Mayor wants green for green; some otherwise supportive city residents already aren’t pleased with some initiatives.

KNOXVILLE — Mayor Indya Kincannon’s proposed Knoxville 2020-2021 budget commits some $30 million to reduce city climate impacts, expand its use of renewable energy, invest in urban forest preservation and outdoor recreation assets and improve bus and bicycle travel in communities across the city. The budget also provides money for revitalization of the Burlington District, a historic pedestrian center of Black commerce in East Knoxville.

The city’s net budget is $384 million, which includes a $253 million operating fund.

The budget is just a recommendation to City Council at this point. 

This photo provided by Ijams Nature Center is an example of the plethora of weird things removed from the Tennessee River and its tributaries during the annual River Rescue held March 27. 

Mattresses, rocking horse and plastic shed among the stranger items retrieved from area waterways

Volunteers removed 31,000 pounds from the Tennessee River and its watersheds on March 27 during the 32nd annual Ijams River Rescue despite a storm system that dropped several inches of heavy rain on the area.

The rain dissuaded some of the 717 volunteers signed up for the river rescue, but nearly 500 people still joined together to collect trash from 32 sites. Their nasty haul included 919 bags of garbage and 82 tires, according to a release from Ijams Nature Center. 

The heavy rain actually worked out somewhat in organizers’ favor, as debris and flotsam were flushed from tributaries into the main stem of the river.

“Heavy rain always means more trash because the rising waters wash everything downstream and into the Tennessee River,” Ijams Volunteer Coordinator Madelyn Collins said in the news release. “We are so appreciative to everyone who braved the storms and did the work while they could. It was amazing how much volunteers accomplished in such a short time.”

One lucky participant found a $50 bill; other unusual items removed from the river included a toilet, a recliner, mattresses, a rocking horse, plastic shed and a baby stroller.

“The takeaway from this year’s event—and every other cleanup this community does—is that we need to be more careful about how we dispose of trash and recyclables. If you don’t put it where it belongs, it ends up in our water.”

Tennessee Valley Authority; city of Knoxville Stormwater Engineering; Bio Plumbing, LLC; First Horizon Foundation; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency; WestRock CP, LLC; Genera, Inc.; Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union; Waste Connections of Tennessee Inc.; CAC AmeriCorps; and the Water Quality Forum sponsored, supported or participated in the annual cleanup.

There are lots of ways to show your affection for our planet on Thursday, which marks the 51st annual observance of Earth Day.

You can stay at home and plant a tree; donate to your favorite environmental charity; join a virtual event; or clean up your block.

Or, unlike last year, you can join other like-minded individuals at socially-distanced observances and trash cleanups, and even drink some beer and get in a good jog with a purpose.

Here's a sampling of Earth Day celebrations in East Tennessee, some of which will occur Thursday and some of which will stretch into the weekend. If you'd like to include an event, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

• Hellbender Press editor and publisher Thomas Fraser will join several featured speakers during the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center Earth Day 2021 Celebration. The virtual event runs from 6-8 p.m. Thursday and will include poetry, music and networking opportunities. You can register here. You can also view the Narrow Ridge Earth Day celebration on its Facebook page. 

• Infinite Light Center will host an Earth Day ceremony at First Creek Park in Old North Knoxville at 11 a.m. Thursday, followed by lunch and music. Attendees are asked to bring a musical instrument, folding chair, and an individual lunch. Participants can also bring personal items to include in a mandala made with natural objects found in the park.

• Knoxville skaters and others are invited to come out and clean up the area around the Tyson Park skatepark at 6 p.m. Thursday. A skate session will follow.

• Keep Knoxville Beautiful will host a fun run along Sutherland Avenue to clean up litter along the roadway beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday. Enjoy a brew from Albright Grove Brewing Company after the event.

• Seven Islands State Birding Park will offer a science program for home-school students from 1-3 p.m. Thursday. The program will include basic ecology lessons and crafts. Register here.

• The annual Running for the Bears 5k begins at at 10 p.m. Friday at Nantahala Outdoor Center in Gatlinburg. Proceeds from the race benefit Friends of the Smokies and black bear preservation efforts.

• Greensteps and WaterWays in Chattanooga will host a Citico Creek cleanup from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday.

• Green Steps and North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy organized a cleanup of North Chickamauga Creek from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday. There are a range of other Earth Day events in the Chattanooga area.

$20 million per mile: TDOT opens virtual-only comment on highly controversial roadway

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has opened a virtual-only public comment period for the controversial Pellissippi Parkway extension, which would slice through the remaining rural areas of Blount County and move urban expansion and increased traffic flow ever closer to the Great Smoky Mountains, one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth.

