbender eslThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks public comment on a proposal to place the eastern hellbender on the Endangered Species List. The hellbender seen here is part of an exhibit at an East Tennessee zoo.  Chattanooga Zoo

    USFWS seeks public comment on proposed listing of crucial indicator species throughout its known range; several populations in Smokies region

    Melissa Clark is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service senior public affairs specialist.

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Dec. 12 a proposal to list the eastern hellbender as an endangered species throughout its range under the Endangered Species Act. Eastern hellbenders are found in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

    “The eastern hellbender is a unique salamander that plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems,” said Service Midwest Regional Director Will Meeks. “As key indicators of stream and river health, hellbenders need protection that also will help support healthier ecosystems across their range.”

    Historically, eastern hellbenders have been documented in 626 populations. Recent data indicate only 371 of these populations (59%) remain. Among the remaining populations, only 45 (12%) are stable, 108 (29%) have an unknown recruitment status, and 218 (59%) are in decline.

    The eastern hellbender is one of two subspecies of hellbenders in the United States. The other subspecies, the Ozark hellbender, occurs in Missouri and Arkansas and was listed as an endangered species in 2011. In 2021, the Missouri distinct population segment of the eastern hellbender was listed as endangered.


Events

  • Roles and history of riparian forests in Tennessee

    Green Drinks Knoxville logo

    Wednesday, May 14, 5:30 p.m.
    South Side Garage
    1014 Sevier Ave, Knoxville

    For more information and RSVP go to “Green Drinks Knoxville” on Facebook

    Riparian vegetation 495370447 987832016896487 4420011962642001540 n

     

    Join us on our NEW date, the second Wednesdays of the month

    KNOXVILLE — Tennessee has a natural abundance of water resources and biodiverse ecosystems. Unfortunately, 60% of Tennessee’s waterways are not meeting federal standards.

    Stream habitat has been consistently declining in the last several decades. Restoring and conserving high value riparian areas will be an essential part of combating the negative impacts of urban development.

    Barriers to resources prevent communities from effectively tackling these projects on their own, severely limiting cohesive statewide efforts for water quality improvement.

    Maddy Johnson will introduce practical methods of restoring a riparian area in various settings at no to low cost.

    Green Drinks Knoxville is a social and professional organization that convenes open-minded folks to encourage education and conversation about the environment, green technologies, sustainable lifestyles, and more. Our events are free and open to the public. We welcome all and support racial diversity, gender equality and LGBTQ inclusivity.


  • Up from South Chickamauga: Paddle Georgia to celebrate 20th anniversary with first Tennessee River journey

    gapaddle

    Weeklong paddling event highlights Tennessee RiverLine; registration open for June adventure

    KNOXVILLE — Paddle Georgia, the renowned multi-day paddling adventure, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a historic first: an expedition along the Tennessee River, traveling through Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. More than 300 paddlers are expected to take part in the journey June 15-22, immersing themselves in the beauty, history and vibrant communities of the Tennessee River Valley. The event will highlight the Tennessee RiverLine, an initiative of University of Tennessee Extension that reframes the 652-mile Tennessee River as a continuous system of outdoor recreation experiences.

    (Hellbender Press previously reported on the Tennessee RiverLine.)

    The Tennessee RiverLine is assisting with trip planning resources for this milestone event, reinforcing its mission to transform the Tennessee River into a continuous system of outdoor recreation experiences and showcasing the river’s potential as a premier destination for adventure tourism.

    “We are thrilled to collaborate with Georgia Rivers on the 20th anniversary of Paddle Georgia and welcome them to the Tennessee RiverLine,” said Brad Collett, executive director of Tennessee RiverLine. “This journey exemplifies our shared commitment to connecting people with the river, fostering environmental stewardship and celebrating the natural and cultural heritage of the Tennessee River Valley. We look forward to working together to bring this transformative experience to life.”

    The seven-day adventure will begin in Ringgold, Georgia, on the South Chickamauga Creek Water Trail, a narrow watercourse that flows beneath spectacular limestone bluffs, over playful rapids and (unusually) underground before emptying into the Tennessee River just east of Chattanooga.


  • KCM Knoxville Community Media Engagement Calendar
    Knoxville Community Media (KCM)

    KCM’s Community Engagement Calendar provides information about both, date-specific events and the regular programs & services provided by nonprofit organizations.

    Many people still think it is necessary to have a TV cable connection to watch community TV programs. But that’s old history.

    One does not even need to be in the City of Knoxville or anywhere near it, nor have a TV set anymore.


Action Alerts

  • Editorial: Stop unnecessary and damaging despoliation of the Little Tennessee River

    1 Best equip in Little T Angela MartinPaddlers observe contractors hired to clean up Hurricane Helene debris in a stretch of the Little Tennessee River that was largely spared the ravages of the storm.  Angela Martin/MountainTrue

    Tell Army Corps, county officials to stop deforestation and river disturbance on the Little T

    This editorial was provided by MountainTrue.

    FRANKLIN, N.C. — The Little Tennessee River is home to 100 fish species alone — some found nowhere else in the world. The river and its adjacent greenway are also a beloved recreational resource for Macon County residents and tourists alike. But over the past few weeks, the banks of the river have been under assault by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors, removing hundreds of trees, many of which were still alive. Take action now to prevent further damage to the river!

    While large-scale debris removal continues to be a high priority in many parts of Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Little Tennessee River did not experience those same impacts; it saw only normal flooding. Apart from a few localized areas, like the Cullasaja River across from Walmart, there is no need for disaster recovery-type debris removal in Macon County waterways. And yet, contractors started near Tryphosa Road in Otto and have been working their way down the river, removing trees and debris from the river channel and banks in areas where no flooding impacts occurred. 


  • Editorial: I’m from Oak Ridge. Federal cuts threaten my career as a scientist.

    bafkreicdlcqwzycxaxv422ixsse37f6ahdbqscuwdp426fsdfwqbmcptoySarah Nelson stands with a copy of The Journal of Undergraduate Research, which ran her first scientific publication in 2003. It was researched during her time as an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Nelson is now a senior research scientist.  Derek Armstrong via BlueSky  

    Federal science cuts, in Oak Ridge and beyond, threaten American health and innovation

    Sarah Nelson, MPH, PhD, is a senior research scientist in Seattle studying the genetic causes of complex health conditions. Hellbender Press has previously reported on changes to Oak Ridge federal facilities since the start of the second Trump Administration. This op-ed was originally published by KnoxNews.

    OAK RIDGE — My mother has been cleaning out the attic in her Oak Ridge house and very reasonably decided my sisters and I should become the stewards of the memorabilia from our childhoods and early adulthoods. The box she recently mailed me included my first scientific publication, from my undergraduate summer internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Mammalian Genetics Section (the “Mouse House”) in 2002.

    Over 20 years later, I am a senior research scientist and author on 60+ scientific publications mostly related to understanding how genetic variation contributes to different human diseases.

    Even before I received that box in the mail, I had been reflecting on why I chose a career in scientific research — mainly because, since January, I am no longer sure if and how I will be able to continue pursuing it. Federally funded scientific research is being attacked and dismantled by the administration of President Donald Trump, threatening the entire scientific enterprise. The situation is dire, and I urge you to join me in staying informed and speaking out against these existential threats to science. 


  • Conservation starters: Some of the best science papers of 2024

    Sukakpak Mountain Bob Wick BLM 1024x576Sukakpak Mountain lies in the Brooks Range of Alaska. Mountain environments were the subject of a conservation paper that found more protections are needed for the many differing types of montaine environments. “Mountains are super-important for biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the benefits people get from nature. We ignore them at our peril,” said a Society for Conservation Biology researcher.  Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management

    Scientists churned out studies on life, the planet and the roles people play in the natural world

    This story was originally published by The Revelator.

    Every month scientific journals publish hundreds of new papers about endangered species and wildlife conservation. It’s a firehose of information in a world that feels increasingly in flames.

    We asked researchers to send us their best or favorite papers of the past year. We received submissions that offer hope, guidance, analysis, and insight into emerging threats.

    Aerin Jacob, director of science and research at Nature Conservancy of Canada, sent a coauthored paper from Conservation Biology about mountains — a habitat type that deserves more attention. “People often think that mountain ecosystems are so rugged and inaccessible that they don’t need habitat protection, but that’s not true,” she wrote. “We studied six major mountain regions around the world and found that on average half of them are as modified as the rest of the world; two-thirds of them don’t (yet) meet the 30×30 global protection target; and existing protected areas don’t include the vast majority of mountain ecosystem types. Mountains are super-important for biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the benefits people get from nature. We ignore them at our peril.” 

    Caribbean reef shark GratwickeOne noteworthy study of 2024 was the role public information consumption plays in the perception of sharks, such as this endangered Caribbean Reef Shark. A researcher warns misinformation is polluting science.  Brian Gratwicke via Revelator.


Feedbag

Your diet of environment and science news

  • New citizens to take oath of allegiance against Big South Fork backdrop

    Benedict Arnold declaration

    ONEIDA — Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will host an official naturalization ceremony on Thursday, April 24. One hundred and fifty individuals will take the oath of citizenship. 

    The event is open to the public, and community members are encouraged to attend and witness meaningful milestones. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at Bandy  Creek Visitor Center, with the Honorable Thomas W. Phillips presiding. Local Boy Scout Troop and Crew 333 will conduct the presentation of colors. 

