Citizen volunteers make an important contribution to the science mission of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, helping to collect, identify, and inventory artifacts as well as the thousands of species that inhabit the Park’s half-million acres.

Citizen Science in the Smokies
The citizens who volunteer to help the Park gather and catalogue information
are advancing science in the Smokies.

BY DORIS GOVE

After arriving in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) in summer of 2004, Superintendent Dale Ditmanson says that one of the first things he noticed was how much people in this region love their Park and are committed to conserving and studying it.

A growing number of people are demonstrating their affection for the Park by volunteering as citizen scientists, and Park programs recruit and train volunteers to provide significant help to Park and university scientists. Elementary, high school, and college students gather data and cover more area in the Park than scientists have time to visit. Careful supervision and programming ensure that the data these citizen scientists collect is accurate and valuable.

VALUABLE DATA COLLECTION
“Our educational programs had always been experiential, but our citizen science program goes beyond that by having an outcome in terms of real data collection,” says Michelle Prysby, citizen science director for Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. The programs also educate the public about the value of GSMNP resources and increase public understanding and appreciation for the Park.

“We involve people of all ages in citizen science projects,” says Prysby. “Students with school groups help with projects that tie into their lessons. For example, a lesson on stream ecology might include some data collection for our salamander project, or a ‘Little Creatures’ lesson might include identifying moths for our moth inventory and monitoring study.”

Groups of student volunteers adopt streams and monitor them year-round for salamander populations. High School Field Ecology Adventure Camps impart lessons on the Smokies’ natural environment and the methods scientists use to collect specimens and study the Park’s plants, animals, and geology. And this past year, the Fall Naturalist Programs helped the All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) project by collecting and identifying fungi in the Tremont area. (See “Tabulating Life” on page 14 for information on the ATBI project.)

BIRDS AND HELLBENDERS
Park educational projects also include MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship), a national program launched by the Institute for Bird Populations in 1989 to assess and monitor the vital rates and population dynamics of over 120 species of North American land birds. At two stations in the Park, researchers, students, and volunteers capture birds in mist nets and collect data on them.

Prysby insists that the Park staff enjoys the synergy that results when visiting scientists use students to help them with their work. Last summer, for instance, the Park hosted a research team from Lee University that studies Eastern Hellbenders, the largest salamander species in North America. Ultimately, the Lee University researchers worked closely with students attending summer camp in the Park.

GARDENS AS MONITORING SITES
The Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at Purchase Knob coordinates similar citizen science programs with its education mission. Susan Sachs, education coordinator for the center, has planted an ozone-monitoring garden with Cut-leaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), Crownbeard (Verbesina occidentalis), and Tall Milkweed (Asclepias exaltata).

Damage to the leaves of these plants can be correlated with ozone concentrations monitored in the Park. Sachs trains teachers and students to identify and record the leaf damage and then sends the kids back to their school gardens with cuttings from the plants.

“Right now there are 36 schools throughout Tennessee and North Carolina that are growing ozonemonitoring gardens on their school grounds,” says Sachs.

Data from the school gardens and from the Purchase Knob site are collected on an ozone Web site http://www.handsontheland.org/monitoring/projects/ ozone/ozone_bio_search.cfm so the students can see the results and use them in class

A Sevier County student examines a monarch butterfly as part of a citizen sciene project that involves students in monitoring and tagging the butterfles as they migrate through Cades Cove.

projects. Another garden at the Cradle of Forestry in the Pisgah National Forest http://www.cradleofforestry/cradle_of_forestry /educators_students.asp adds further comparisons. Results so far show that ozone damage occurs mostly at the higher

elevations such as Purchase Knob (5,000 feet) and Cradle of Forestry (3,500 feet). In another project taking place in the laboratory building at Purchase Knob, students sort fruit flies, beetles, wasps, moths, and butterflies. These specimens are separated into biological orders and sent to the ATBI scientists studying each group.

LICHENS, SNAILS, SPIDERS
Other students collect data on the area of lichen coverage on trees at the Purchase Knob site. This is a long-term monitoring project, and students can compare their observations with those logged by earlier student groups and try to detect trends or changes. As part of other special projects adopted by area schools, Waynesville Middle School students collect and identify snails while monitoring soil health, Tuscola High School students monitor water quality and salamander populations, and Cherokee High School classes assist with a spider inventory (to date, the students have collected 18 species of spiders that are new site records).

The Asheville Mushroom Club, with the help of mycologists from Appalachian State University and Eastern Illinois University, conducts regular fungi monitoring around Purchase Knob. The club works with 52 easily recognizable species, from Jack-o-Lantern to Destroying Angel, and is preparing a booklet with identification and mapping. Meanwhile, adult and family volunteers work directly with ATBI by sorting collections, adopting collection plots, participating in the ATBI blitzes and quests, providing housing or office help, raising funds, and promoting the project. Discover Life in America, the nonprofit organization that manages the ATBI project, conducts several training programs every year so that more people will get involved and collect useful scientific data. For more information, visit Great Smoky Mountains Web site http://www.nps.gov/grsm/gsmsite/home/. 

