Tennessee Aquarium Reintroduction Biologist II Teresa Israel examines a critically endangered laurel dace before its reintroduction to the wild in March 2025. In July 2024, about 300 of these fish — considered by scientists to be among the most imperiled in North America — were rescued out of rapidly drying streams on Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga. Tennessee Aquarium
Casey Phillips is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.
CHATTANOOGA — After being saved from near-certain extinction last summer and overwintering in the expert care of biologists at the Tennessee Aquarium, more than 230 critically endangered laurel dace are finally back where they belong.
Last July, a prolonged regional drought caused many Southeast Tennessee streams to dwindle and, in some cases, dry up entirely. Atop Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga, water flow ceased at Bumbee Creek and Youngs Creek, the last sites known to support populations of laurel dace.
When conditions in these rapidly disappearing waterways reached a tipping point, the Aquarium led a series of emergency rescue operations to save as many of these red-bellied, highlighter yellow-finned minnows as possible. In coordination with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and with assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Georgia, about 300 laurel dace — the majority left on the planet — were relocated into the safety of human care at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery in Jamestown, Kentucky.
According to the most recent report from the USDA’s U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Southeast Tennessee is still experiencing moderate drought conditions. However, a slightly wetter-than-average February made it safe to return these rescued minnows to the wild.
A postman butterfly feeds on a bloom in the Tennessee Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden in Chattanooga. At any one time, the garden may host 1,000 to 1,500 butterflies representing more than 200 species. Courtesy Tennessee Aquarium
This story was originally published by The Conversation.
If the joy of seeing butterflies seems increasingly rare these days, it isn’t your imagination.
From 2000 to 2020, the number of butterflies fell by 22% across the continental United States. That’s 1 in 5 butterflies lost. The findings are from an analysis just published in the journal Science by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Powell Center Status of Butterflies of the United States Working Group, which I am involved in.
We found declines in just about every region of the continental U.S. and across almost all butterfly species.
Overall, nearly one-third of the 342 butterfly species we were able to study declined by more than half. Twenty-two species fell by more than 90 percent. Only nine actually increased in numbers.
Some species’ numbers are dropping faster than others. The West Coast lady, a fairly widespread species across the western U.S., dropped by 80 percent in 20 years. Given everything we know about its biology, it should be doing fine — it has a wide range and feeds on a variety of plants. Yet its numbers are absolutely tanking across its range.
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.
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 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.
The 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
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.
Jonathan 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
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.
A 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
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.
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.
During 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
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.
The limestone cliffs and bluffs of Ijams Nature Center are home to the Berry Cave salamander. The cave is very hard to find, is gated, and entry is forbidden to protect both the salamander and bat populations. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press
KNOXVILLE — The Southern Environmental Law Center, which championed the conservation of a salamander found only in a series of caves within the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, announced Jan. 16 that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to reconsider inclusion of the Berry Cave salamander on the Endangered Species List.
The release from SELC follows; the original story published in July 2024 continues below.
“The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that requires the agency to reconsider listing the Berry Cave salamander—a rare salamander that is only found in a handful of East Tennessee caves—as an endangered species.
The already rare salamanders are under immense pressure from sprawling development in the region, and even the largest observed populations of the Berry Cave salamander are quickly declining. Survey results indicate that a population found in Knoxville’s Meads Quarry Cave—historically one of the salamander’s relative strongholds—fell by 65 percent between 2004 and 2019.
Thursday’s agreement comes eight months after the conservation groups sued the Service, arguing that the agency violated federal law when it denied Endangered Species Act protections for the Berry Cave salamander in 2019. The surprising denial came at a time when the agency’s regional leadership had directed staff to implement a quota system that set annual targets for denying species protections—a system that may have inappropriately influenced the Berry Cave salamander decision.
The agreement requires the agency to reevaluate the Berry Cave salamander’s status and determine by August 2029 whether it should be listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
“This agreement is an important step toward securing long-overdue protections for the Berry Cave salamander and correcting a harmful mistake from the Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Liz Rasheed, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “We hope the agency will follow the science — as required by law — and give these one-of-a-kind salamanders the protections they need to have a shot at survival.”