    “National Park Week is a celebration of America’s national heritage. And national parks  preserve this great nation’s stories and natural and cultural wonders,” said Superintendent Niki  Stephanie Nicholas. “Welcoming new citizens in such a special place is suitable to their  inspirational journeys, qualities and characters.” 

    Naturalization is the official process through which a foreign citizen or national becomes a United States citizen after meeting the requirements set by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act. This process culminates in a formal court proceeding where individuals take the Oath of Allegiance, receive their Certificate of Naturalization and are officially welcomed as U.S. citizens, marking the beginning of their new chapters in the American community. 

    This official step unites new citizens through a shared commitment to the nation’s values, opening doors to new opportunities and a brighter future. Welcome them into the fabric of our nation.


  • Park service lifts ban on all fires in Great Smokies

    Uncle Sam style Smokey Bear Only You

    GATLINBURG — The National Park Service lifted a ban March 17 (the ban was originally issued March 13) on all campfires and charcoal use in Great Smoky Mountains National Park put in place during recent windy and dry weather. Campers and hikers should still be cautious with fires.

    The original story continues below:

    This fire ban will remain in effect until further notice on both the Tennessee and North Carolina sides of the park.

    Campers, backpackers, and visitors using picnic areas may continue to use cookstoves with compressed gas canisters and gas grills that feature an on/off switch. Stoves and grills must be attended at all times.

    The NPS is collaborating with multiple agencies in response to current and predicted weather and fuel conditions. Visitors are urged to exercise extra caution while on public lands, including national parks and national forests, in North Carolina and Tennessee when fire danger is elevated.

    For the latest information regarding the fire ban in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, please visit the park's current conditions webpage.

    -National Park Service


ES! Initiatives

Do you have an idea that protects the natural environment, improves community livability, cares for future generations or strengthens the integrity of Mother Earth’s life support systems? Here we present examples of what others are accomplishing already or striving to work out.

  • First UT sustainability symposium offers a collaborative vision for the future

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    All great scientific solutions start with collaboration

    KNOXVILLE — The challenges facing the planet and its inhabitants have long been too complex for any one individual or group to address, and that’s why the great advancements in modern science begin with conferences, symposiums and collaboration.

    The first Environmental Future Symposium is an effort from the University of Tennessee Office of Sustainability to present a vision of the future for area residents and University of Tennessee students. 

    Planned for the Agriculture and Natural Resources Ballroom and Plaza from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. March 27, the symposium is spearheaded by the office’s Alternative Energy and Transportation Coordinator Ben Gouffon. His vision for the event is simple: at the intersection of human-accelerated climate destabilization and a revitalization of the collapsing biosphere sits every individual and their  actions. His hope is that this symposium is an avenue for every attendee to discover what they can do for Knoxville, the university and the planet they call home.


  • Helene: Haul water, rescue pigs, help neighbors: How Warren Wilson College students confronted climate chaos

    Student Farm Leader taking care of pigs 1000A student farm leader takes care  of pigs at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. Most of the college’s pigs were recovered following fatal flooding from the Swannanoa River on Sept. 28, 2024.  Warren Wilson College

    Collective action helps alleviate climate anxiety in wake of Hurricane Helene

    This story was originally published by The Revelator.  

    Mallory McDuff teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College.

    SWANNANOA, N.C. — “We need 10 people on flush crew, five to clean out the fridges in the science building, and 15 to clear trees on the roads! We’re gonna do this together!”

    This wasn’t a pep rally or a community service event. It was the morning meeting called at 9:30 a.m. each day by campus leaders in front of the cafeteria at the small college where I lived without power or water, after the climate disaster of Hurricane Helene devastated our community in Western North Carolina.

    “We know the Swannanoa Valley has been hit especially hard,” the college president told the group of students and employees. “And we are here for this college and for the greater community. This is our work together.”

    That day I joined my neighbor Tom Lam chain-sawing his way across campus with a crew of students clearing brush along the way.

    “Now gather ‘round so you can see how to sharpen this chainsaw,” Tom said in his booming Jersey voice, pulling on his suspenders after we’d cleared trees that crushed a neighbor’s car.

    I’ve spent 25 years teaching environmental education, raising two daughters, and living at this 1,000-acre campus where all students work in jobs in places like the farm, garden, forests, and even fiber arts. And I think this might be one model of how to live in community in a climate emergency.


  • Updated: Submit contenders soon for U.S. champion trees

    National Champion Sitka Spruce Washington state at Olympic National Park photo credit e1736800302775 1800x1200The 2024 National Champion Tree Register features the largest documented trees across the U.S. such as the National Champion Sitka Spruce, which people can see in Olympic National Park in Washington.  Brian Kelley via American Forests

    Beginning in February, citizen scientists and others can help catalog our biggest trees

    Katie Donaldson is a communications specialist for the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources.

    The original story continues below.

    KNOXVILLE — The National Champion Tree Program (NCTP) will take nominations for new Champion Trees on its website starting Feb. 28. The list of eligible tree species for the 2025-2026 register includes more than 1,200 species of trees native and naturalized to the U.S., a steep increase from the 900 species eligible for the 2024 register. It is available online in the Register of Champion Trees. Nominations for potential Champions will stay open through August 2025.

    “Each year, people find ‘new’ Champions all over the country,” said Jaq Payne, NCTP director. “It could be the tree in your backyard, the tree in front of your church or the tree in one of your local parks or state forests.” For the first time in the program’s 84-year history, an additional list of “culturally important non-native” eligible species will be included to represent common, widely recognized urban species previously not found on the register.

    Champion Trees are identified based on a point system including the trunk circumference, height and average crown spread. After members of the public nominate trees, the NCTP will work with state coordinators to verify the submissions and their measurements. Verified trees will be added to the program’s data management system. National Champion Trees are crowned once every two years and must be re-verified every 10 years.


  • A hidden prairie treasure comes to light in East Tennessee

    Whorled rosinweedWhorled rosinweed is among the many types of native grassland plants that emerged from a clearcut. The property in Meigs County near Georgetown is now protected in part by the Foothills Land Conservancy.  Shelby Lyn Sanders

    FLC biologist makes an unexpected discovery in Georgetown, Tenn.

    Shelby Lyn Sanders is director of natural resources for the Blount County-based Foothills Land Conservancy.

    GEORGETOWN — What started as a simple search for a peaceful retreat turned into an extraordinary ecological discovery.

    When Mr. Owen purchased his land near Georgetown, he was looking for a place to hunt, hike and escape city life. Little did he know he’d become the guardian of one of Tennessee’s rare prairie gems.

    The property’s true identity emerged when the Foothills Land Conservancy’s director of natural resources (the author of this piece) spotted something remarkable during her first visit — prairie dock, a telltale sign of native grassland heritage. This wasn’t just any piece of land; it was a lost prairie awakening from decades of forest cover, less than a half mile from the historic Gunstocker Glade along Highway 58.

    The timing was perfect. A 2022 clearcut had inadvertently liberated this sleeping prairie, allowing it to breathe and bloom for the first time in generations. By its second year, the land burst into life, revealing an astonishing diversity that had laid dormant for years.

    Emerging native prairie plantsHere’s an aerial view of the Owen property in Meigs County northeast of Chattanooga on the eastern Cumberland Plateau escarpment. Native prairie plants emerged from the site of a clearcut, yielding a surprisingly vital piece of prairie.  Shelby Lyn Sanders


  • Learn about using your forest as a carbon sink

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    KNOXVILLE — The next installment of Conservation on Tap is set for 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at Albright Grove Brewing Company, 2924 Sutherland Ave., Knoxville.

    Join forester Sean Bowers to learn about the Family Forest Carbon Program, a partnership between the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy. The program allows owners of small tracts of forest access to carbon markets, empowering them to improve the health and wellbeing of their forests and help tackle climate change.

    All proceeds from Conservation on Tap benefit Discover Life in America.


  • Edible Abundance Foodscapes @ Green Drinks Knoxville

    Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, 5:30 p.m. at Albright Grove Brewing Company (2924 Sutherland Ave, Knoxville TN). RSVP on Facebook

    To round out this year of great guest speakers we are thrilled to bring on Daniel Aisenbrey, the founder of Edible Abundance Foodscapes. Come hear why every landscape can and should be a foodscape! 

    Edible Abundance LandscapesGet inspired by the story and experience of this great local initiative.  Edible Abundance Foodscapes

    For Daniel, it all started back in 2012 with a hatchback full of lumber, some borrowed tools and a passion for helping people grow food. In the decade since, Daniel has built on that passion by establishing farms and community gardens, fighting for food access in local government and even managing Knoxville’s top farmers’ market. In 2023, the culmination of that passion and experience burst from the soil as Edible Abundance Foodscapes! When he’s not building your new garden, Daniel (and partner, Beth) run Hey Moon Farm, a family farmstead for sheep, chickens, heirloom produce and two feral children. His favorite weird fruit are kiwiberries.

    Green Drinks Knoxville is a social and professional organization that convenes open-minded folks to encourage education and conversation about the environment, green technologies, sustainable lifestyles and more.

    Our events are free and open to the public. We welcome all and support racial diversity, gender equality and LGBTQ inclusivity.