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The Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, is one of many historic structures restored by the Park’s Historic Preservation Crew. The Mt. Cammerer project, completed in 1995, provided a new roof, windows, and wrap-around catwalk.

Preserving the Past
Great Smoky Mountains National Park houses one of the
largest collections of historic buildings of any Park in the country.

BY KRIS CHRISTEN

Over the centuries, different groups of people from the Cherokee Indians to Scotch- Irish and English settlers have made their homes in the area encompassed by Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). And each of the 90-plus nationally recognized historic structures still marking that existence offers a glimpse into those past lives, particularly those of early Southern Appalachian farming families.

The largest concentration of these structures is located in the 6,800-acre valley making up Cades Cove and includes a collection of log cabins, barns, churches, grist mills, and various outbuildings, all of which are open for viewing and many for entering, says Bob Shubert, head of the GSMNP preservation crew. Other heavy concentrations are located along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and behind the Oconaluftee visitor center, with the rest scattered throughout the Park. Most of the structures are roughly 100 years old—some much older.

Recognizing that such historic places can teach us and our descendants about who we are and where we came from, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966. Under this law, the Park Service is responsible for preserving and protecting historic and archeological sites, structures, and artifacts of national significance associated with major themes of American history. The law also requires the Park Service to develop educational programs that provide the public with information about these places.

“Just as we’re mandated to preserve and protect the Park’s plants and wildlife, we’re also required to preserve and protect its cultural and historical resources,” explains Kent Cave, the GSMNP’s interpretive media branch chief.

IN-KIND REPLACEMENTS
The Park Service executes that mission by using traditional techniques, tools, and materials as much as possible, which the law also stipulates. Specially trained in the craft of historical preservation, Park Service staff use a wide variety of antique tools and more-modern replicas of the old tools, Shubert notes. Some of the modern tools, such as chisels, broad axes, and hatchets, are in the same shape and form as the old tools but are made of newer, sturdier materials.

Of course, going back “in kind” sometimes presents challenges and ultimately isn’t always possible, points out David Chapman, the Park’s historian. For example, many of the historic cabins were built out of chestnut logs, which no longer exist due to the blight that wiped them out by the mid-1900s.

“Secretary of Interior standards call for replacement in kind if you replace an architectural feature, but since chestnuts no longer exist, we typically use chestnut oaks instead,” Chapman explains. “It’s not technically a replacement in kind, but through the compliance process, historic preservation offices in Tennessee and North Carolina have determined that, although replacement of chestnut with chestnut oak does have an effect, it’s not adverse.”

Annual building inspections help Shubert’s small crew of four prioritize what needs the most attention, and, generally, they undertake between four and five major projects a year. This work typically involves tasks that range from replacing broken windows and rotted porch floors to restorations where a structure is completely rebuilt as was done earlier this past year with the wooden flume carrying water to Mingus Mill at Oconaluftee.

One of the more challenging projects they’ve taken on to date, according to Shubert, involved restoring the Mount Cammerer fire tower, which was built out of stone and wood by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The structure is situated a quarter mile off the Appalachian Trail in the northern end of the Park, and the five-mile climb to its open perch is steep. Consequently, the Park Service had to contract a helicopter to fly in the materials for the job, and Shubert and his crew were camped out up there for several weeks as they gave the tower its facelift, including a new roof, flooring, windows, and wrap-around catwalk.

Another major project centered around the Cook Cabin in the Little Cataloochee Valley, the remains of which were torn down due to serious disrepair and stored in a barn, Shubert notes. “We went in and rebuilt it from scratch, using part of the old structure, on its original site,” he adds.

Most, but not all, of the structures are situated on their original sites, Shubert says. And “that’s been a criticism of some purists who believe they all should have remained in their original location,” he says. For instance, many of the buildings that make up the Becky Cable homestead and grist mill in Cades Cove, as well as the farmstead at Oconaluftee, were moved there some years ago to simulate a typical farm.

These were saved in large measure by the Park’s landscape architect, Charlie Grossman, during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. If not for “Junkman” Charlie’s efforts to move them, many of these buildings might have been neglected in their more remote original locations.

“I’m not sure there were that many outbuildings originally, but it gave tourists the opportunity to see all those buildings in one place, and now they’ve kind of grown in there to the point where it wouldn’t look natural anymore if one of the buildings were removed,” Shubert says.

At the time, the Park Service staff was taking its cue from outdoor museums in Europe, Shubert explains, but they wouldn’t follow the same process today. Instead, a log house, known as the Alex Cole cabin, which the Park Service moved to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail in the early 1980s, was erected on an old homesite to replace the cabin that had originally stood there.