Go ahead and hop into planning for Amphibian Week 2025, which highlights the diversity and ecological importance of amphibians while exploring ways to support their conservation.
The annual hopalong, set for May 4-10, is organized by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.
The event is highly collaborative in nature; anyone from scientists to teachers and regular citizens can celebrate amphibians during the week, which will feature different themes each day.
The 2025 Amphibian Week theme is Masters of Two Worlds. Act now to get involved, access valuable resources and collaborate.
A 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
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.
A 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
The 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
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.
A mudpuppy mugs for the camera. A hellbender survey in North Georgia uncovered these rare denizens of Southern Appalachia. Tyler Troxel/Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Thomas Floyd is a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
BLAIRSVILLE — Hellbender surveys in North Georgia turned up a welcome surprise this summer: one of the state’s few sightings of common mudpuppies.
Although these big freshwater salamanders also known as waterdogs range from New York to the Great Lakes and from southern Canada to the rivers of northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, common mudpuppies are abundant in only parts of that realm. And in Georgia, they are rare.
The mid-August capture and release of three mudpuppies near Blairsville marked only the third time that Necturus maculosus has been documented in the state. The previous sightings were near Ringgold in 1987 and McCaysville in 2010.
While mudpuppies are found alongside eastern hellbenders throughout much of the hellbender’s range, it’s unclear why mudpuppies are so elusive or simply absent in many streams in Western North Carolina and Georgia.
A Blairsville mudpuppy is seen on the right. On the left are ways to identify a common mudpuppy. Thomas Floyd/Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Since 2011, DNR surveys have recorded nearly 900 hellbenders across the Tennessee River drainage in North Georgia. But during that same time, and in what is the state's presumed distribution of mudpuppies, only three waterdogs have been seen.
A red-cockaded woodpecker in flight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last month the bird had been removed from the Endangered Species List. Martjan Lammertink/USFS
ATLANTA — Life is looking up for red-cockaded woodpeckers.
These perky, family-focused woodpeckers of mature Southeastern pinelands — they’re the nation’s only woodpecker that excavates cavities in living pines — had been federally listed as endangered for 50 years. Yet late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted them to threatened.
Their recovery from an estimated 1,470 family groups in the 1970s to about 7,800 groups today from Virginia to Texas reflects decades of work by government agencies, nonprofits and private landowners.
Georgia mirrors that outlook and effort. The number of red-cockaded woodpecker family groups here “is now well north of 1,500,” said Joe Burnam, lead Department of Natural Resources biologist for the species.
The success story ranges from military lands like Fort Stewart, where controlled burns and “recruitment” clusters of artificial nest cavities inserted in trees are helping the population grow, to southwest Georgia quail properties enrolled in Safe Harbor, part of a U.S.-first habitat conservation plan that DNR developed in 1999 for the woodpeckers and private landowners.
Burnam said the downlisting keeps federal protections in place and will not affect DNR conservation practices in the state. “We’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing … managing for the birds (and) their habitat.”
Habitat loss and degradation, a combo that landed the woodpeckers on the Endangered Species Act list, remain the leading threats. For example, Hurricane Helene wiped out over 40 percent of the nest cavity trees at Moody Forest Wildlife Management Area and Natural Area near Baxley.
But new cavity inserts have already been chainsawed into pines, and others will be added, Burnam said.
Wild hogs root in a sensitive area in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. National Park Service
Daniel Banks is a public information officer at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
ONEIDA — Deer hunting season opened in Kentucky on Sept. 7 and opens in Tennessee on Sept. 28. During these big game seasons, wild hogs may be harvested by licensed hunters with the appropriate weapon that is legal for that specific season.
There is also an extended hog hunting season that lasts from the end of the deer season until the end of February with a weapon that is approved by that state for harvesting big game.
The wild hog is an invasive exotic species that has a significant negative impact on native species and do a great deal of damage to farmlands and residential areas. The damage they cause threatens park resources, including federally listed plants. (Their rooting also damages salamander and other amphibian habitat).