  • Park service opens trail to forever in Great Smokies

    Trail crew taking a breakA trail crew takes a breather after laboring on the Ramsey Cascades Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Crew members and park officials formally opened the rehabilitated trail this week after three years of work.  National Park Service

    Radically enhanced Ramsey Cascades Trail leads to national park’s highest waterfall

    Dave Barak is a public affairs specialist with the National Park Service.

    GATLINBURG — In collaboration with Friends of the Smokies, the National Park Service (NPS) completed a three-year restoration of the Ramsey Cascades Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Located in the Greenbrier area, this popular trail ascends through beautiful hardwood forests to the 105-foot Ramsey Cascades, the tallest waterfall in the park. The trail is now open seven days a week following an extensive reconstruction and rehabilitation.

    The NPS and Friends of the Smokies celebrated the milestone at the Ramsey Cascades trailhead. Following remarks and a ribbon-cutting, several participants hiked the newly restored trail together.  

    Improvements to the Ramsey Cascades Trail include:

    — Two new footlog bridges. 
    — New decking and handrails on a 20-foot hiker bridge. 
    — 151 trail drains. 
    — More than 600 new steps for hiker safety and erosion control. 
    — Regrading of 2.5 miles of trail surface for improved safety and better trail drainage.
    Removal of tripping hazards, including roots and rocks. 
    Pruning of overgrown vegetation in the trail corridor to improve the hiking experience and allow the trail to better dry.
     

    Throughout this rehabilitation, the NPS restored Ramsey Cascades — with the original trail design in mind — in a way that blends in with the natural landscape. Trail crew members used natural materials and hand tools and transported most tools and equipment by hand or pack mule. A helicopter delivered several loads to five drop sites that the mule team could not access. The trail crew used 1,200 black locust logs and 760,000 pounds of rock crush for fill for this rehabilitation.

    Deploying 1,200 logs. Back-breaking labor! Crews had to carry many materials and tools to the site by hand or mule.  National Park Service

    “Trails Forever is an excellent example of the collaborative partnership between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Friends of the Smokies,” said Boone Vandzura, Acting Deputy Superintendent. “Together we’ve preserved and rehabilitated trails that enhance the recreational experience of millions of visitors.”  


  • Growing a Food Forest

    Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, 5:30 p.m. at Barrelhouse by Gypsy Circus (621 Lamar Street). RSVP on Facebook

    Green Drinks Knoxville will host an in-depth discussion with Dave Maasberg on how he maintains his food forest including some rare heirloom apple varieties, figs, pears, blackberries and more. He will bring samples to try and fruits for purchase to savor at home.

    Raised around agriculture and the vanishing small-scale, midwestern family farm, Dave has always held a special place for fruit trees and perennial plants. After a Foraging and Wild Edible Plants class at Indiana University, his desire to create a food forest and sustainable homestead quickly turned into a reality. After over 20 years of planting and maintaining various fruiting plants on a reclaimed hillside, he is excited to share his journey with us. He currently helps others with plantings, from small scale to larger projects.

    Green Drinks Knoxville is a social and professional organization that convenes open-minded folks to encourage education and conversation about the environment, green technologies, sustainable lifestyles and more.

    Our events are free and open to the public. We welcome all and support racial diversity, gender equality, and LGBTQ inclusivity.


  • Editorial: As historic climate legislation turns two, the numbers don't lie

    SACElogo

    The IRA’s clean-energy progress is clearest in our communities

    Stephen Smith is executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. He was a founder of the Foundation for Global Sustainability (FGS) and serves on the FGS board of directors. Hellbender Press is published by FGS.

    KNOXVILLE — The largest climate investment legislation in U.S. history, the Inflation Reduction Act, celebrated its two-year anniversary in August: two years of reducing harmful pollution, of creating thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs, of welcoming billions of dollars in clean energy investments to the Southeast. The ways the IRA has and will continue to benefit our region and beyond are innumerable — and the numbers don’t lie. 

    The IRA’s progress is clearest here in our communities: between Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, 559,820 households received more than $1.3 billion in residential clean energy and energy-efficiency tax credits in tax year 2023. Real people are saving money and benefiting from the historic climate law every day — take it from seven SACE members, their IRA stories and the encouraging statistics mentioned here. 

    The reach of the IRA stretches beyond our homes — over 70,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations now dot the U.S., and federal tax credits on both new and used EVs have saved consumers over $1 billion so far this year alone. Last month, SACE released its updated 2024 Electrify the South Electric Transportation Toolkit to help guide decision-makers through this time of enormous opportunity.


  • Calling all climbers (and hikers and bikers): Come help clean Obed crags

    Volunteers learning trail maintenance.The annual Obed Adopt-a-Crag event is set for Sept. 14 and will include access trail maintenance such as that performed here by volunteers at a previous event.  National Park Service

    WARTBURG — The East Tennessee Climbers Coalition and Obed Wild and Scenic River will host the park’s annual Adopt-a-Crag event on Saturday, Sep. 14 2024

    Volunteers are needed to help with a variety of projects including general trail maintenance and litter pickup. Please meet at the Lilly Pad Hopyard Brewery, 920 Ridge Road, Lancing, at 10 a.m. to register and receive a project assignment. Due to limited parking, carpooling is suggested.  Please bring your own lunch and water. Volunteers are also encouraged to bring hand tools, gloves, sunscreen, and insect repellant.

    After completing their projects, volunteers are invited to spend the day climbing their favorite routes or enjoying other recreational opportunities in the park.  Following the event, the ETCC will be hosting a volunteer appreciation event at the Lilly Pad.


  • Mountain monarchs inspired Wanda DeWaard’s legacy of citizen science

    Wanda DeWard with butterly netWanda DeWaard has spent 30 years studying and tagging monarch butterflies. Here she leads a volunteer group of citizen scientists tagging monarchs in Cades Cove.  Photos courtesy of Wanda DeWaard

    Successful Smokies monarch tagging project is a product of the people

    Every winter, way up in the oyumel firs in Mexico’s high elevation forests, millions of North American monarch butterflies that have traveled from as far north as Canada cluster in colonies to overwinter before flying north again to lay eggs in spring. Tens of thousands of monarchs might adorn a single tree like a papery gown, sometimes weighing it down enough to break off branches.

    To get to the oyumel forests several miles above sea level, which provide a perfect microclimate for the weary travelers, they migrate south using different aerial paths, or flyways, that merge together over Central Texas. This migrating generation can live up to nine months and might travel anywhere from 1,000-3,000 miles to the forests they seek, yet have never been to. Mysteriously, they find their way and sometimes even make it to the exact tree where their ancestors four or five generations back once clustered. 

    Monarchs are the only butterfly that makes a long two-way migration. Despite much research on the species, science still hasn’t fully unraveled the secrets of their incredibly accurate homing system. This makes them one of the true marvels of the natural world.

    Elanmonarch3A tagged monarch feeds on nectar in the Great Smokies before joining the migration to Mexico for the winter.


  • Get plugged in to the facts about electric vehicles during SACE webinar

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    KNOXVILLE — You’re invited to join a Southern Alliance for Clean Energy webinar, “Understanding EVs: Real People Share Real Stories of Electrifying Their Ride,” at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29. 

    A panel of electric vehicle (EV) owners and drivers will share stories and insights from their experiences with EVs. Learn more about what it’s like to own, charge, travel and save money with an EV, plus hear advice from real people who have gone electric! Panelists for this webinar will include: 


  • As climate threats to agriculture mount, could the Mississippi River delta be the next California?

    MIKES PRODUCEMichael Katrutsa walks through rows of tomatoes on his 20-acre produce farm in Camden, Tennessee. His crops also include sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, cucumbers, okra and more.  John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

    Specialty crops take root as models emerge of American agriculture dominated by Delta

    This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. It was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    CAMDEN ­— A smorgasbord of bright red tomatoes and vibrant vegetables line the walls of Michael Katrutsa’s produce shop in rural Camden, Tennessee. What began a decade ago as a roadside farm stand is now an air-conditioned outbuilding packed with crates of watermelon, cantaloupe and his locally renowned sweet corn — all picked fresh by a handful of local employees each morning.

    The roughly 20-acre farm west of the Tennessee River sells about half of its produce through his shop, with the rest going to the wholesale market.

    Farms like Katrutsa’s make up just a sliver of roughly 10.7 million acres of Tennessee farmland largely dominated by hay, soybeans, corn and cotton. Specialized machines help farmers harvest vast quantities of these commodity “row crops,” but Katrutsa said the startup cost was too steep for him. While specialty crops like produce are more labor-intensive, requiring near-constant attention from early July up until the first frost in October, Katrutsa said he takes pride in feeding his neighbors.

    The World Wildlife Fund sees farms in the mid-Mississippi delta as ripe with opportunity to become a new mecca for commercial-scale American produce. California currently grows nearly three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of its vegetables. 

    But as climate change compounds the threats of water scarcity, extreme weather and wildfires on California’s resources, WWF’s Markets Institute is exploring what it would take for farmers in West Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas to embrace — and equitably profit from — specialty crop production like strawberries, lettuce or walnuts. 


  • Bruderhof manufactures sustainable community in Monroe County

    HP FactoryHiwassee Bruderhof builds vermicomposting equipment at its manufacturing facility on the grounds of what was Hiwassee College in Monroe County, Tennessee.  Hiwassee Products

    Intentional Christian community settles into old Hiwassee College campus

    HIWASSEE —­ We gathered in the old Hiwassee College theater to see “Common Ground” and hear from one of the farmers featured in the film.