A work in progress: The Historic Preservation Crew erects the walls of the restored Cook cabin in the Little Cataloochee Valley. The original cabin’s remains had been dismantled and stored in a barn.

The fully restored Cook cabin, completed in the summer of 1999 and situated on its original site, incorporates new as well as original timbers.

“We’re not sure what happened to the original cabin, whether it burned down or what, but we had good documentation of what was there,” Shubert says. And the one that replaced it was similar to the original and was moved from the Sugarlands area where it had been located off the beaten path and out of sight for most visitors.

TELLING THE WHOLE STORY
Equally important to the historic preservation process is using these structures to educate Park visitors by bringing stories to life about the people who lived in them. “Just showing these old log structures gives visitors somewhat of a false impression, because what’s there isn’t a true representation of life as it really was,” Cave points out. “We’re constantly trying to address that misperception via other means of interpretation—through literature, the publications we have, the interpretive talks and walks that our rangers conduct in the campgrounds, and even the hayrides through Cades Cove.”

At the time GSMNP was established back in the 1930s, many more structures existed in the Park, but their value wasn’t readily apparent, he explains. Consequently, only some of the oldest looking structures, like the John Oliver cabin in Cades Cove representing the pioneer frontier period, were preserved, and the more modern ones were removed.

“If you think about it, you can understand what happened,” Cave reasons. Back then, a two-story, Victorianstyle home built in 1900 would likely have had the same value to the people establishing the Park as a 1960s brick rancher would for us today. Nevertheless, “we would have liked to have had a few more of them to be able to show—from the earliest inhabitants, including the Native Americans, to the present day—how people lived and how things changed in these mountains,” Cave says.

What has been preserved instead is a type of pioneer primitivism, and so “we have to place this great collection of log cabins in context with the rest of our interpretive program to properly showcase them for the visitor,” Cave says. “What the visitor doesn’t see is the rest of the story. We have to fill in the gaps with our programs and publications.”

IMPORTANT FRIENDS
With tight federal budgets, the biggest challenge the Park Service faces in its historical preservation efforts, however, is “coming up with enough funding to adequately carry out our stewardship responsibilities,” Chapman says. And help from outside groups such as Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Great Smoky Mountains Association has been and remains key to this endeavor.

Fortunately, historic preservation is an issue that resonates with a lot of folks, making it easier to raise funds for these types of projects than others, says Jim Hart, executive director of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “I like to get projects like this; we all do,” he says, “because it gives us something specific and tangible that people can relate to that sort of ties them to the history of an area.”

For more information, contact Bob Shubert, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, call 865-436-1289, or email bob_shubert@nps.gov.

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Students from the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont’s Field Ecology Adventure Camp assist the UT Archaeology Field School in a dig at the John Oliver house in Cades Cove.

Archaeology Field School
Makes Debut
The soils surrounding the old homesteads in Cades Cove and other areas of the Park contain relics that can tell us much about how the occupants lived and what they possessed.

BY KRIS CHRISTEN

Asmall group of University of Tennessee (UT) students went to work last summer looking for significant archaeological deposits in and around historical log homes nestled in Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). What they found will help inform the Park Service’s management decisions on some of its cultural resources.

These students—four undergraduates and two graduates— were part of a five-week pilot program designed to train them in conducting public archaeology or cultural resource management, which is what most archaeology entails these days. In fact, any project the Park Service undertakes, be it putting in a new parking lot or setting a new fence line, “requires that archaeology is taken into account,” says Erik Kreusch, a Park Service archaeologist.

Too often though, universities introduce students to the research-oriented aspects of archaeology and anthropology, leaving them “poorly prepared to join the nonacademic job force in terms of the practical techniques that they’ll typically be asked to perform on a regular basis,” notes Boyce Driskell, a research professor and director of UT’s archaeological research laboratory.

The Smoky Mountain Archaeological Field School is seeking to change that, offering benefits to all involved, with the students gaining real on-the-job training and the Park Service getting some sorely needed help in exchange.

DIGGING FOR HISTORY
For starters, the students in this first field school were asked to search the areas around the John Oliver and Tipton-Oliver homesteads for important archaeological deposits.

“They were looking for intact archaeological deposits left by the previous inhabitants that could be used to develop better interpretations of the site areas and better management of the structures’ historical fabric and the grounds surrounding them,” Kreusch explains.

In the process, the students first researched photo archives and other documentary evidence to determine what had existed there before. They then went out and surveyed those areas, laying out a grid, digging a series of shovel tests to document the subsurface, and then excavating for historic and prehistoric artifacts at each of the grid points.

