The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

Action Alert (36)

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Veterinary college takes precautionary measures due to bird flu resurgence

Sandra Harbison is a media relations specialist with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.

KNOXVILLE — High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), a very contagious and often deadly disease of poultry, can result in the deaths of entire flocks within a matter of days. Also known as bird flu, HPAI has recently been detected in wildlife and poultry in Tennessee. This virus can spread quickly between birds, including birds that do not have any signs of disease. It has been reported to impact certain mammalian species, including humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no treatment for HPAI, and the best prevention is to avoid sources of exposure.

Out of an abundance of caution, the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM) has made the difficult decision to temporarily halt the acceptance and treatment of injured or abandoned wild birds including raptors, songbirds or waterfowl (including owned waterfowl). This precautionary measure will help protect patients, faculty, staff and students from potential exposure to HPAI.

(The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on Dec. 18 warned hunters, birdwatchers and poultry owners of increased bird flu risk. The CDCP as of Jan. 24 considers bird flu “widespread” in wild bird populations and reports limited outbreaks in poultry and livestock workers.)

Last modified on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 12:46

National Champion Sitka Spruce Washington state at Olympic National Park photo credit e1736800302775 1800x1200The 2024 National Champion Tree Register features the largest documented trees across the U.S. such as the National Champion Sitka Spruce, which people can see in Olympic National Park in Washington.  Brian Kelley via American Forests

Beginning in February, citizen scientists and others can help catalog our biggest trees

Katie Donaldson is a communications specialist for the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources.

The original story continues below.

KNOXVILLE — The National Champion Tree Program (NCTP) will take nominations for new Champion Trees on its website starting Feb. 28. The list of eligible tree species for the 2025-2026 register includes more than 1,200 species of trees native and naturalized to the U.S., a steep increase from the 900 species eligible for the 2024 register. It is available online in the Register of Champion Trees. Nominations for potential Champions will stay open through August 2025.

“Each year, people find ‘new’ Champions all over the country,” said Jaq Payne, NCTP director. “It could be the tree in your backyard, the tree in front of your church or the tree in one of your local parks or state forests.” For the first time in the program’s 84-year history, an additional list of “culturally important non-native” eligible species will be included to represent common, widely recognized urban species previously not found on the register.

Champion Trees are identified based on a point system including the trunk circumference, height and average crown spread. After members of the public nominate trees, the NCTP will work with state coordinators to verify the submissions and their measurements. Verified trees will be added to the program’s data management system. National Champion Trees are crowned once every two years and must be re-verified every 10 years.

Last modified on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 00:54
Wednesday, 22 January 2025 12:24

Play real simcity with Knoxville plan for housing

61441676 2534604046552233 8039343196519530496 nA streetscape of downtown Knoxville. City leaders want input into how the city will spend federal housing dollars.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

KNOXVILLE — The City of Knoxville will host a public meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 28 at the City’s Public Works Service Center, 3131 Morris Ave., to present information and data gathered about the city’s housing and neighborhood development needs that will be used to draft the 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan.

All attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback.

Every five years, the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Development department creates a Five-Year Consolidated Plan to outline how the city plans to allocate federal funds to meet local priorities in the categories of affordable housing, homelessness, economic development and other community development activities that serve low- and moderate-income households. Those annual funds come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships, and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding sources.

This meeting continues a community engagement process that began in 2024 with public meetings and consultations with service providers and community groups. More than 600 residents have been involved thus far.

Residents will be able to review the draft Consolidated Plan in April and provide additional feedback before the plan is submitted to HUD by May 15, 2025.

In addition to commenting in person, residents may provide feedback via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or in writing to Linda Rust, City of Knoxville Housing and Neighborhood Development Department, P.O. Box 1631, Knoxville, TN  37901.

Last modified on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 23:41

chickens.jpgEven small backyard flocks, such as the one seen here in South Knox County, are susceptible to fatal avian influenza. The state of Tennessee issued guidelines and warnings as the number of bird flu outbreaks soars.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

If you have birdfeeders at home, remove any dead birds you may encounter and stop feeding; minimize any poultry/wildlife interactions

Lee Wilmot is a TWRA information specialist. This story will be updated. 

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is reminding hunters to remain vigilant and take appropriate precautions as reported cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) increase among wild birds, backyard domestic flocks and commercial poultry flocks in the Southeast.  HPAI is highly contagious among bird populations and is known to be deadly for domestic fowl.

(California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Dec. 18 declared a state of emergency in California as cases in that state jump dramatically).