    Members of the new Bruderhof (from the German word, a place of brothers) community in Monroe County sat with us for the screening.

    A few folks asked me: “Are you a farmer?”

    “No, I am a United Methodist pastor,” I replied. The community is on the old Hiwassee College campus. The Holston Conference closed the college in 2019 and then sold the property to the Bruderhof in 2021

    One older gentleman said, “I hoped to sit with a farmer.” I understood that. The community, in addition to being a self-supporting Christian Intentional Community, hoped to sell some of its new equipment to local farmers. Hobby gardeners, like me, would not want to invest the money in the new tools being offered. 


  • Youth Conservation Corps team tends to Obed trails

    thumbnail IMG 0259A Youth Conservation Corps team performs trail maintenance at Obed Wild and Scenic River during a summer YCC program at the park.  National Park Service

    WARTBURG  2024’s Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) team at the Obed Wild and Scenic River spent their summer working to maintain and enhance hiking trails. The YCC is a paid summer work program for youth ages 15-18 on federally managed lands. Since its inception in 1970, the YCC has introduced young Americans to conservation opportunities on public lands. 

    This year’s YCC team members include Lydia Barnett from Gateway Christian School, Emma Foust from Anderson County High School and Jimmy Hall, Haylee Morgan and Joshua Stedman from Wartburg Central High School.

    Youth Conservation Corps members engage in activities that restore, rehabilitate and repair the natural, cultural and historical resources within federally preserved areas. The crew is led by National Park Service staff, who provide transportation, supervision, training and education. Students acquire basic trade skills and learn about cultural and environmental topics, fostering a sense of stewardship toward park resources. The program also includes instructor-led recreational activities, educational field trips and classroom instruction. 

    The completion of this year’s YCC project will extend the lifespan of trail assets and  components, enhancing visitor satisfaction and safety. Participating youth will gain new skills, improve teamwork and develop a deeper understanding of environmental impact, contributing to the National Park Service’s mission.


  • Not just a bougie supper club: Slow Food returns, patiently, to mountains

    BushslowfoodSlow Food Tennessee Valley co-founder Sarah Bush picks heirloom tomatoes at Vuck Farm in Riceville.  Élan Young/Hellbender Press

    Slow Food ramps up regional food resilience efforts

    RICEVILLE On a hot summer day in late June, Sarah Bush, co-founder of Slow Food Tennessee Valley, slices some varieties of tender heirloom tomatoes freshly picked from tall rows of plants strung up in a giant, covered hoop-style greenhouse before serving them on a cutting board with a bit of farm-fresh chevre and basil.

    The tomatoes span hues of yellow, red, green and purple, some a solid color or slightly striped and bearing intriguing names not found in grocery stores: striped Heart, Cherokee evergreen, chocolate stripe and Valencia. The flavor combinations explode into farm-to-table bliss. 

    The tomatoes are especially terrific for a reason: Bush, 46, has practiced regenerative farming since she was 28.

    Mentored by other small farmers around the country who taught her how to exist and thrive in an economy that favors Big Ag, she now splits her time between Vuck Farm, a biodynamic farm in Riceville owned by her partner TJ Teets, and managing the produce department at Three Rivers Market in Knoxville — Tennessee’s only cooperative grocery.

    She also serves on the planning committee for CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training), which is run by the Southeastern Tennessee chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition 

    Not a bougie supper club

    Founded in 2008, the Tennessee Valley chapter of Slow Food is the only chapter in the state that has remained active since its founding. 

    A little more than two decades earlier in 1986, thousands of Italians gathered at the base of the sprawling Piazza di Spagna in the center of Rome to protest the country’s first McDonald’s restaurant. Slow Food’s founder, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, was among them. Instead of bringing a sign with a slogan, Petrini brought a big bowl of penne pasta to share with the crowd chanting We don’t want fast food. We want Slow Food! Three years later the movement became an official organization and today spans 160 countries


  • ‘Cute little falcons’ fly free in Wildwood

    kestrelKatheryn Albrecht holds a juvenile American kestrel just prior to releasing it into the Wildwood area of Blount County as part of the Farmland Raptor Project.  Thomas Fraseer/Hellbender Press

    Farmland Raptor Project takes wing to expand raptor populations on private properties

    WILDWOOD — She felt the bird in her hand in her heart as the kestrel strained toward freedom.

    Elise Eustace, communications director for Foothills Land Conservancy, blessed the bird and let it go, free to make a home somewhere on the 300-acre Andy Harris Farm or elsewhere in the Wildwood area of Blount County. “I’ve never gotten to do something like this,” she said. “So exciting.” 

    Two other juvenile kestrels joined their kin on the warm summer afternoon, lighting into nearby oaks and atop a telephone line above the red and yellow pollinator gardens and dry pasture and cornfield and copses that punctuate the property in the shadow of smoky knobs that rise gradually to the Smokies crest beyond the blue-green hollows of the Little River watershed. Resident sparrows, bluebirds and kingbirds voiced displeasure at the new arrivals. 


  • Big South Fork volunteers honor natural heritage, national trails

    Volunteer bridge buildersVolunteers helped build this bridge on Sheltowee Trace in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.  National Park Service

    ONEIDA — Two popular trails were greatly improved with the help of volunteers during Big South Fork’s annual National Trails Day event, observed this year on June 22. 

    Volunteers helped build a 40-foot-long trail bridge between Yahoo Falls and Alum Ford on the Sheltowee Trace (a designated National Recreation Trail), by assisting park staff in transporting lumber and tools as well as the replacement of decking boards and handrails on the entire bridge. Volunteers also assisted trail crews with vegetation, drainage and tread improvements on the Proctor Ridge Horse Trail. 

    Volunteers are an important part of ensuring park trails are clear and well-maintained. If you are interested in learning more on how you can volunteer, contact the volunteer coordinator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call (423) 569-9778.


  • Smokies tourists are coming to see the light

    Smokies Synchronous Firefly Photinus carolinus 20200608 3311 composite credit Abbott Nature PhotographyA recent display of synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus) in the Smokies.  Abbott Nature Photography

    Thousands of visitors view annual firefly spectacles in Smokies area as natural light show dims elsewhere

    ELKMONT — Anyone who has fallen in love knows reading a love poem is no substitute for direct experience. Similarly, no technology, no art form, nor any reportage can come close to the mesmerizing firsthand experience of witnessing hundreds of thousands of synchronous firefly beetles pulsing in the dark during the peak of their mating period in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

    Over the last 20 years, throngs of eager visitors have trekked by the thousands to catch this rare glimpse of collective insect behavior. The crowds posed problems: Since females and larvae of the species are on and under the ground, visitors can trample them if they stray off trail. Likewise, flashlights and other white lights, including from cell phone screens, can also disrupt courtship. 

    The firefly phenomenon caught fire in 1991, when Lynn Faust read an article suggesting that no synchronous fireflies lived in the western hemisphere, yet she knew that’s what she witnessed in the 1960s at the historic Elkmont community when she vacationed there with her in-laws. After she brought Photinus carolinus to the attention of scientists, word spread and new firefly pilgrimages to Elkmont were born. 


  • City-based projects are pollinating the planet

    IMG 0772 1 scaled e1718391630730 1024x577A parklet in Washington DC with brightly colored planters filled with local pollinator plants.  Molly McCluskey 

    From pocket parks to large-scale projects, cities around the world are working to reverse a troubling trend.

    This story was originally published by The Revelator.

    Every June, cities around the globe celebrate Pollinator Week (this year, June 16-22) an international event to raise awareness about the important roles that birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles and other small animals serve in pollinating our food systems and landscapes. These crucial species are declining worldwide, with many on the brink of extinction.

    Cities have responded to this crisis with a variety of urban initiatives designed to foster pollinator habitats and in the process transform once-stark cement landscapes — as well as pocket parks, curb strips and highway dividers — into lush, welcoming areas for pollinators and humans alike.

    In Washington, D.C., ambitious pollinator projects are abundant on rooftops of public, office and private spaces, ranging from the renovated D.C. Public Library’s main branch to National Public Radio’s headquarters, which hosts an apiary. Throughout the District of Columbia, municipal code requires buildings to maintain the tree boxes and curb strips outside their properties. This often leads to creative landscaping on the smallest of scales. 


  • Follow some protocols during No-Mow May or risk the sting of a city codes violation

    IMG 3876Gerry Moll is seen in the native garden of his home in the 4th and Gill neighborhood of Knoxville in this file photo. Moll tends to his natural habitat in keeping with city codes protocols.  Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press

    City: Overgrown lots don’t automatically qualify as wildlife habitat

    KNOXVILLE — City government wants people to know that though “No Mow May” is a worthy observation there are still some protocols residents have to follow to avoid codes violations and potential fines.

    The month of May is hyped as a prime time to refrain from cutting your grass or portions of your lawn to allow pollinating plants and the pollinators they support to get six legs up late spring and early summer nectar season. It’s also an occasion to consider the fact that traditional lawns are largely ecological deserts.

    “No Mow May” is a quick and catchy name for a movement that aims far beyond not mowing the yard for a month,” according to Bee City USA, a proponent of keeping your yard real and wild when and where it is practical.