What they found were some whiteware ceramic pieces, glass, nails, and a few copperheads, Kreusch notes. But for the most part, the bulk of what had been there was pretty much gone, eroded away through visitor foot traffic and with subsequent heavy rains carrying away any exposed fragments. This was also the case around the John Oliver cabin where trails have virtually destroyed at least a foot of the material that was originally there. “Visitors have just been loving this area to death,” Kreusch says.

These findings will be used in the Park Service’s development of an alternative transportation plan for Cades Cove to relieve traffic congestion. The idea is that the students’ recommendations, which will be based on what they found or didn’t find, “will help us to develop transportation alternatives that take care of historical resources and the traffic problems,” Kreusch explains.

“We have a lot of conflicting issues, and this gives students a chance to see the whole process, do a wide variety of different types of archaeology, and learn why the Park Service does archaeology,” he says. Some of these issues concern visitation numbers, while others relate to how best to educate the public and direct visitors to cultural resources while teaching them to respect and protect them.

The Tipton-Oliver home place offers a good example of some of these conflicts, Kreusch says. Currently, a parking lot sits right in the middle of a historical area, creating visitor-use problems with people crossing the road in front of traffic, not to mention parking in a historical landscape. “We’re proposing to move that parking area,” he says. The students were asked to survey both within the homeplace and the area being proposed for the new parking lot to determine whether this development would adversely affect archaeological resources.

Sifting history: A student from the Field cology Adventure Camp assists UT students in collecting and identifying rtifacts on the site of the John Oliver house in Cades Cove.

GRAVESITES AND BURIAL GROUNDS
Another important part of public archaeology has to do with the treatment of human remains and the need to approach them with sensitivity to the interests, concerns, and feelings of descendant populations, Driskell points out. In other words, “what do you do when human remains are in the way of development?” he asks, noting that descendant communities, which include American Indian groups, have preferences as to how remains in marked cemeteries and unmarked graves should be treated.

Consequently, the new field school also conducted a workshop on mortuary archaeology, with representatives from the Eastern Band of Cherokee participating. The Eastern Band is a partner of the field school, and the Cherokee Preservation Foundation provided the field school’s start-up funding, Driskell says.

“We’re trying to teach students that descendant communities and views should be included in discussions over how to treat archaeological materials and final resolutions between development and preservation,” Driskell says. Overall, the goal “is to really professionalize these students and train participants to do the types of projects they’re most likely to encounter once they’re out of school.”

The field school will be expanded to eight weeks next summer, with students receiving course credit for their work.

HISTORY’S GUIDE
This extra help comes none too soon, Kreusch says, because “most of what we do now is reactive and project driven due to the lack of funding and manpower.” As a result, Park Service staff members are unable to adhere to other mandates requiring them to identify and protect archaeological resources. “This is one way we’re hoping the Park can benefit from the field school because students tend to do proactive things, basing their theses or dissertations on the research they’re doing,” Kreusch says.

Little work, for example, has been done on the historical homesites that are no longer standing. “We’ve probably looked at only 10 sites out of the more than 1,400 that we know about that exist on the Tennessee side of the Park alone,” Kreusch says. Many of these date back to the 1930s when the Park Service acquired the land. The prehistoric record is even cloudier.

One open question is how extractive industries like lumber and mining affected the lives of the people in the Smokies. Additionally, what kinds of changes did railroad transportation or the Civil War bring? What were the different human cultures living in the areas encompassed by GSMNP?

Many of the artifacts in the Park’s possession are historical and were donated by the people whose land was either donated to the Park or bought by the Park Service when GSMNP was established. More than 300,000 artifacts are catalogued in the collection. They include arrowheads, Cherokee pottery, textiles, looms, blacksmithing and woodworking tools, hunting and trapping paraphernalia, and numerous other historical household items. Some of these artifacts could offer clues on how to better manage the land and provide researchers with tangible indicators of what life was like in the Smokies.

“We haven’t identified all sites where people lived in the Park or all of the resources they exploited,” Kreusch points out. “Archaeology could answer any number of interesting ecological questions such as, what was the environment like in the Smokies, how did it change, and how did people adapt to that change?” These questions resonate even today, he adds, speculating on how we will adapt to the current air pollution and how that is affecting the environment. Answers to questions like these “might also be able to teach us how to direct our landmanagement efforts,” he says. “When we say, for example, that we want to bring back the forest, what time period do we pick?”

There’s also a lot to be learned from other artifacts, such as the remnants of John Oliver’s trash, that aren’t written about in the historical record. “This tells us something about the material culture at that time,” Kreusch notes. “We might have this backwoods impression of these people, but in reality, they might have had a lot more things than we’ve always imagined they did. Some of the fancier glassware and ceramics found suggest that these people were as sophisticated as everyone else at the time and that they were possibly just acting out the hillbilly roles that tourists wanted to see.”

How to correctly interpret the past and how to tell visitors about it are issues the Park Service constantly struggles with. “The hope is that archaeology can bring more life through interpretation into the historical structures still standing and into the life of the Cove,” Kreusch says. And indeed, that was the original vision behind keeping these structures in the first place—to have people living in them and showing visitors what they did on a daily basis.

For more information, contact Erik Kreusch, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, call 865-430-0339, or e-mail erik_s_kreusch@nps.gov.

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Yarn spinning and other mountain crafts are part of the Smokies' historical and cultural fabric. To preserve the past, the Park Service has recorded the stories of those who lived and worked in the area that is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Echoes of Past Lives
More than 70 years of recorded oral histories tell the story of the Smokies through the words of those who lived, worked, and died there.

BY KRIS CHRISTEN

Want to find out more about the natural home remedies that mountain folk of Southern Appalachia used to turn to when they were sick? Or maybe you wonder what they cooked or even what kinds of burial customs they practiced.

These traditions and many more are preserved on some 300 oral history tapes that the Park Service, historians, and anthropologists have collected over 70 years since Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) took shape. The recollections highlight a mixture of personal stories, folktales, rituals, music, and observations on how things were done and what life was like before the area became a national Park.

The goal was simply to preserve this information before it vanished altogether, says David Chapman, the Park historian.

Because the material is currently preserved on cassette tapes, which don’t have a very long shelf life, the Park Service is working to digitize the data onto compact discs and DVDs, which provide for longer-term storage, Chapman explains. Ultimately, the Park Service hopes to transfer most of the information onto the Web to provide access to as many people as possible.

People use these oral histories in any number of ways, but users can be broken down into three main groups, according to Chapman. First, there are the historians and researchers who study and write about life in Southern Appalachia. Then there are the descendants of former Park residents who want to learn more about their ancestors and heritage. And finally, Park Service personnel use the information captured on the tapes in developing interpretive programs.

“We can learn things such as what the land was like back then, because it has changed significantly over the last 70 years,” says Erik Kreusch, a Park Service archaeologist.

“Oral histories provide a wealth of information on the daily lives of ordinary people, who usually don’t make the front page news or serve as the subjects of historical documentaries,” Kreusch says.

Park staff continue to collect oral histories from people with ties to GSMNP for use in development plans for areas that may be historically significant. In developing an alternative transportation plan for Cades Cove, for example, these more-contemporary studies ask participants how they envision the Cove and what places are important to them.

“We want to develop alternatives with a sensitivity to those resources that are significant to the descendants of people who once lived in the Park, who have family members buried in the Park, or who attend church homecoming services in the Park,” Kreusch explains. And these questions can help Park planners better determine how certain actions might affect cultural resources.

“Truthfully, I don’t think we’ll ever stop collecting oral histories,” Chapman adds, noting that a whole new generation of people has now grown up outside the Park. They have valuable things to say about their families’ involvement in the first decades of the Park and can also offer insight into present-day thoughts about the Park. So, too, can many early Park employees who have retired and still live in the area.

For more information, contact David Chapman, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, or call 865- 436-1249. 

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Students from the Field Ecology Adventure Camp identify moths for the All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory.

Tabulating Life:
The ATBI Search Goes On

The All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory continues to discover new species
resident in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

BY DORIS GOVE

In December 2004, Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s (GSMNP) All-Taxa1 Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) hosted its 8th Annual Meeting in Gatlinburg. In so doing, it celebrated nearly a decade of biological research in the Smokies during which scientists and volunteers have discovered 543 species new to science and have found 3,358 species new to the Park.

An ATBI is an intensive effort to identify all species that exist within a given area—in this case, the half-million acres of GSMNP, one of the most biologically rich and diverse areas in the world. The Smokies’ ATBI was conceived in 1997, in part as a proto-type for other of the nation’s reserves.

The ATBI is managed by a non-profit organization, Discover Life in America (DLIA), and is supported by Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Great Smoky Mountains Association, many universities, the National Science Foundation, the Park, individual donations, and numerous grants. A board and small staff direct DLIA operations. Researchers send in proposals, and DLIA provides grants, research support, and housing, when available, for those visiting the Park.

VOLUNTEERS
From the beginning, the Smokies’ ATBI has sought to be inclusive, building bridges among scientists in various specialized fields and embracing the public by involving everyone from elementary school kids to retirees in the program.

Indeed, education is an important part of the ATBI mission, and K-12 and college students are involved in many facets of the collection and inventory process. Some graduate students receive support to conduct taxonomic studies, and retired entomologists (insect specialists) help educate other participants and contribute their skills to the program. Students and volunteers gain a greater understanding of the Park’s environment and ecology, and the ATBI project benefits from the volunteer labor they provide.

One of the challenges of organizing volunteers involves matching the right group with the right scope of work. To that end, ATBI projects and activities are widely publicized, and volunteers are trained to participate in age- and skillappropriate tasks.

“We have eight years of research under our belts,” says Jeanie Hilten, DLIA administrative officer. “We’ve developed partnerships and had many revelations about how to run this project.”

TEAM BUILDING
An important time for exchange of ideas and findings takes place at the ATBI annual conference. Researchers and educators offer short presentations on specific topics, including creatures they’ve found, their ecological relationships, distributions, and other new-found knowledge. The ATBI Quarterly, an eight-page newsletter edited by Ruthanne Mitchell, performs a similar function. (The newsletter is archived at: http://www.dlia.org/atbi/press/quarterly.shtml)

K-12 students help collect and inventory specimens for the All-Taxa Biodiversity inventory.

The Park issues about 100 permits per year to ATBI researchers, allowing them to collect samples for analysis. Organisms such as insects, soil animals, slime molds, and plants typically are collected and preserved. Others, such as salamanders and birds, are caught, studied, inventoried, and released. In some cases, federal protection laws make collection a bit more challenging. In one instance, a researcher wanted to study the kinds of fleas or mites living in the fur of the northern flying squirrel, a federally protected and endangered species. Because of the animals’ protected status, the researcher collaborated with a National Park Service wildlife biologist, who actually caught the squirrels. From there, volunteers literally used fine-toothed combs to collect the parasites and place them into specimen bags to be sent off for identification.

interest and attract volunteers, DLIA has fostered descriptive new terms for its collecting events. To date, for instance, organized events have included “Beetle Blitzes,” “Lepidoptera Quests,” a “Snail Search,” a “Bat Blitz,” a “High Country Quest,” a “Leaf Litter Blitz,” and a “Myco Blitz.” These focused searches are organized by a team of ATBI scientists, Park and DLIA staff, volunteers, and educators.

TWIN COLLECTION STRATEGIES
The ATBI uses two parallel, complementary approaches to sampling. The “traditional” approach utilizes the knowledge and experience of taxonomic specialists who visit the Park and collect specific organisms within their disciplines in any location they choose. Included here are “bioblitzes” or forays, which bring together large numbers of specialists and volunteers of all ages for short and intensive efforts to collect large numbers of the target taxa.

The “structured” approach is based on the use of selected, standardized, bulk sampling devices (traps) in an array of 2.5-acre (1-hectare) plots. The plots are distributed across the Smokies’ landscape using a Geographic Information System analysis of physical, biotic, and historic land-use parameters to ensure as complete and objective coverage as possible. The samples from the plots are sorted to various taxonomic levels before being sent to authorities for identification.

The structured approach allows statistical comparisons among plots, traps, communities, topographies, disturbance histories, and other factors, such as the effects of changing seasons, that are not possible with the traditional approach. The drawback to this approach is that not all groups of organisms are reliably sampled by using Malaise traps, pitfall traps, or other passive samplers.

For many taxa, the ATBI has established Taxonomic Working Groups (TWIGs), and experts for each TWIG may design procedures for collection and investigation. These procedures are many and varied, depending, of course, on the group being studied. To survey moths, for instance, researchers shine a black light on a sheet at night and capture insects that are drawn to the light. Sampling for reptiles requires different strategies, including turning over logs and issuing plastic bags to rangers and asking them to collect specimens found dead on the road.

Though rich in many species, the Smokies is particularly renowned as a hot spot for slime molds (Myxomycetes). In fact, GSMNP may have more species of slime molds than anywhere else in the world. Abundant and colorful, organisms of this odd taxon come in orange, bright yellow, powdery brown, or white, among other colors. Slime molds cannot be classified in the traditional biological categories because they have characteristics of fungi as well as single-celled protists (unicellular, colonial, or multicellular organisms). Some species live quietly in decaying matter for long periods and then grow into large, conspicuous globs that migrate from one place to another eating what is in their paths.

A ROLE FOR EVERYONE
“Some of the scientists were surprised at the public interest demonstrated for the ATBI project,” says Hilten. “But they are pleased to see that their often specialized fields of research can catch on with the wider public.” Hilten herself wasn’t surprised by the public’s enthusiasm for the ATBI project, though, having worked with hundreds of citizen scientists during her tenure in environmental education at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. These and similar projects, says Hilten, go beyond engaging and educating the public and offer an added dividend. “Knowing more about the life forms that are out there in the Park helps the public develop a real conservation ethic,” she says. Participants, whether aged 10 or 80, can do the basic science of recording exactly when and where something is found or observed.

The ATBI has attracted more than 200 university scientists to the Smokies—several from other countries— who come here, sometimes at their own expense, to lead projects. Once the collected species receive their correct names, experts then correlate these data with geology, soil type, elevation, ecological community, slope exposure, weather, etc.

The main database, developed by the Park Service, is currently housing all of the scientific data being collected. This type of information will be useful to biologists and land managers, not only in the Smokies, but in other areas as well. Yellowstone and Acadia National Parks and Point Reyes National Seashore, for example, have started their own inventories, complete with quests and blitzes. Tennessee State Parks have also met with ATBI advisors and have begun similar state-level projects. The success of the ATBI may someday lead to National Park Service funding and other support to expand the inventories to a national effort.

“We’re doing great despite limited resources,” says Park entomologist Becky Nichols. “With the minigrants, volunteer hours, and scientists donating their time, we get a lot done.”

The TWIGs finish their work at different times, she adds. Plants and vertebrates are pretty much covered, although the project will gather more information on distribution. The Park has a long history of research on these two groups, prior to the beginning of the ATBI. Invertebrate TWIGs will work much longer, and the bacteria and archaebacteria (a group only recently recognized by biologists) researchers are just getting started.

To get involved, make a donation, or find more information about the ATBI, go to: www.dlia.org.

1The term taxa (plural of taxon) refers to species or
groups of life forms (animal, plant, fungus, bacterium,
etc.) that have an official name and position in biological
nomenclature. For example, Homo sapiens is a taxon, as
is Mammalia, the group to which humans belong.

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Origins and Goals of the
All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory

Scientists estimate that there are about 100,000 species, or distinct forms of life, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Because of its size, diversity of habitats, elevation range, forest types, geological factors, and the presence of significant amounts of old-growth forest, the Smokies may have the highest level of species diversity in the United States.

To date, about 14 percent of the estimated species have been identified and studied. Meanwhile, vast numbers of invertebrates and fungi remain unknown. Biodiversity of microscopic organisms such as protists and bacteria, which are critical to the environment, has received little attention until recently.

The ATBI seeks to answer three basic questions about an organism: What is it? Where does it live? What does it do? To answer these questions, biologists in various specialties will collect samples of specimens and develop a comprehensive checklist. Then they will develop range maps for each species and gather natural-history information, including its abundance, behavior, predators and prey, and life stages.

Further goals of the ATBI are to make all data available through Web sites. This will include the collected information and interactive identification keys useful to experts and the general public. This baseline information will help Park management and provide ways to monitor the effects of climate change, pollution, and invasive species.

Discussions among Park researchers and university biologists initiated the ATBI in 1998. Since then, the non-profit Discover Life in America (DLIA) was created, and a cooperative agreement has been set up with the National Park Service to facilitate research projects. DLIA coordinates ATBI projects and serves as a communication center for scientists, teachers, and volunteers. Since its inception, the ATBI has attracted a tremendous amount of public attention and enthusiasm.

—Doris Gove

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Getting the Word Out on Critical Park Issues

As caretakers of the most visited national park in the country,
the Smokies’ staff works hard to satisfy visitors’ information needs.

BY KRIS CHRISTEN

No matter what aspects of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) you’d like to learn more about, chances are you’ll find it in the wealth of educational materials and programs sponsored by the Park Service and its partners.

“We have more than 100 publications that are produced in cooperation with our long-time partner, the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA), which is a private, non-profit organization that has assisted the Park since 1953 in its interpretive mission,” says Kent Cave, GSMNP interpretive media branch chief. Over the years, GSMA has donated more than $11 million, which the Park Service uses to fund research and educational needs and services, including an ambitious publications program.

Park Service and GSMA staff meet annually to brainstorm ideas for new publications and other ways to convey important messages to visitors, says Cave, who also serves as the Park’s liaison with GSMA. “We are constantly looking for gaps in information we can fill with publications or other interpretive products. The publications planning process is also driven by current issues we feel the public needs to know about.”

For an overview of all GSMNP has to offer, a first stop would be the Park’s Web site at: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm. Here, visitors can find information about recreational opportunities, including ranger-guided programs, biking, camping, fishing, hiking, horse riding, and picnicking. The site also offers trip-planning tips on camping, accommodations, maps, weather forecasts, and road and trail information.

Likewise, visitors can find information on Park resources and the critical issues facing them, along with links to educational programs, environmental assessment studies, and management topics.

The site also includes links to outside organizations, such as the U.S. Geological Survey and World Heritage Site, and educational programs and institutes that have special relationships with GSMNP.

The following includes a sampling of the publications, communications services, and educational programs the Park Service provides for GSMNP.

INFORMATION TOOLS
The Folio series is designed to address critical resource management issues facing the Park in a short, concise format. To date, topics have included air quality, fire management, brook trout restoration, exotic plants, historic preservation, black bear activity, and the hemlock woolly adelgid. Featuring full-color photos, charts, and graphics, these four-page issue papers outline the Park Service’s position and describe the agency’s efforts to address pressing resource issues. The Folio series also details how the public can get involved and assist the Park Service in its efforts.

The series is produced by GSMA and distributed by the Park’s resource management specialists when they give presentations to local clubs, special interest organizations, elected officials, educators, and community leaders. The papers are also sold in the visitor centers for a nominal fee.

“It’s a way to communicate information to a broad audience—not limited to Park visitors—in an interesting and engaging way about Park issues and threats,” says Steve Kemp, GSMA’s director of interpretive products and services.

The Park Service communicates the same critical issue information on single sheet cards that can be found on the brochure racks in visitor centers and other locations to let people know about problems and how they can help. For instance, people can mail these cards back to the Park Service to report a hemlock woolly adelgid infestation that they may have encountered while hiking along a trail.

Sightline is an annual newsletter that also addresses critical environmental and resource issues in GSMNP and targets Park users, elected officials, regional business leaders, scientists, students, and others who are concerned about conditions in the Park. The publication, sponsored by the University of Tennessee’s Energy, Environment and Resources Center; Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park; and Great Smoky Mountains Association, can be accessed at http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/sightline/Default.htm.

The Smokies Guide is the Park newspaper, which is published quarterly by GSMA and is available for free at the visitor centers. Typically, two to three pages are devoted to critical Park issues.

The Park’s air quality Web site http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/Parks/grsmcam/grsmcam.htm) and exhibit at the Sugarlands visitor center provide real-time information on current ozone and particulate levels, meteorological conditions, and examples of good and bad visibility days. Data are fed into these displays from cameras mounted at Purchase Knob and Look Rock and are updated every 15 minutes.

The cameras are managed by the Park’s air quality specialist, and the displays are designed to let visitors know what their experience is likely to be in terms of views, as well as what sorts of effects and problems individuals may experience at various levels of ozone exceedances. This project is co-funded by Great Smoky Mountains Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Park Service.

GSMA publishes fliers for the Park, which visitors can pick up for 50 cents at trail heads. These fliers provide a key to the numbered stops along self-guided nature trails, telling visitors more about what they're seeing there. GSMA also produces a series of free information fliers or site bulletins, geared primarily toward school children, that can be sent to anyone writing in and asking for specific information about the Park.

On another front, the Park’s public affairs office responds to media and Congressional inquiries, develops position papers and briefing statements, and represents the Park in presentations and discussions at organized events. The office also handles crisis communications during such events as wildfires or rescue efforts.

“We are constantly asking: who needs this information, and how can we best communicate it to them?” says Bob Miller, a Park spokesperson. “It’s all about identifying target audiences and matching up the tools at our disposal to reach them.”

The Experience Your Smokies program reaches out to leaders in area communities in Blount and Sevier counties, helping them experience the Park in a handson way. Participants come for six sessions and learn about Park resources and issues by visiting the air quality monitoring station, surveying for salamanders, and hearing how the Park Service deals with different wildlife management issues, among other topics. As with the Parks as Classroom program, the Park Service is developing a stewardship project that these participants complete at the end of the program.

“The idea is that, now that they’ve learned something about the Park, they have a chance to give something back,” says Karen Ballentine, education branch chief for GSMNP. Last year’s project involved helping the Park Service install signs at some of the historical structures to discourage visitors from writing or carving on the buildings.

For more information, contact Bob Miller, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, call 865-436-1207, e-mail bob_miller@nps.gov, go to www.nps.gov/grsm/; or contact Karen Ballentine, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, call 865-436-1257, or e-mail karen_ballentine@nps.gov.

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Mountains of Smokies Trivia

If nowhere else, visitors are certain to find what they’re looking for in the range of merchandise available in Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s (GSMNP) seven bookstores. More than 1,000 items are for sale here, all of which have been approved by the Park Service as being educational and related to the Park’s resources, and a sizeable portion of these materials is produced by the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA) especially for the Park.

Visitors can find books on many Park history topics, from Civil War skirmishes to historic churches to grist mills, from the Cades Cove story to logging to plants of the Cherokee. The bookstores also host a number of field guides to birds, trees, wildflowers, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as hiking and backcountry guides for exploring the Smokies. In addition, browsers can find all sorts of maps, including trail maps, Park maps, and area maps.

Besides those items, a number of historical reproductions are for sale, as well as calendars, gift baskets, games, T-shirts and caps, patches, postcards, mountain music and videos, landscape and wildlife posters, and screensavers, among other merchandise. Perishables available for purchase warrant a category of their own and include wheat flour, cornmeal, preserves, apple butter, sorghum molasses, and wildflower sourwood honey.

GSMA, which staffs the bookstores, directs all profits back to the Park for programs and projects related to research and education. In 2004 alone, that assistance amounted to more than $1 million, says Terry Maddox, executive director of GSMA. This assistance is a welcome addition, but most important, all of the products GSMA produces and sells offer visitors the opportunity to find out much more about the Park before, during, and after their visit than they could ever hope to learn by visiting and observing on their own, whatever their interests might be.

—Kris Christen

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