“Numerous states in the Mississippi Flyway are reporting HPAI detections that are leading to dead and dying birds, mainly snow geese,” said Jamie Feddersen, TWRA Migratory Gamebird Coordinator. “Tennessee is also finding ducks and geese with HPAI. Hunters should follow safety precautions when handling these birds.”

“Since March 2022, Tennessee has confirmed numerous cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in wild birds, including ducks, Canada geese, vultures and a Bald Eagle,” said TWRA Wildlife and Forestry Chief Joe Benedict. “We urge homeowners and hunters to take precautions to prevent the spread of the disease in Tennessee and to protect wildlife and poultry populations.” 

Last modified on Sunday, 22 December 2024 01:06

hellbender eslThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks public comment on a proposal to place the eastern hellbender on the Endangered Species List. The hellbender seen here is part of an exhibit at an East Tennessee zoo.  Chattanooga Zoo

USFWS seeks public comment on proposed listing of crucial indicator species throughout its known range; several populations in Smokies region

Melissa Clark is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service senior public affairs specialist.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Dec. 12 a proposal to list the eastern hellbender as an endangered species throughout its range under the Endangered Species Act. Eastern hellbenders are found in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

“The eastern hellbender is a unique salamander that plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems,” said Service Midwest Regional Director Will Meeks. “As key indicators of stream and river health, hellbenders need protection that also will help support healthier ecosystems across their range.”

Historically, eastern hellbenders have been documented in 626 populations. Recent data indicate only 371 of these populations (59%) remain. Among the remaining populations, only 45 (12%) are stable, 108 (29%) have an unknown recruitment status, and 218 (59%) are in decline.

The eastern hellbender is one of two subspecies of hellbenders in the United States. The other subspecies, the Ozark hellbender, occurs in Missouri and Arkansas and was listed as an endangered species in 2011. In 2021, the Missouri distinct population segment of the eastern hellbender was listed as endangered.

Last modified on Saturday, 14 December 2024 00:47

foothills map

Conservation groups have cautioned against the zombie roadway between Wears Valley and Gatlinburg; EIS-level study uncertain

This story will be updated.

The National Park Service (NPS) said Dec. 9 it “will conduct additional design work and technical studies for Foothills Parkway Section 8D. This decision was based on feedback from subject matter experts and public comments received during a 30-day public comment period that ended Aug. 21.
“The NPS will reinitiate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and inform the public of opportunities for future public engagement once this additional work is completed. A schedule for completing the additional work has not yet been established,” according to a release from NPS public affairs specialist Dave Barak.
 
Conservation groups, including the National Parks Conservation Association, say the road would further fragment forest habitat and present unacceptable water-quality hazards.
 
The NEPA offers a range of alternatives, however, and it was not immediately known whether the park service would again embark on a more detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) or proceed with a relatively cursory environmental assessment.
 
A draft of the previous EIS process for this parkway project were completed decades ago, as reported by Hellbender Press.
 
The federal government last year opened the latest round of public comment on the project, which would traverse Buckeye Knob and Cove Mountain and multiple aquatic and karst environments.

 

Concerns raised by the public over the decades range from impacts on domestic water supplies and endangered or threatened species to the fact the roadway might be a catalyst for excessive tourism infrastructure in Townsend and Wears Valley. 

Last modified on Monday, 09 December 2024 23:34
hellbenderpromoFounded in 1998, Hellbender Press was a bi-monthly free newspaper distributed throughout the Southern Appalachian and Upper Tennessee Valley bioregion. It ceased publication when most local advertising was captured by the internet and going quarterly didn’t help scrape up the cost of printing. Reincarnated 2020 as an online publication with a full-time editor thanks to a major startup grant, continuation of Hellbender Press now depends on contributions from its readership again.
 

KNOXVILLE — The great floods of 2024, spurred by an ocean warmed by climate change, wrought unspeakable damage on the Southern Appalachians. As a 25-year champion of the environment and culture of our bioregion, our flood coverage cut close to the local quick.

Hellbender Press covered this unprecedented human and natural disaster sway for sway and stride for stride with the big dogs of news media. 

We discovered our role as not only chronicler and collector of crucial environmental information but a nimble and sprightly hard news outlet.

These efforts do not come cheaply. Our well-received and deservedly deep coverage also ate deeply into our freelance budget. We help feed talented writers, but are reliant on grants and small-dollar donors like you! Donations to Hellbender Press are tax-deductible when given in the name of the Foundation for Global Sustainability, a 501(c)(3) Public Charity.