    “It’s more than long grass and dandelion blooms. It’s a gateway to understanding how we share our lawns with many small creatures.”

    It goes beyond bees and butterflies and other pollinating insects. Many ground-nesting birds are on the decline due to loss of grassy habitat. Native grasses also serve as habitat for small mammals such as rabbits and mice, which in turn provide a buffet for raptors such as owls, hawks and eagles.

    Hellbender Press has reported on cultivation of such natural landscapes and habitats within the city limits. Groups such as the Native Plant Rescue Squad can also provide plants and guidance.


  • Sharing the love: Grayson Subaru presents $39K check to Ijams Nature Center

    Ijams Jerry Weaver Hailey Manus Jennie McGuigan Amber Parker Sarah Brobst JC Marquardt Melanie Thomas Gianni Tesfaye Joseph Bailey Joseph Mack Ben NannyGrayson Subaru presented a check for $39,000 from Subaru of America’s 2023 Subaru Share the Love Event to Ijams Nature Center on April 24. Funds will be used to expand the popular Ijams Nature Playscape at Grayson Subaru Preserve and the Mead’s Quarry Lake swim area.  Ijams Nature Center

    KNOXVILLE — Grayson Subaru gave $39,000 to Ijams Nature Center to expand the popular Ijams Nature Playscape at Grayson Subaru Preserve and the Mead’s Quarry Lake swim area.

    The local retailer chose the nonprofit nature center as its hometown charity for Subaru of America Inc.’s 2023 Subaru Share the Love® Event. From Nov. 15, 2023, to Jan. 2, Subaru and its retailers donated a minimum of $300 for every new Subaru vehicle purchased or leased at more than 628 of its retailers nationwide to several national charities and a hometown charity chosen by each retailer.

    “Subaru of America and Grayson Subaru are committed to the communities we serve,” Subaru Sales Manager JC Marquardt said. “We do that by showing support in ways that make a meaningful difference, and we’re incredibly grateful to our customers, who share our values and are committed to doing the same. This is a proud day for all of us.”

    Work has already begun on Phase 2 of the Ijams Nature Playscape.

    “Thus far, Ijams staff have scouted the new trail and, with the help of 115 trained volunteers, removed invasive species from about one acre of the new section,” Ijams President and CEO Amber Parker said. “This is the most time-consuming part of the process, because there is a more diverse mix of invasive and native species, and removal has to be done by hand.”

    In addition to preparing the upper section of the 13.46-acre property, Ijams is planning a new feature to Phase 1 of the playscape after conducting a survey of the people who were using it.

    “We learned that people wanted a way to cross through the mushier spots of the floodplain in an area we call the ‘Soggy Bottom Room,’ so we’re creating a narrow path of wood over utility poles to make a bog walkway,” she said. “We recently salvaged a large palette that was mired in the mud along the Tennessee River and will use that reclaimed wood in the project. There are perks to having an Ijams River Captain keeping our waterways clear!”

    Parker said improvements to the Mead’s Quarry swim area will start at a later date.


  • Chattanooga Earth Day Week continues

    Earth Week Poster Billboard Landscape


  • Ijams and other volunteers pull, push to restore riverine beauty

    Broken plastic toys found by volunteersOdd robotic forms were among the every-worldly items pulled by volunteers from the Tennessee River and its tributaries earlier this month.  Courtesy Ijam’s Nature Center.

    Betty Boop recovered from drink during widespread river cleanup

    KNOXVILLE Rain didn’t stop 441 volunteers from cleaning up the community’s waterways during the 35th annual Ijams River Rescue on March 9.

    They tackled trash at 31 sites in Knox and Blount counties, filling 1,097 bags with garbage weighing an estimated 21,958 pounds (10.48 tons). That doesn’t include the weight of 46 tires and large items such as household appliances, furniture and car parts.

    Plastic and Styrofoam waste was common in all areas, but Ijams River Rescue volunteers found items such as a robot puppy, drug paraphernalia, an antique lounge chair, a full patio set, suitcase, Betty Boop doll and shoes, sofas, stove parts, traffic barrels, a car seat, sports gear, a “nice watch” and a $10 bill.


  • Experts and citizens plan and commiserate over TVA’s lack of public process 

    Justin Pearson addresses People’s Voice on TVA’s Energy PlanTennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson speaks to community members assembled for the evening discussion during the People’s Voice on TVA’s Energy Plan.  John Waterman/Appalachian Voices

    A lack of public process brought together a coalition of environmental organizations 

    NASHVILLE  In every state except Tennessee, for-profit utilities and their regulators are required to get public input about energy-resource planning.

    These Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) provide an opportunity for a utility to demonstrate that the ratepayer money the utility spends is on the best mix of energy investments that meet this objective. 

    In Tennessee, however, TVA, which is the nation’s largest public power provider, has no process for engaging the public on its IRPs.

    It is this lack of public process that brought a coalition of environmental organizations together to host a mock public hearing in a Nashville church last month presided by Ted Thomas, former chair of Georgia Center for Energy Solutions. Their goal was to call attention to the fact that TVA acts more like a corporation or a self-regulated monopoly than as a public utility. The groups say that lack of public involvement in the process harms Tennesseeans across the board. 


  • Sequoyah Hills is now officially the arboretum we always shared

    Sequoyah Hills Arboretum sign identifying the Eastern Red Cedar to which it is attached.Many such new identifying tags highlight trees such as this red cedar in the newly designated Sequoyah Hills Arboretum near Bearden in Knoxville.  Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press

    The arboretum designation will  allow for more extensive tree walks, scout projects, school outings, and other educational programs on the value and beauty of native trees

    KNOXVILLE — A small crowd of volunteers with tags and tools descended on Sequoyah Park on a February afternoon, preparing to affix identifying labels to the bark of old trees in one of the city’s most storied neighborhoods.

    Sequoyah Park sits along the Tennessee River at 1400 Cherokee Boulevard, tucked behind the Sequoyah Hills neighborhood but open to all who want to run, walk, cycle, or enjoy its open fields and other features. It’s Tennessee Valley Authority land, maintained by the city. The many species of native trees that tower over the park’s long field got recognition this year. The park and other Sequoyah Hills neighborhood areas are now part of the Sequoyah Hills Arboretum, an accredited level one ArbNet arboretum.


  • Foothills Land Conservancy commits more land to memory

    DJI 0246Foothills Land Conservancy recently completed a conservation easement on 100 acres near Cane Creek in Anderson County, Tenn.  Shelby Lyn Sanders/ Foothills Land Conservancy

    Generations have crisscrossed the expansive pastures near Cane Creek in Anderson County

    Shelby Lyn Sanders is the senior biologist at Foothills Land Conservancy
     
    CLINTON Not much of Mrs. Betty Smith, 92, is visible as she pokes among the tall grasses on her land in Anderson County, Tenn. on this warm mid-spring day.  
     
    She’s looking for scraps of metal or wood or some relic that might reveal the exact location of a barn that stood here near Cane Creek some time ago.  
     
    Mrs. Smith and her husband Paul purchased this property from the prominent Hollingsworth family in the 1960s while living nearby in Clinton. They had big dreams about owning a farm close by to work and play on.  

  • Fighting our own worst enemy along the way to better seeds and systems

    Seed_Swap.pngTennessee Local Food Summit participants were encouraged to bring their favorite heirloom seeds for a seed swap and social.  Courtesy Matt Matheson

    Tennessee Local Food Summit is a hive for food justice in the Southeast

    NASHVILLE — About 70 miles north of Nashville in the town of Red Boiling Springs in Macon County, farmer and educator Jeff Poppen, better known as the Barefoot Farmer, runs one of the oldest and largest organic farms in Tennessee. For nearly 40 years, he built rich soil for his bountiful farm before the second-largest meat producer in the world forced him to move from the 250 acres he’d been farming since 1974. 

    When his neighboring property owner partnered with Cobb Vantress, a subsidiary of the multinational mega-giant Tyson Foods, to place a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) — aka a factory farm — 450 feet from his homestead and garden, Poppen’s first instinct was to organize. 

    This self-described “dirty hippie” found unlikely allies in his neighbors — a Baptist preacher, a state trooper, a politician, and what he calls a “chemical farmer” — all opposed to an industrial chicken house moving in.


  • Tennessee Tree Day

    download-1.png

    It’s that time of year again — time to reserve your trees for Tennessee Tree Day 2024. Reserve yours now and plan on picking them up on March 15th or 16th and planting them that weekend.  Here are some special things to know about this year’s statewide native-tree-planting extravaganza:

    • This is the 10th Annual Tennessee Tree Day
    • You have more than 12 native species to choose from
    • Plant at home, on the farm, or anywhere you have permission to plant
    • You have more than 150 pick-up sites to choose from
    • We anticipate planting our one millionth tree in 2024 — we want you to be part of this historic milestone. (We founded the Tree Program in 2007 with a goal of planting one million trees. You can help us cross the finish line!)

  • Join a community of Tennesseans carving out gardens to attract, feed and nurture pollinating wildlife

    img-4888.jpgThese signs will show your friends and neighbors that your wildflower garden supports pollinators and hopefully get them excited about starting a pollinator garden too! Our original signs are made from embossed, recycled aluminum and measure 8 x 12 inches. They are available for a donation of $25 each and can be shipped directly to you.  Tennessee Environmental Council

    Through Generate Some Buzz, the Tennessee Environmental Council aims to engage hundreds of Tennesseans in establishing new pollinator habitats statewide. All gardens, both big and small are welcome and by participating in this program, you are joining a vibrant community of Tennesseans committed to protecting our pollinators, one plot at a time.

