Outdoors
GSMNP Superintendent talks visitation, parking tag program
Great Smokies Mountain National Park has seen new changes in recent years, from soaring record attendance placing it head and shoulders above the field for the most visited national park to a first-of-its-kind parking tag program designed to generate revenue while also protecting visitors and natural resources that has generated the ire of some surrounding communities.
Notes from a plant nerd: Spring, Sprang, Sprung, Sproing! What is Springtime?
Spring has fully sprung across Southern Appalachia, as we are awakened daily to birdsong and the bustling morning activity of bees and butterflies.
WCU celebrates 40 years cleaning up the Tuckasegee River
For four decades, Western Carolina University has participated in a daylong effort of cleaning up a portion of Jackson County’s Tuckasegee River.
‘Bloom with a View’ returns to Arboretum
The North Carolina Arboretum is heralding spring’s arrival with the return of “Bloom with a View,” May 4-19.
Ramsey Cascades Trail closes on weekdays
The National Park Service (NPS) will close Ramsey Cascades Trail on weekdays while trail crews finish the full-scale rehabilitation work started in 2022.
‘Square-foot gardening’ class is April 30
The Haywood County Extension Office is presenting a free class on “square-foot gardening,” a simple, versatile system that takes up less space and requires less work and water to cultivate.
Lake J hosts annual plant sale
Lake Junaluska’s yearly plant sale is May 4.
For sale will be a few thousand plants, including an assortment of annuals, perennials, herbs and vegetables, and several varieties of native plants from the Corneille Bryan Native Garden, said Melissa Tinsley, Lake Junaluska director of grounds.
GSMNP to improve Gatlinburg entrance
Great Smoky Mountains National Park received approximately $11 million in funding from the Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund to rehabilitate a two-mile section of Newfound Gap Road near Gatlinburg. The rehabilitation project will include single-lane closures.
Jackson hosts youth tennis lessons
Youth Tennis Lessons at Mark Watson Park in Sylva will begin on May 4.