The public comment period began April 15 and will last until April 25. The project has generated controversy and lawsuits for at least two decades, but TDOT decided the comment period should be held virtually for only two weeks because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project encompasses about four miles and will cost nearly $100 million. Opponents of the parkway say the extension is a waste of money and will destroy rural landscapes and wildlife habitat and pollute aquatic resources.

Here's a link to a story about the Pellissippi Parkway extension published in February by Hellbender Press.

According to The Daily Times,  which reported the public hearings on April 19:

“'The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the department to look for alternate ways to engage and interact with the public,' TDOT spokesman Mark Nagi said in a video introducing the presentation, framed as a somewhat awkward-to-navigate virtual reality room.”

According to the TDOT website:

“The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will host a Virtual Design public meeting from April 15, 2021, to April 29, 2021, to gather public input on the proposed project in Blount County on SR-162 Ext. (Pellissippi Parkway), from SR-33 to SR-73 (US-321).”

NYT: Ancient Native American rock carvings vandalized in Chattahoochee National Forest

From the “this is why we can’t have nice things” file: Vandals violated ancient and sacred Cherokee and Creek art with scratches and paint in the Track Rock Gap area of Chattahoochee and Oconee national forests.

“It’s one of the most significant rock art sites in the Southeastern United States and the only such site located on public land in Georgia,” according to a National Forest Service Facebook post, the NYT reported. That post was later removed by the forest service, which cited the ongoing criminal investigation.

The rock carvings date to 800 A.D. The vandalism occurred at some point in 2020 or early this year. 

There are at least 100 Native American petroglyphs in the north Georgia national forests. Some of the more prominent sites are fenced but allow people to view the ancient art.

Also from the Times report:

The Cherokee Tribal Heritage Preservation Office said in a statement that the Eastern Band of Cherokee people were “sad and frustrated” to learn of the vandalism.

“They are special sites for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and for all people as part of the Heritage of this region,” the statement said. “Whether through ignorance or malice — the result is irreparable damage to a unique site that connects us directly to the people of the past.”

ORNL researchers receive 2021 Sustainability Science Award for mapping human influence on U.S. river and stream changes 

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory mapped and quantified hydrological changes throughout the country due to urban development, energy production and other human factors and won a prestigious award for their efforts.

The team’s analysis was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and received the 2021 Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America.

“The Sustainability Science Award recognizes the authors of a scholarly work that make a substantial contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences. The researchers will be recognized during the society’s annual meeting in August,” according to an ORNL release announcing the award.

The research coupled U.S. Geological Survey stream-flow records with geospatial modeling to quantify human impact on national water resources and concluded the 7 percent of affected aquatic systems hold 60 percent of North American freshwater fish, mussels and other species.

“This work exemplifies how ORNL’s interdisciplinary research in environmental and geospatial science helps equip decision makers with the tools needed to move our nation toward a more sustainable future,” Stan Wullschleger, associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate, said in the release.

Lead author Ryan McManamay, an aquatic ecologist and faculty member at Baylor University, was with ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division at the time of publication. Co-authors include ORNL’s Sujithkumar Surendran Nair, Christopher DeRolph, the late April Morton, Robert Stewart, Matthew Troia and Budhendra Bhaduri; Northern Arizona University’s Benjamin Ruddell; and the University of Tennessee’s Liem Tran and Hyun Kim.

“It was a privilege to work with this team that spanned across multiple disciplines and institutions,” said Bhaduri, an ORNL Corporate Research Fellow and director of ORNL’s Geospatial Science and Human Security Division. “Given the impacts of climate change, there has never been a more pressing opportunity to address environmental sustainability. It’s a tremendous honor to make this scientific contribution and to be recognized for it.”

Knox News: Developer pulls Oak Ridge motorsports park proposal after pushback

In a victory for local environmentalists, the developer who proposed and pushed for a motorsports park on the western end of Oak Ridge has abandoned the project in hopes of finding a more “attractive” community.

The park would’ve been located in the Horizon Center industrial park and required the development of natural areas preserved via a city agreement with the Department of Energy.

Individuals and groups such as the Oak Ridge-based Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning said the proposal was inherently inappropriate for the site, citing the loss of diverse, mature hardwood forest, and noise pollution.

The crest of the Smokies and its peaks are shown from Look Rock on the Foothills Parkway.  National Park Service

Southern stretch of Foothills Parkway to get $33 million overhaul

The National Park Service will repave and improve the entire southern stretch of Foothills Parkway and design a replacement of the outdated maintenance facilities at Sugarlands thanks to funding from the Great American Outdoors Act.