    Populations of many pollinator species like bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and hummingbirds have been negatively impacted by agricultural practices such as using synthetic pesticides, disease and habitat loss. These creatures are experiencing a drastically different world compared to just a few decades ago.

    Native pollinators depend on native plants to provide habitat and food, and plants need pollinators to help them reproduce. In fact, pollinators assist in the reproduction of 75 percent of flowering plants worldwide. Turning manicured lawns that provide little to nothing for pollinators into havens full of native flowers and wild grasses, we will effectively "Generate Some Buzz" and bring back these essential workers full force.
       guide-to-growing-wildflowers_orig.png


  • Solar for All: An opportunity to expand alternative-energy access

    10443176025_00a582b883_o-1-scaled.jpgThe historic federal climate legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer. The $7 billion program will help fund rooftop solar projects benefiting communities with lower incomes and provide workforce development enabling millions of households’ access to affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy.  Southern Environmental Law Center

    A competitive grant program to bring solar power to people with limited incomes has found huge demand in the South

    CHARLOTTESVILLE — Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as other tribal governments, municipalities and nonprofits submitted applications for Solar for All, a new program designed to expand solar access.

    “I’m thrilled to see enthusiasm for this funding in Southern states, which have traditionally lagged behind the rest of the country in residential solar while many households struggle to pay their electricity bills,” said Gudrun Thompson, leader of Southern Environmental Law Center’s Energy Program.

    Part of the historic federal climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer, the $7 billion program will fund rooftop solar projects benefiting communities with lower incomes and provide workforce development enabling millions of households’ access to affordable, resilient and clean solar energy and related jobs. These funds have the potential to double the number of rooftop solar customers with 100 percent of cost saving solar, benefiting customers that would not otherwise be able to access solar.  

    “This is a generational opportunity to enable low-income households in the South to access affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy,” Thompson said.


  • Join SACE for a Clean Energy Generation webinar on Wed, Oct. 25 at 1:30 PM

    CEG_Webinar_2_231025_banner.png

    The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy invites people to join the “Clean Energy Generation.”

    We’re gaining momentum as a movement that is rising to one of the greatest challenges of our time: the climate crisis. We’re pushing for new policies and practices and taking action, no matter how small — because it takes small ripples from people at all levels of engagement to create a tsunami of change.

    At the second Clean Energy Generation webinar, SACE staff, including Executive Director, Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Climate Advocacy Director Chris Carnevale, and Climate Advocacy Coordinator Cary Ritzler, will talk about what the “Clean Energy Generation” is and how you can play a role, no matter your age, abilities, income or zip code. 

    SACE’s Executive Director will also share the ways he is taking clean energy action in his home, and how you don’t have to be an expert to connect with your community and make meaningful change: learning more is a good place to start. We’ll also show how small groups of neighbors, students and friends are coming together to accomplish specific climate-actions goals. And we’ll have time on the webinar to answer your questions.

    Can’t make it? Register anyway and we’ll send you the recording plus a few follow-up resources.

    The Clean Energy Generation is motivated by what our daily lives, communities, country, and planet will look like when clean energy replaces decades of dirty pollution from fossil fuels. We are working together for communities powered by clean energy with good jobs, clean air and water, clean transportation, a stable climate and affordable bills, where all of us can thrive.


  • Homeward bound: local students release hundreds of lake sturgeon into Tennessee River

    TN_Aquarium_Lake_Sturgeon_Release_in_Coolidge_Park_5.jpgConservation scientists with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute pose in the Tennessee River before releasing more than 600 juvenile lake sturgeon into the waterway. Tennessee Aquarium

    CHATTANOOGA — After bulking up all summer on a steady diet of bloodworms and brine shrimp, hundreds of juvenile lake sturgeon finally were returned to their ancestral waters this morning. 

    Under a nearly cloudless autumn sky, biologists from the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute and third through fifth grade students from Girls Inc. of Chattanooga’s Fall Break Camp gathered on the north bank of the Tennessee River in Coolidge Park. 

    One by one, they carefully made their way to the river’s edge holding clear, water-filled plastic buckets containing five-month-old lake sturgeon. Amidst excited squeals and nervous laughter, they squatted down, gently depositing each sleek, armor-skinned fish into the shallows.

    This latest release “class” included 667 lake sturgeon. Comparatively tiny now, these miniature river giants have the potential to reach nine feet in length and could live for up to 150 years. 

    Reintroduction events like this are the capstone payoff to a summer spent tirelessly caring for and — most of all — feeding these sturgeon, says Reintroduction Biologist II Teresa Israel

    “It’s really special. It’s hard to see them go, but it’s a happy day since we’ve seen them get so big, so we know they’ll be successful out there,” she said. “It’s a great accomplishment that completes the circle for all our hard work.” 

    Lake Sturgeon are considered endangered in Tennessee. As recently as the 1970s, this species had disappeared from both waterways due to the impacts of damming, poor water quality and over-fishing. Today’s release is the latest in the now-23-year-old effort to bring Lake Sturgeon back to the Tennessee River and Cumberland River.


  • October 24 is United Nations Day

    united nations day

     

    Despite strong US popular support for the UN, House Appropriations Bill wants to eliminate UN funding

    NEW YORK — In a poll of nearly two thousand registered voters, 73% of respondents from across the political spectrum support America’s engagement with the United Nations.

    Conducted by Morning Consult in August 2023, the survey finds that roughly two-thirds of Republicans and 86% of Democrats believe it’s important for the U.S. to “maintain an active role” in the UN.

    UN favorability stood at 52%, with a plurality of Republicans saying they view the UN in a positive light.

    More than half of all voters support paying full dues to the UN’s regular budget, and an even greater percentage (nearly 60%) are in favor of paying dues to the UN’s peacekeeping budget.

    These numbers reflect similar nationwide data — including a 2023 survey by Pew Research — noting strong UN favorability among Americans.

    What’s at stake?

    The House budget proposal recommends eliminating funding for the UN regular budget — for the first time in history. That would cause the U.S. to lose its vote in the UN General Assembly!

    Why that would be a grave and costly mistake is well explained by Jordie Hannum, Executive Director of the Better World Campaign.

    This UN Day, make sure to tell your members of Congress that you support the UN’s mission.

    Here are easy to follow help and sample scripts for your call and for leaving voice mail. Or, send them a customizable email message.

    “As Congress considers making drastic cuts in U.S. contributions to the UN, this is a powerful reminder that Americans value the institution and want the U.S. to stay involved,” said Peter Yeo, President of the Better World Campaign. “The UN is a critical space for the U.S. to demonstrate our global leadership and support our allies. Americans clearly understand that it’s in our best interest to nurture this vital relationship.”


  • Join Keep Knoxville Beautiful on Friday, Nov. 3 for its annual Sustainability Summit

    Reimagining-the-Asphalt-Jungle.jpg

    KKB Sustainability Summit 2023

    Why do we have all this asphalt, how is it keeping us apart, what is it doing to the fabric of our cities, and what can we do about it?

    From 2nd Avenue in Nashville to The Stitch in Atlanta to the Placemaking Hub in Charlotte, travel with us to different Southeastern cities with professionals who are reshaping their urban environments to create more equitable, sustainable and beautiful places, and get inspired about what we can do in our own city. Join us on Friday, November 3rd for KKB’s 5th annual Sustainability Summit for a day of learning.

    Lunch will be provided for free to all attendees, sponsored by the Tomato Head

    Other sponsors include TVA and Earthadelic.

    Event Timeline

     9:00 AM - Doors open

     9:15 AM - Opening remarks by City of Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon

     9:45 AM - Jack Cebe, Landscape Architect/Engineer, Atlanta
    11:00 AM - Eric Hoke, Urban Designer, Nashville & Kate Cavazza, Urban Designer, Charlotte
    12:00 PM - Lunch provided by Tomato Head
    12:45 PM - Beverly Bell, Landscape Designer, Chattanooga & Caleb Racicot, Urban Planner, Atlanta 
      1:45 PM - Closing remarks


  • Tennessee Project Milkweed orders top 300,000 and exhaust the free supply. TDOT says there’s more to come.

    download 2Monarch butterfly feeding off milkweed. TDOT launched a program to promote milkweed production, a common source of food for butterflies, birds and other insects. cc zero 2

    Free milkweed seed will help citizens restore landscapes and preserve habitat; orders commence again in June for popular TDOT project

    NASHVILLE — Amid unprecedented citizen demand, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) halted online orders for free milkweed seed, offered as part of its Project Milkweed. Launched in June 2023, this mail-order resource was aimed at restoring landscapes and preserving habitats for monarch butterflies and other pollinator species. Since June, TDOT has taken nearly 131,000 individual orders from Tennesseans for milkweed seed. In total, 779,601 red and common milkweed seed packets were requested. The program will return in June 2024.

    “TDOT is happy to offer such a popular program to the public, and to empower Tennesseans to do their part in saving pollinators as they are vital to life, growing food, and the economy of Tennessee,” said TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley in a release.

