Independent Herald: Big South Fork sets record flow and depth rates

Smokies biologist: Bear vs. hog video highlights nature taking its course

Suttree Landing is among the South Knoxville waterfront locations that will be connected via an ambitious city streetscaping project.  Courtesy City of Knoxville

Walk it out: Knoxville plans $10m in streetscape, transportation improvements along Tennessee River in SoKno

The city announced March 24 it will soon embark on part of an ultimately $10 million project to improve walkability and pedestrian safety in the burgeoning South Knoxville waterfront community.

The improvements aim to better connect Sevier Avenue with the waterfront, and include sidewalk construction on main neighborhood streets, better lighting and curb and drainage work near Suttree Landing Park, according to a release from the city. It’s part of a long-term plan to install and improve sidewalks and bike lanes and generally make the area less dependent on automobiles. Aesthetic improvements such as the relocation of overhead utilities are also planned.

“Connectivity and walkability on and near the South Waterfront are important,” said city Deputy Chief of Economic and Community Development Rebekah Jane Justice. “Here on Waterfront Drive, a privately-developed apartment community is planned, but these public sidewalks and other upgrades will benefit the entire community. It’s a step in the right direction toward making it easier for pedestrians to get between Suttree Landing Park and Sevier Avenue,” Justice said in a press release. 

“In the coming few years, the city will be investing $10 million in a streetscape overhaul of Sevier Avenue – relocating unsightly overhead utility lines and adding bike lanes, improved sidewalks, street lighting, on-street parking and a new roundabout at the Sevier Avenue, Island Home Avenue and Foggy Bottom Street intersection,” according to the release.

Here’s the rest of the announcement from the city: 

“By the end of the year, new sidewalks will be constructed on sections of Waterfront Drive, Langford Avenue, Dixie Street and Empire Street – a $733,263 project that also will add new streetlights and drainage, curb and utility upgrades in the area near Suttree Landing Park on the South Waterfront. 

Knoxville City Council last evening on March 23 authorized Mayor Indya Kincannon’s administration to execute an agreement with Design and Construction Services Inc., the company submitting the lowest, most responsive bid to do the Waterfront Drive Roadway Improvements Project. 

Work on Claude and Barber streets in the vicinity will be undertaken as funding becomes available. 

This type of project, Justice said, is a good example of the City investing strategically to advance one of Mayor Indya Kincannon’s core priorities – building healthy and connected neighborhoods. 

One of those planned private investments is South Banks, an apartment community that Dominion Group hopes to construct by next year off Waterfront Drive. 

Connecting the Sevier Avenue commercial corridor with Suttree Landing Park by improving public infrastructure between the two points is a short-term city objective. It’s the first of much more to come.”

WLOS: Mountain property owners wary of trail network between Sylva and Cherokee

Proponents of a proposal to build a high-elevation 35-mile multi-use trail system in Jackson County said it could further fuel growth in the area’s outdoor-recreation industry.

Some people who already own homes and property in the area abutting, for instance, Pinnacle Park in Sylva, fear an influx of strangers who would jam roads trying to access public lands owned by Sylva and Cherokee. Shocker.

The Nantahala Area Southern Offroad Bicycle Association is putting together a concept plan. The group says it would be the highest (3,500 feet) such trail network in the eastern United States.

WBIR: County bounty offered to rein in common nonnative landscaping trees

Confession: Your friendly neighborhood Hellbender Press editor bought a house for his family that featured rows of well-established Bradford pear trees. While they are not my favorite, are distinctly alien and should be made to leave this world, they provide an effective privacy screen. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat: Why eliminate healthy trees and expose your property? Let ’em ultimately die and rot, I guess. And plant natives elsewhere. WBIR also has suggestions for natives to replace Bradford pears.

Maybe we’ll figure it out, but in the meantime here’s a story about a South Carolina county offering a bounty on Bradfords.

Interestingly, WBIR has posted numerous, unflattering stories about Bradford pears over the last couple of years. Seems they have an editorial grudge. Good. Keep rolling with it.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Air Resource Specialist is seen at the Look Rock air quality research station.   Courtesy National Park Service

The lack of regional and local vehicle traffic during the pandemic greatly reduced measurable pollution in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This is your Hellbender weekend read, and the first in an occasional Hellbender Press series about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the natural world

Great Smoky Mountains National Park shut down for six weeks in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recorded emissions reductions during that period in part illustrate the role motor vehicles play in the park's vexing air-quality issues. The full cascade of effects from the pollution reductions are still being studied.

Hellbender Press interviewed park air quality specialist Jim Renfro about the marked reduction of carbon dioxide and other pollutants documented during the park closure during the pandemic, and the special scientific opportunities it presents.  He responded to the following questions via email.

Hellbender Press: You cited “several hundred tons" in pollutant reductions during an interview with WBIR of Knoxville (in 2020). What types of air pollutants does this figure include? 

KNOX NEWS: Does a motorsports park make sense for Oak Ridge?

A Knoxville real estate developer and some officials maintain a motorsports park at the Horizon Center industrial park would create jobs, tax revenues and a destination for private high-performance vehicle enthusiasts in the region. Opponents lament possible noise and light pollution and the loss and fragmentation of healthy, diverse hardwood forest and open space set aside decades ago by DOE as an environmental preserve. 

The municipal approval process has moved forward since this video was made, but here is a comprehensive argument from those who oppose the Oak Ridge motorsports park and would rather preserve the popular recreational and natural site on the far west end of Oak Ridge.

A volunteer removes invasive plants from an Oak Ridge cedar barren as part of a Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning effort to keep the barren in its natural prarie state.  Anna Lawrence/Hellbender Press

Volunteers play the part of fire to maintain the native grasses and wildflowers at an Oak Ridge cedar barren

OAK RIDGE — It’s called a barren, but it’s not barren at all. It’s actually a natural Tennessee prairie, full of intricate, interlocking natural parts, from rocks and soil to plants and insects and animals.

There’s lots of life in these small remaining unique collections of grasses and conifers that are typically known, semi-colloquially, as cedar barrens. 

Many of these “barrens” have been buried beneath illegal dumping or asphalt, but remnants they are still tucked away here and there, including a small barren in Oak Ridge owned by the city and recognized by the state as a small natural area.

NYT: Interior Secretary first Native American to hold vital post

The Senate on March 16 confirmed the first Native American director of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Democratic U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico. 

ETSPJ: Hold up on Covid-era meeting law changes to ensure public accommodation

Hellbender Press takes a fundamentalist attitude when it comes to the First Amendment and unimpeded public access to information from the government and its decision-making processes. The East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists released a statement March 12 regarding public access problems with an otherwise reasonable amendment to the state open-meetings laws. The amendments were introduced at the request of the Knox County Commission, according to ETSPJ. 

Here is the press release from ETSPJ in its entirety:

“The East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists opposes a bill sponsored by two Knoxville lawmakers, Rep. David Wright and Sen. Richard Briggs, that would create yet another exemption to the state Open Meetings Act.