Both projects will cost a combined $40 million and be paid for via a foundation established as part of the overall legislation passed by Congress in 2020. 

The Department of the Interior will spend a total of $1.6 billion from the Legacy Restoration Fund this year alone as part of a long-range goal to improve infrastructure and catch up on maintenance needs in national parks and other federally managed lands, according to a release. National public lands across the country, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, have long faced maintenance deficits totaling billions of dollars. 

The Foothills Parkway and Sugarlands work is one of 165 deferred maintenance projects that will be funded this year. Infrastructure improvements are also planned for sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park.

The $33.6 million in planned improvements to the parkway between Walland and Tallassee (from mile marker 55 to 72) will include enhanced safety features and milling and replacement of the pavement.

“The road rehabilitation will include pullouts and parking areas, replacing steel backed timber guardrail, and repair, reconstruction and repointing of stone masonry bridge parapet walls and the walls along Look Rock Overlook,” according to interior department documents.

“Other work will include removing and resetting stone curb, replacing/repairing of the drainage structures, stabilizing roadside ditches, overlaying or reconstructing paved waterways, stabilizing and reseeding the shoulder, installing pavement markings, replacing regulatory and NPS signs, and constructing ramps with curb cuts to provide access to interpretive panels and to meet federal accessibility guidelines.”

“The work proposed in this project would reduce the hazards and improve safety for park visitors and employees,” according to the data sheet. 

The Legacy Restoration Fund will also cover the $3.5 million cost of a design/build plan to improve and update the expansive and deteriorating maintenance yard at Sugarlands.

“The buildings, driveways, and parking areas associated with the maintenance yard have not been renovated or rehabilitated in decades,” according to a data sheet.

“There are safety hazards, inadequate space or capacity for park maintenance and operations personnel, and facilities that are entirely insufficient for essential park operations and maintenance. The condition of many buildings is so poor that replacement and disposal is likely the only practical option. This project will complete predesign project programming and budgeting and develop a Design Build RFP for the rehabilitation or replacement of facilities and associated utilities, parking, and grounds.” 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials did not immediately respond to an email requesting additional information on possible future projects and to what extent national infrastructure plans proposed by the Biden administration might benefit the park, which is the most-visited in the nation.

Here’s a link to the full Department of the Interior National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund Fund release. Here are the Foothills Parkway and Sugarlands maintenance yard project data sheets.

Put a lid on it: Rangers, cops targeting unsecured garbage loads to reduce roadside litter

Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers and the Gatlinburg Police Department made 37 traffic stops targeting insufficiently contained garbage during an enforcement campaign on the Spur on March 28 and March 29.

Unsecured trash and debris blowing from vehicles is a major source of litter along the Spur, which is used by 10 million vehicles per year and is the most heavily traveled — and heavily littered — roadway in the national park.

Rangers and police officers issued 25 verbal warnings and 13 citations during the anti-litter patrols, according to a press release from the national park.

Officials said garbage hauled from rental properties and homes often blows out of trucks and other vehicles and is a major source of litter along the busy road, which runs five miles between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

“With increasing visitation trends and more use of park roads for business and recreation, we need everyone to do their part to keep our roads litter free,” Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash said in a park press release announcing the targeted patrols. “To protect our scenic values and wildlife, it is vital that we prevent trash from ever being discarded in a national park.” 

Law enforcement ensured the motorists hauling trash "were complying with Tennessee State Code 39-14-507, which states that any motor vehicle that transports litter, or any material likely to be blown off, is required to have the material either in an enclosed space or fully covered by a tarp," according to the park service. 

The amount of litter that has accompanied increased visitation is not just a national park concern.

“The city of Gatlinburg is very concerned about the litter issues in the area and is willing to work with the national park and coordinate efforts, such as this targeted enforcement event,” said Gatlinburg City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle in the combined release. “Together we can all make a difference to help keep our area beautiful for everyone to enjoy.” 

Rangers and Gatlinburg police plan more such litter enforcement patrols throughout the year.

WBIR: Knoxville air quality data indicates sustained improvements

The Knox County Health Department reports that fine particles declined by half between 2007 and 2018. Ozone levels also remained below national standards during that period. The combined pollution reductions — achieved through tighter emissions standards on power plants and vehicles — have resulted in the cleanest air in Knox County since 1999, according to the Health Department.

Here’s a link to the full 2019 Knox County Community Health Assessment.