    Orders exhausted a stock of 300,000 milkweed seed packets by Sept. 30. Additional seed material has been ordered and is expected to arrive in October. All remaining orders will be fulfilled then, according to TDOT. 


  • Appalachian State Energy Center is crushing it with biochar

    community_biochar-reduced.pngCommunity biochar production in Boone.  Appalachian State Energy Center

    Appalachian State University research helps farmers and crop yield

    This article was provided by Appalachian State University. Hei-Young Kim is laboratory manager and research assistant with the Appalachian Energy Center.

    BOONE The Appalachian State Nexus Project experiments continue to advance agricultural innovations with biochar to help local farmers. Biochar is a charcoal-like material produced from plant material such as grass, agricultural and forest residues that  produce carbon-rich material used for agriculture and horticulture purposes. 

    Adding biochar to soil increases surface area, pH, plant nutrient availability, and enhances water-holding capacity, according to Appalachian State researchers. It also can sequester carbon in the ground for extended periods of time, which may otherwise find its way into the atmosphere as CO2 or methane.

    The qualities of biochar vary depending upon the material it comes from — timber slash, corn stalks or manure. 


  • Tennessee Aquarium wants to up the pollination game

    Pollinator Pathway signPollinator Pathway signs on the Tennessee Aquarium Plaza in Chattanooga lead guests on a self-guided tour highlighting native plants, pollinator behaviors, and unusual pollinators. Courtesy Tennessee Aquarium

    TDOT joins with Tennessee Aquarium to pollinate our pathways

    CHATTANOOGA — With their distinctive orange and black patterns, gossamer wings and harrowing 3,000-mile migrations, few insects are as charismatic or beloved as the monarch butterfly. 

    Just imagine how tragic it would be if they disappeared.

    So it was with alarm in 2022 that the world received news that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had declared the monarch an endangered species, citing population numbers that had fallen 80 percent since the 1980s. 

    Similar anxiety met reports in the mid-2000s of colony collapse disorder. This sudden phenomenon dramatically imperiled the survival of European honey bees, whose activity directly or indirectly affects roughly one of every three bites of food we eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Pollinators are undoubtedly critically important to plants and humans alike, whether they’re investigating our Irises, calling on our Columbine, or buzzing our Blueberry bushes. This week, June 19-25, the world celebrates Pollinator Week, which recognizes the wondrous, vital contributions of butterflies, bees, moths, bats, and other pollinators.


  • KUB and SACE provide a guide to a home efficiency uplift

    KNOXVILLE — Are you looking to take control of your utility bills to not only save money but also breathe easier knowing your home is healthier and more comfortable? Join us this Wednesday, May 17, from 6-8 PM for a free workshop to learn about newly available, once-in-a-generation funding, resources, and rebates that everyone can benefit from, regardless of if you own or rent your home, or if you have high or low income, through local and federal funds.  

    KUB is providing free (yes, free) home energy improvements for income-eligible customers through the Home Uplift program. New or repaired HVAC units, attic and wall insulation, appliances, and electric water heaters are just a few of the home energy upgrades that you may receive. Plus, professional crews are ready and waiting to do the work so you don’t have to. 

    — Southern Alliance for Clean Energy


  • Rocking chair rebellion: Older Americans help drive climate activism

    Third Act ROCKING CHAIRSPhoto courtesy of Third Act via The Revelator

    As their twilight approaches, elders supercharge climate action on behalf of future generations 

    This story was originally published by The Revelator. Eduardo Garcia is a New York-based climate journalist. A native of Spain, he has written about climate solutions for Thomson Reuters, The New York Times, Treehugger and Slate. He is the author of Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste, an illustrated book about reducing personal carbon footprints.

    Thousands of senior Americans took to the streets in March in 30 states to demand that the country’s major banks divest from fossil fuels.

    This “rocking chair rebellion” — organized by Third Act, a fast-growing climate action group focused on older Americans — shows that Baby Boomers are becoming a new force in the climate movement.

    Third Act cofounder Bill McKibben, who joined a Washington, D.C., protest, says it’s unfair to put all the weight of climate activism on the shoulders of young people. It’s time for older Americans to take a central role.

    “Young people don’t have the structural power necessary to make changes,” McKibben tells The Revelator. “But old people do. There are 70 million Americans over the age of 60. Many of us vote, we’re politically engaged, and have a lot of financial resources. So if you want to press either the political system or the financial system, older people are a useful group to have.”


  • Knoxville trees need a canopy of support

    KNOXVILLE Trees Knoxville wants to hear from residents to help develop an Urban Forest Master Plan that considers the city’s unique challenges, priorities, and opportunities. A successful plan will help Knoxville preserve, grow and care for trees, which play a significant role in public health and environmental health.

    Upcoming opportunities to learn more and provide feedback:

    May 4, 6-7:30 p.m.

    Urban Trees Virtual Open House

    Zoom

    If you haven’t attended an in-person event, this virtual option may fit your schedule. Learn about the urban tree canopy and provide your thoughts and perspective on what Knoxville needs. Participants will need to preregister online to receive the link to the virtual workshop.

    May 11, 4-7 p.m.

    Urban Trees Open House

    Cansler YMCA
    616 Jessamine Street

    Trees in cities are vital to human health, especially as the climate warms. What does Knoxville need? Come to this open-house-style event to learn more and add your two cents. Trees Knoxville will give 15-minute presentations at 5 and 6 p.m. Attendees will learn more about the Urban Forest Master Plan process and how to engage neighbors, friends and other residents who value trees in this important process.

    Other options:

    Invite Trees Knoxville to your meeting! Go to KnoxvilleTreePlan.org to schedule a presentation.

    Online Survey.  If none of these engagement options work, fill out the online survey at Knoxville Tree Plan to make sure your voice is heard. 

    Learn more at Knoxville Tree Plan, and find additional community event listings at Knoxville Tree Plan Get Involved.

    Trees Knoxville was formed in 2016 and grew out of the community’s deep appreciation for trees and their many benefits. Its mission is to expand the urban canopy on both public and private land throughout Knox County. Trees Knoxville is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to planting trees, educating people, and promoting the health and well-being of our community and our environment in Knoxville and Knox County.

    — City of Knoxville


  • Refill with KnoxFill. Knoxville startup gets its own storefront.

    IMG 2216Multiple household and personal items such as detergent, shampoo and even toothpaste can be refilled at KnoxFill, which now has a storefront at 3211 South Haven Road in Knoxville.  Photo courtesy Michaela Barnett

    Glass jars aren’t just for moonshine anymore 

    KNOXVILLE The city now has a store where walk-in customers can buy refillable household products. 

    “Zero waste” is commonly heard around concerts, festivals and Earth Day events, but now it is easier to make it a daily priority.  

    KnoxFill opened a 1,600-square-foot store April 8 in South Knoxville at 3211 South Haven Road.

    The company uses reusable glass containers for purchasing common household goods such as shampoo and detergent, like the way you might buy bulk foods. Hellbender Press previously reported on this business. 

    Their products are eco-sourced. The idea is if a container is not reused, it will either be landfilled, incinerated, end up as litter, or recycled, which has its own set of issues. That’s on the back side of the waste stream. Refillable glass containers also combat pollution and waste on the front side by eliminating the petrochemicals needed to produce and ship all the plastic containers needed for consumer products in the first place.  

    Prior to opening her store, owner Michaela Barnett provided her goods and services via the “milkman” method. She would refill the bottles at home and then deliver them to her customers.  

    “The milkman system was very labor intensive; we could never have the impact and scale we now have without a brick-and-mortar store,” she said.


  • Earth Day is every day, but especially this Saturday

    Southern Appalachians NASAThis photo of the Southern Appalachians was taken from 30,000 feet. “Notice how the clouds are parallel with the ridges below them. Wind near the surface blowing up the western slopes forms waves in the atmosphere. At the crest of the wave, over the ridge tops, the air has cooled sufficiently to condense into clouds. As this air descends toward the wave trough, it becomes slightly warmer and drier, inhibiting condensation.”  Seth Adams via NASA

    Earth Day activities have cooled in Knoxville over the decades. The planet has not.

    KNOXVILLE — It’s been 52 years since the modern environmental movement was born on what is now known around the world as Earth Day.

    Now reckoned to be the world’s largest secular observance, Earth Day is the climax of Earth Week (April 16 to 22), which brings together an estimated billion people around the globe working to change human behavior and push for pro-environment economic and legislative action. This year’s theme is “Invest in the planet.”

    Events marking Earth Day in Knoxville tend to vary in size and tone from year-to-year, with 2023 providing environmentally minded residents with a number of ways to celebrate Mother Earth. 

    Perhaps the most memorable of those years was the very first one, when one of the most important voices in the burgeoning environmental movement spoke on the University of Tennessee campus.

    Jane Jacobs, who is now recognized as “the godmother of the New Urbanism movement,” gave a lecture to a crowd of nearly 200 people on the topic of “Man and His Environment” at the Alumni Memorial Hall, according to Jack Neely, who heads the Knoxville History Project.


  • Hellbent: Conservation Fisheries saves what we don’t typically see

    summer2021 jon michael mollishConservation Fisheries Executive Director Bo Baxter (second from right) leads young students in an inventory of Little River fish. The “Stream School” collaboration with Little River Watershed Association gets kids in creeks and rivers.  Michael Mollish /Tennessee Valley Authority

    ‘It’s very good for the soul.’ Bo Baxter and Conservation Fisheries focus underwater to save our Southern fishes.