Our efforts matter more than ever, and we humbly ask for your help as we move toward our fourth year of the digital-only Hellbender Press. Help us protect our mountains with good journalism, and help us leave no story untold.

Please donate now.

Last modified on Sunday, 15 December 2024 16:35

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KNOXVILLE — Transportation planners and officials want to hear from you as they continue to update the region’s long-range transportation plan.

The Knoxville Regional Transportation Organization’s Mobility Plan 2050 survey will close soon. Those who live in and visit the area are asked to share input by Nov. 12.

The purpose of the project is to examine all modes of transportation in the Knoxville region and to recommend a strategic regional transportation investment strategy over the next 25 years. Planners and engineers are looking for strategies to continually grow and efficiently move around the city and region.

The regional transportation system involves roads, buses/transit, sidewalks, accommodations for bicycles and pedestrians, and freight movement (rail, waterway, or air). All forms of travel are included as part of this long-range planning update.

The Metropolitan Transportation Plan update will be developed in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization, Knox County and portions of Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Roane and Sevier counties.

Last modified on Friday, 08 November 2024 00:42

State your case in local quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

KNOXVILLE — The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization seeks the public’s feedback on greenhouse gas emissions in East Tennessee. Take this brief survey and make your voice heard:

  • The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and covers topics like climate change, energy efficiency and transportation to shape ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region. The survey is open through Sept. 30 at www.knoxbreathesurvey.com
  • Residents of all nine counties within the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ­— Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union — are encouraged to take the survey and make their voices heard. 
  • The Knoxville MSA was one of 82 metropolitan areas in the U.S. selected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive a planning grant to create a regional emission reduction plan as part of the agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program. “BREATHE” is the name for the Knoxville region’s CPRG initiative. 
  • More information on “BREATHE” can be found at knoxbreathe.org

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The IRA’s clean-energy progress is clearest in our communities

Stephen Smith is executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. He was a founder of the Foundation for Global Sustainability (FGS) and serves on the FGS board of directors. Hellbender Press is published by FGS.

KNOXVILLE — The largest climate investment legislation in U.S. history, the Inflation Reduction Act, celebrated its two-year anniversary in August: two years of reducing harmful pollution, of creating thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs, of welcoming billions of dollars in clean energy investments to the Southeast. The ways the IRA has and will continue to benefit our region and beyond are innumerable — and the numbers don’t lie. 

The IRA’s progress is clearest here in our communities: between Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, 559,820 households received more than $1.3 billion in residential clean energy and energy-efficiency tax credits in tax year 2023. Real people are saving money and benefiting from the historic climate law every day — take it from seven SACE members, their IRA stories and the encouraging statistics mentioned here. 

The reach of the IRA stretches beyond our homes — over 70,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations now dot the U.S., and federal tax credits on both new and used EVs have saved consumers over $1 billion so far this year alone. Last month, SACE released its updated 2024 Electrify the South Electric Transportation Toolkit to help guide decision-makers through this time of enormous opportunity.

Last modified on Friday, 06 September 2024 00:40

Wanda DeWard with butterly netWanda DeWaard has spent 30 years studying and tagging monarch butterflies. Here she leads a volunteer group of citizen scientists tagging monarchs in Cades Cove.  Photos courtesy of Wanda DeWaard

Successful Smokies monarch tagging project is a product of the people

Every winter, way up in the oyumel firs in Mexico’s high elevation forests, millions of North American monarch butterflies that have traveled from as far north as Canada cluster in colonies to overwinter before flying north again to lay eggs in spring. Tens of thousands of monarchs might adorn a single tree like a papery gown, sometimes weighing it down enough to break off branches.

To get to the oyumel forests several miles above sea level, which provide a perfect microclimate for the weary travelers, they migrate south using different aerial paths, or flyways, that merge together over Central Texas. This migrating generation can live up to nine months and might travel anywhere from 1,000-3,000 miles to the forests they seek, yet have never been to. Mysteriously, they find their way and sometimes even make it to the exact tree where their ancestors four or five generations back once clustered. 

Monarchs are the only butterfly that makes a long two-way migration. Despite much research on the species, science still hasn’t fully unraveled the secrets of their incredibly accurate homing system. This makes them one of the true marvels of the natural world.

Elanmonarch3A tagged monarch feeds on nectar in the Great Smokies before joining the migration to Mexico for the winter.

