After 17-year wait, millions of cicadas are coming

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at the close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." — Dylan Thomas

Imagine living 99.99 percent of your life underground largely unseen and then emerging above the earth for one last grand gesture of panache and reproduction and death.

This year it’s time for the 17-year cicada Brood X to pop up. The last time they appeared in Knox County was 2004. Periodical cicadas are related to the more frequently seen and heard Dog Day cicadas or harvestflies that appear every July.

Periodical cicadas remain subterranean for years. Here in the Tennessee Valley, we actually have two populations that overlap. Brood X, known as “the big brood” that will be seen and heard this summer, emerges every 17 years. Brood XIX climbs from the ground every 13 years, and is not scheduled to reappear in the valley until 2024.

Annual cicadas look like large green flies. Periodical cicadas are more colorful: bluish with red eyes and gold wings. Both groups are in the insect order Hemiptera and spend their larval stage underground tapping into tree roots for nourishment.

At this moment, this year’s brood is inching its way upward. The cicadas lie in wait below the surface until the right conditions — day length and temperature — signal it’s time to move out. If you happen to be in an area where the cicadas are, you’ll see hundreds, maybe thousands, all over the place. It’s truly one of nature’s most spectacular occurrences.

They usually begin to climb from the ground at dusk in early May and quickly scurry to a nearby tall object that they climb and shed their last larval skin. After their wings dry, the new adults leave behind the husk of their former life and fly away. For the next few weeks, the males buzz to attract the females. After they mate, the females lay eggs in tender branches. All the adults die in a few weeks; when the eggs hatch the tiny larva crawl to the ground to disappear for another 17 years.

Go check out the ancient oaks in Maryville’s new park

Jarvis Park is 1.5 miles southeast of downtown off South Court Street and includes nearly 10 acres owned by Maryville doctor Craig Jarvis that were protected under a conservation easement via Foothills Land Conservancy in 2018 and transferred to the city a year later.

Park highlights include two 250-year-old oak trees, a mile of walking trails and a creek near Duncan Spring. 

An additional 37 acres, consisting of two lots adjacent to the park, will be transferred for preservation to the city in the future, per current expansion plans, according to a conservancy digital newsletter. That acreage would adjoin the park.

“Jarvis Park ... is one of the few remaining intact woodlands in the area,” according to the conservancy, which added it was “bordered by open farm fields, residential development, and a rock quarry operation.” 

The park is one of 20 other such easements held by the conservancy that total more than 4,000 acres in the immediate Blount County area.

Users can charge devices and access the Internet through two solar-powered charging tables just installed at the Blount County Public Library as part of a larger SkyFi Project to bring access to technology to the community’s disenfranchised.   Courtesy EnerFusion

The Blount County Library, one of Maryville’s busiest spots, was closed to the public from mid-April to the beginning of July 2020, thanks to the pandemic. Even though the library was closed, people pulled their vehicles into the parking lot to access the library’s high-speed Wi-Fi, according to library director K.C. Williams. Some people even got out of their cars and dragged lawn chairs to the sidewalk in front of the building to access the rare public Wi-Fi. 

“We had over 11,000 hits on our Wi-Fi,” while the library was closed, Williams said. It wasn’t the first time that she and her staff realized the vital role they were playing in helping their neighbors access digital resources.

“Our county has 20 percent of the population that’s disenfranchised economically or geographically,” Williams said. “The library is the playing field equalizer.”

Searching for ways to provide more access to the community, she looked at the solar-powered charging picnic tables Maryville College installed on campus a few years ago. The tables, made of recycled plastic, use solar panels to generate and store solar electricity. Manufactured by EnerFusion, the tables cost $12,500 each. The Blount County Friends of the Library secured a grant from the Arconic Foundation for $25,000 to purchase two of them.

The two were installed at the rear of the library and dedicated at a ribbon-cutting Feb. 25. Users will be able to charge devices and access the library’s Wi-Fi any time of the day. The ribbon-cutting also kicked off the larger SkyFi Project, a plan to bring charging tables to accessible locations throughout the community. The Maryville Rotary Club is within $3,000 of meeting its goal to purchase two more tables, which it will install at the Alcoa Duck Pond. Williams said those involved in the project are looking for more locations in Blount County where the tables can be set up with secure Wi-Fi.

“What’s making this work is that it’s a partnership,” Williams said. The project partners are the three library funding bodies (Blount County and the cities of Maryville and Alcoa); the Arconic Foundation (the philanthropical wing of a large community employer); Rotary Club of Maryville; and Blount County Friends of the Library.

Maryville City Councilwoman Sarah Herron was at the ribbon-cutting to celebrate the SkyFi Project.

“Libraries are an important part of something I care deeply about, which is digital equity,” Herron said. She is a digital media specialist and communications professional, and made digital equity and digital literacy part of her candidate platform when she ran for council in 2020. She said that with so many people working remotely, attending virtual classrooms, and using telehealth services, we increasingly require technology, bandwidth, and access to people who can help us navigate tasks online.

“Not everyone has those kinds of resources,” Herron said. She commended director Williams and her staff for “working so hard to close that digital divide,” especially during the pandemic.

Herron predicts that many of the recent changes in how we use technology will persist.  

“Even as we try to get back to ‘normal,’ we’ll continue to rely on more technology,” she said. “There is such a need for people to come together to function in a digital world.”

Video documents success of ‘Smokies Hikes for Healing’ endeavor

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash was as shaken as the rest of us this past spring and summer when a national reckoning of racism erupted across the country following the homicide of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

Also like many of us, Cash, who is Black, wondered what he could do to help heal 400-year-old wounds.

He determined we needed to take a walk in the woods and talk about things.

“As an African American man and son of a police officer, I found myself overwhelmed with the challenges we faced in 2020 and the endless news cycle that focused on racial unrest,” Cash said in a press release distributed Feb. 26. 

“My medicine for dealing with this stress was a walk in the woods, and I felt called to share that experience with others. Following a summer hike in the park, I brought together our team to create an opportunity for people to come together for sharing, understanding, and healing.” 

Sixty people directly participated in Cash’s Smokies Hikes for Healing program, Smokies Hikes for Healing, which ran from August to December in the national park. Hundreds of people visited an accompanying website to learn more or acquire information on how to lead their own such hikes.

Cash, who credited the park team who helped him organize the innovative project, correctly determined there was no more appropriate place to honestly discuss racism and the importance of diversity than a hike in one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet.

David Lamfrom, Stephanie Kyriazis and Marisol Jiménez, facilitated the hikes and created a “brave space for open conversations about diversity and racism,” according to the park release, which also announced the availability of the Smokies Hikes for Healing video produced by Great Smoky Mountains Association. 

Friends of the Smokies and New Belgium Brewing Company also contributed financial support to the effort.