    This is the latest installment of an occasional series, Hellbent, profiling citizens and organizations who work to preserve and improve the Southern Appalachian environment.

    KNOXVILLE  For more than 35 years, an obscure nonprofit headquartered here has grown into one of the most quietly successful champions of ecology and environmental restoration in the Eastern United States.

    Conservation Fisheries, which occupies a 5,000-square foot facility near the Pellissippi State University campus on Division Street, has spent nearly four decades restoring native fish populations to numerous waterways damaged years ago by misguided governmental policies. 

    In fact, the mid-20th century saw wildlife officials frequently exterminating key aquatic species to make way for game fish like trout.

    “It was bad science, but it was the best they had at the time,” said Conservation Fisheries Executive Director Bo Baxter. “A lot of the central concepts of ecology, like food webs and communities, were not developed back then.”


  • Roll up your sleeves and clean our Tennessee River waterways on April 15

    IMG 1486

    KNOXVILLE — Volunteer registration is open for the 34th Ijams River Rescue on Saturday, April 15, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A severe weather date is set for Saturday, April 22.

    Ijams Nature Center’s annual event removes tons of trash and tires from sites along the Tennessee River and its creek tributaries. Sites are typically located in Knox, Anderson, Blount and Loudon counties.

    “During this cleanup, between 500-1,000 volunteers come together to make a tangible, positive difference in their community,” Ijams Development Director Cindy Hassil said. “It’s eye-opening to participate because you really get to see what ends up in our waterways. Hopefully it makes people more aware of how they dispose of trash and recyclables, and inspires them to look for ways to reduce the amount of waste they create.”

    There are cleanup sites on land, along the shoreline (boots/waders recommended) and on the water (personal kayaks/canoes required).


  • The real Wild Ones and others are geared for a Chattanooga symposium

    The Tennessee Valley Chapter of The Wild Ones is accepting registrations for the spring workshop and symposium at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga University Center, set for March 17 and 18.

    The nature journaling workshop is Friday afternoon, March 17, and will be conducted by Jannise Ray, author of “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.”

    The symposium takes place on March 18. Speakers include:

    The Wild Ones will hold their Native Plant Sale and Expo at the First Horizon Pavilion on March 25. Ten regional native plant nurseries will participate, along with several local and regional exhibitors and vendors. Food will be available from food trucks.  

    The Wild Ones is a national organization focused on native plants and natural landscaping. The Tennessee Valley Chapter is organized in Southeast Tennessee.

    — Ray Zimmerman


  • Get a free virtual science lesson in the Smokies this Thursday

    A rundown about science efforts in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is set for March 2.

    You can learn about myriad scientific studies ongoing in the Smokies from the comfort of your own home.

    The park and Discover Life in America are presenting this virtual event from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Register for free on Zoom.

    Attendees will “learn about a wide variety of scientific topics, from natural history and weather to geology and more, from researchers currently working in the Smokies,” according to an announcement from DLIA.

    The schedule is likely to change, but a tentative schedule is available on the DLIA website.

    — Ben Pounds


  • (Quick update): Orange STEM: UT links East Tennessee students with Science, Technical, Engineering and Math studies

    327549472 642836650863409 3091744227317001155 nHigh school students from across East Tennessee got to check out the latest career offerings in fields like robotics and virtual reality at the Jan. 21 Big Orange STEM event.  JJ Stambaugh/Hellbender Press

    The TN Lunabotics, science and sustainability get together at BOSS event

    Updated March 2023 with notes from a reader:

    My name is Allison, and I am a teaching volunteer with Students For Research. I am reaching out because our class found your website very useful while researching STEM resources that can help students discover the various aspects of science, technology, engineering and math. Many of our current students are interested in learning more about how topics associated with STEM work, especially in relation to online research, either for school or for their future careers. Your website ended up being featured by our students, so we wanted to notify you and say thank you!

    As a part of the assignment, one of our students, Becky, did some research on her own time and found this informative page for more STEM using this resource. The team found it helpful as it provided guidance on how libraries can introduce children to STEM and continue to provide resources as they progress through their education. 

    I was hoping you would be able to include this resource on your website, even if it's only for a short time. I think your other visitors might find it helpful, and it also helps our group of students cite appropriate resources and stay engaged whenever outreach yields positive feedback everyone can see. Please let me know if you would be willing to add it so I can share the exciting news with Sophie and the rest of her fellow students. I appreciate your help!

    KNOXVILLE What do environmental, social and economic sustainability have in common?

    There are numerous ways to answer that question, but for those who pay close attention to education or economics it’s an accepted fact that the future belongs to societies that invest heavily in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). 

    That’s why educators at all levels are pushing students towards those subjects at every opportunity, as was evidenced Jan. 21 at Big Orange STEM Saturday (BOSS) at the University of Tennessee.

    About 150 high school students picked from communities across East Tennessee spent much of their Saturday at John C. Hodges Library, getting a first-hand taste of what awaits them should they choose to pursue careers in STEM through the UT system.


  • The electric-vehicle revolution brings environmental uncertainty at every turn

    TVApamphlet

     

    As demand for electric vehicles soars, several roadblocks have emerged

    This article was originally published by The Revelator 

    Manufacturers, governments and consumers are lining up behind electric vehicles — with sales rising 60% in 2022, and at least 17 states are considering a California-style ban on gas cars in the years ahead. Scientists say the trend is a key part of driving down the transportation sector’s carbon emissions, which could fall by as much as 80% by 2050 under aggressive policies. But while EVs are cleaner than gas cars in the long run, they still carry environmental and human-rights baggage, especially associated with mining.

    “If you want a lot of EVs, you need to get minerals out of the ground,” says Ian Lange, director of the Energy and Economics Program at the Colorado School of Mines.


  • You can help Knoxville become a wood-powered tree city

    image0This is a basic breakdown on the social benefits associated with robust tree canopy in cities, including the city center of Knoxville, shown here.  Knoxville City Government

    City kicks off ambitious project to expand the tree canopy that benefits us all

    KNOXVILLE — The people in this city sure seem to love their trees.

    There is at least one tree for every two people who live within the city limits, but officials say they want to add even more over the next 20 years. 

    How many should be planted is currently up in the air, as is the right mix of species and where they should go.

    Those are just some of the questions that will be answered in coming months as the Knoxville Urban Forest Master Plan is developed by officials from the city and the non-profit group Trees Knoxville in conjunction with several other agencies and interested citizens.


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About

  • Hellbender Press

    The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

    (ONLINE version 0.9)
    Copyright © 2020-2023 Hellbender Press | Foundation for Global Sustainability
     
    Hellbender Press
    P.O. Box 1101
    Knoxville, Tennessee
    37901-1101
    865-465-9691
    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
     
    Editor and Publisher
    Thomas Fraser
     
    Editorial Board
    Bo Baxter
    Jasen Bradley
    Chris Kane
    Wolf Naegeli
    Lauren Parker
    Amanda Womac
     

    Hellbender Press: The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia is a digital environmental news service with a focus on the Southern Appalachian bioregion. It aggregates relevant stories from across the news media space and provides original news, features and commentary.

    Espousing the “Think Globally, Act Locally” ethos of FGS, Hellbender Press promotes the conservation and study of the environment and protections for air, water, climate, natural areas, and other resources that are critical to human health and a robust, resilient economy.

    The Hellbender also champions civil and human rights, especially in matters of environmental justice, equity of access to natural resources and the right to a clean environment.

    Hellbender Press is a self-organizing project of the Foundation for Global Sustainability’s Living Sustainably Program. All donations made for Hellbender Press to FGS are tax-deductible. We offer a free environmental news and information site, but grants and charitable contributions are encouraged and needed to support our work. Much of the content is provided on a volunteer basis by individuals and organizations that share a common cause.

    Hellbender Press encourages the submission of original and relevant articles and photography for consideration to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    For more details on the history and objectives of Hellbender Press, watch the interview of Thomas Fraser in Knoxille Community Media’s “Serving Knoxville” series.


  • Our name

    The hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), a native salamander, is an indicator species. It requires clear, oxygen-rich water to respire, find its prey, and reproduce.

    The presence of hellbenders in a stream indicates good water quality and a healthy intact ecosystem.

    Hellbender Press aspires to help you discover the degrees of resilience and sustainability of your community, our bioregion and planet Earth.

    Hellbender Press informs about what is beneficial for life — here and elsewhere.

    It also points out where we must do better to rescue and restore what can still be saved.


  • Foundation for Global Sustainability

    fgs logo.art color

    FGS is a transdisciplinary educational non-profit advocacy organization. It works to restore the balance between human activities and the natural life support systems of the Earth. 

    FGS publications, special reports, events and outreach inform and educate the public about vital regional and global issues and how they interdepend. 

    FGS monitors and addresses social and environmental issues in the Upper Tennessee Valley and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. It fosters and supports conservation initiatives, including 

    — action committees that address egregious assaults, on our natural heritage for example, which require temporary assistance only

    — campaigns by other nonprofits, such as

    — groups that want to address systemic problems in a systematic fashion. Among the latter, three evolved to establish themselves as independent 501(c)(3) organization: