Outdoors
Spring road maintenance planned in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The National Park Service will complete important maintenance along popular roads in Great Smoky Mountains National Park this June. This will require temporary partial closures of Little River Road and single-lane closures along the Spur to allow park staff to safely and efficiently complete this work.
DEQ accepting comments on wastewater treatment plan for Helene-affected areas
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure is accepting comments until June 30, 2025, on a draft Intended Use Plan (IUP) and Priority Rating System for funding assistance for decentralized wastewater treatment systems in Hurricane Helene-affected areas.
Join Franklin Bird club for Macon County walks
The Franklin Bird Club leads walks along the Greenway on Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. through September. Walks start at alternating locations: Macon County Public Library, Big Bear Park and Salali Lane.
Botany, beauty and Bartram: The flower hunter's legacy
More than two centuries after William Bartram explored the Southern Appalachian foothills, his words, like his footsteps, still echo through the ridgelines and river valleys he once traversed.
Word from the Smokies: Scientific inquiry, a thriving enterprise in the Smokies
Birds, bees, bears, dragonflies, salamanders, hemlocks, fungi. Scientific research in Great Smoky Mountains National Park addresses a wide swath of subjects. From Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and states much farther away, scientists from several disciplines have found the park fertile ground for inquiry.
The Joyful Botanist: Let this umbrella make you smile
Were you suddenly stuck on a north facing hillside in the Blue Ridge mountains during a Summer thunderstorm and were without jacket or hood, in theory you could pull off the leaf of one of my favorite wildflowers, flip it upside down and wear it on your head like one of those cheesy umbrella hats — that is, if you are near to where the umbrella leaf grows.
Up Moses Creek: Because it’s here
When April rains fall on Moses Creek and wake the dormant winter roots, and when the warm sun, following, fills the woods with wildflowers, bird songs and budding leaves, and suddenly the whole valley is on its way to spring’s green apogee, then travelers from North Carolina and other states fly to Kathmandu, Nepal, where, breathing oxygen from tanks on their backs, and with their minds partly crazed with cold, they try to climb Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, “Because it’s there.” For mountain climbers, our spring coincides with the best of Everest’s bad seasons to attempt its frozen summit.
The Joyful Botanist: Here grow pinkshells, far from the seashore
If you are driving or walking in the woods in the higher elevations of Western North Carolina at this time of year, you may be treated to the most beautiful explosion of deeply pink azalea flowers blooming in profusion all throughout the woods. And it’s not just any old azalea, but it’s a special and rare species that are often be taken for granted.
The Joyful Botanist: Robin’s Plantain
Among the earliest flowering members of the Aster Family (Asteraceae) is the robin’s plantain (Erigeron pulchellus). Around Cullowhee, the robin’s plantain begins blooming in early April at lower elevations and can be seen blooming at higher elevations into June.