(Check out this video of natural pest control: A bear eating a hog in Great Smoky Mountains National Park).
A ginseng digger works a hollow somewhere in the Appalachians. Traditional ‘sangers’ generally follow centuries-old protocols for sustainable harvest of the plant and pose much less of a threat to ginseng than habitat destruction and extractive industry. Photos from American Folklife Collection/Library of Congress
This article was originally published by The Conversation. Justine Law is an associate professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies at Sonoma State University.
KNOXVILLE — Across Appalachia, September marks the start of ginseng season, when thousands of people roam the hills searching for hard-to-reach patches of this highly prized plant.
Many people know ginseng as an ingredient in vitamin supplements or herbal tea. That ginseng is grown commercially on farms in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. In contrast, wild American ginseng is an understory plant that can live for decades in the forests of the Appalachians. The plant’s taproot grows throughout its life and sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, primarily to East Asian customers who consume it for health reasons.
Because it’s such a valuable medicinal plant, harvesting ginseng has helped families in mountainous regions of states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio weather economic ups and downs since the late 1700s.
Tennessee trillium is among the beneficiaries of a partnership between the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the land conservancy TennGreen that protected the rare flower’s limited habitat in Hamblen County, Tenn. Photo illustration courtesy of TennGreen
MORRISTOWN — In May 2023, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) alerted TennGreen Land Conservancy that a 60-acre swath of land nestled in the forests of Hamblen County known as Union Grove was for sale in East Tennessee. Most interestingly: The property contains some of the only known populations of a native trillium that were described for the first time only 20 years ago.
Union Grove’s owner first alerted University of Tennessee botanists and researchers to the unusual trillium in hopes of safeguarding both the wildflowers and the forests they live within. The botanists realized the trillium was nothing they nor other botanists had encountered and described it as “new to science” in 2013. To date, the Tennessee trillium (Trillium tennesseense) has only been found in the Bays Mountain formation areas in Hamblen and Hawkins counties.
Until this successful collaboration, Trillium tennesseense existed only in private, unprotected areas such as the project landowner’s property. The landowner was moving out of Tennessee, and wished to sell their property to an organization that would value it and seek to protect its incredible habitat. TennGreen Land Conservancy stepped in to quickly acquire the property.
TennGreen then transferred the property to TDEC in June 2024.
Wanda 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
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.
A tagged monarch feeds on nectar in the Great Smokies before joining the migration to Mexico for the winter.
Tennessee Aquarium VP and Chief Conservation and Education Officer Dr. Anna George, right, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Conservation Delivery Coordinator Geoff Call collect critically endangered laurel dace from a stream ravaged by a prolonged drought on the Cumberland Plateau. The rescue successfully relocated 105 adults into human care at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute’s headquarters near downtown Chattanooga. Photos by Doug Strickland/Tennessee Aquarium
Casey Phillips is a writer for the Tennessee Aquarium.
CHATTANOOGA — Few things trigger louder or more distressing alarm bells among freshwater biologists than watching a waterway dry up during a severe, prolonged drought. That’s especially true when the disappearing stream is home to one of America’s most imperiled fish.
In late July, reports of dramatically withered streams atop Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga spurred an emergency rescue operation to prevent the extinction of the federally endangered laurel dace, which scientists consider to be among the 10 most at-risk fish in North America.
This effort was carried out by representatives from the Tennessee Aquarium, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of Georgia’s River Basin Center in coordination with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. In all, 105 adult laurel dace were removed from dangerously dry streams and successfully relocated to the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI) near downtown Chattanooga.
All but one of the collected fish survived the relocation and are now thriving in temporary human care, where they will remain until conditions in their few native streams are sufficiently improved for them to be returned safely.
This laurel dace (Chrosomus saylori) was among dozens other collected from a stream on Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga to save the fish from drought. In the last 12 years, this minnow’s range has drastically dwindled to just two streams, and scientists consider it one of North America’s 10 most imperiled fish species.