Last modified on Thursday, 21 November 2024 13:37

carpInvasive carp jumping from the water at Barkley Dam in Kentucky. One option for eliminating carp is to eat them, and you can do just that on Saturday in Knoxville.  Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

Learn about invasive species such as carp and zebra mussels at Conservation Fisheries panel

KNOXVILLE —To hear Bo Baxter tell it, carp actually doesn’t taste half bad.

He fairly gorged on the bottom feeders once long ago, during a long Mississippi River trip with the famed aquatic biologist David Etnier.

He prefers silver carp to, say, bighead carp, but the meat is fairly light and flaky on both and “I consider it excellent,” Baxter said. (Baxter serves on the editorial board of Hellbender Press).

Regardless their culinary appeal, the fish don’t belong anywhere near here, and will be among several different invasive species set to be the subject of a forum beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23 at Remedy Coffee, 800 Tyson St., Knoxville.

And while you learn, you can enjoy a $5 carp po’boy and hushpuppies plate courtesy of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), which is working to both limit the spread and establish a robust commercial market for the fish. Payson will provide the bread and remoulade.

carp dinner 

Last modified on Thursday, 29 August 2024 00:10
Thursday, 15 August 2024 15:15

Hunt mushrooms in the Smokies for the 2024 Continental Mycoblitz

DLIA

This event was postponed on a previous date. 

GATLINBURG — Partner with Discover Life in America to find and collect mushrooms and fungi specimens for identification and DNA sequencing and learn more about the diversity of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Register here for the event, set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Oct. 16 at Twin Creeks, 1316 Cherokee Orchard Road in Gatlinburg.

The fungi roundup is in conjunction with the Summer 2024 Continental Mycoblitz, a continentwide fungi data-collection project. 

Expect a 1-2 mile easy to moderate hike. Email Jaimie Matzko, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., for more information.

Last modified on Saturday, 19 October 2024 00:14
Wednesday, 10 July 2024 13:55

‘Cute little falcons’ fly free in Wildwood

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kestrelKatheryn Albrecht holds a juvenile American kestrel just prior to releasing it into the Wildwood area of Blount County as part of the Farmland Raptor Project.  Thomas Fraseer/Hellbender Press

Farmland Raptor Project takes wing to expand raptor populations on private properties

WILDWOOD — She felt the bird in her hand in her heart as the kestrel strained toward freedom.

Elise Eustace, communications director for Foothills Land Conservancy, blessed the bird and let it go, free to make a home somewhere on the 300-acre Andy Harris Farm or elsewhere in the Wildwood area of Blount County. “I’ve never gotten to do something like this,” she said. “So exciting.” 

Two other juvenile kestrels joined their kin on the warm summer afternoon, lighting into nearby oaks and atop a telephone line above the red and yellow pollinator gardens and dry pasture and cornfield and copses that punctuate the property in the shadow of smoky knobs that rise gradually to the Smokies crest beyond the blue-green hollows of the Little River watershed. Resident sparrows, bluebirds and kingbirds voiced displeasure at the new arrivals. 

Last modified on Thursday, 11 July 2024 00:48
Wednesday, 26 June 2024 12:55

Smokies tourists are coming to see the light

Written by

Smokies Synchronous Firefly Photinus carolinus 20200608 3311 composite credit Abbott Nature PhotographyA recent display of synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus) in the Smokies.  Abbott Nature Photography

Thousands of visitors view annual firefly spectacles in Smokies area as natural light show dims elsewhere

ELKMONT — Anyone who has fallen in love knows reading a love poem is no substitute for direct experience. Similarly, no technology, no art form, nor any reportage can come close to the mesmerizing firsthand experience of witnessing hundreds of thousands of synchronous firefly beetles pulsing in the dark during the peak of their mating period in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Over the last 20 years, throngs of eager visitors have trekked by the thousands to catch this rare glimpse of collective insect behavior. The crowds posed problems: Since females and larvae of the species are on and under the ground, visitors can trample them if they stray off trail. Likewise, flashlights and other white lights, including from cell phone screens, can also disrupt courtship. 

The firefly phenomenon caught fire in 1991, when Lynn Faust read an article suggesting that no synchronous fireflies lived in the western hemisphere, yet she knew that’s what she witnessed in the 1960s at the historic Elkmont community when she vacationed there with her in-laws. After she brought Photinus carolinus to the attention of scientists, word spread and new firefly pilgrimages to Elkmont were born. 

Last modified on Thursday, 08 August 2024 11:28