Event Archive (267)
Community Solar: How East Tennessee can harness the power of the sun
Apr 20 8 p.m. EDT
Online discussion with Bryan Jacob, Solar Program Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy & Jason Carney, Founder and CEO of Energy Electives
East Tennessee EarthRise and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Electric Vehicle Virtual Ride & Drive with race car driver Leilani Münter
Apr 24 1-2 p.m. EDT
Natural Resources Defense Council and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Zoom Webinar - Free and open to the public - RSVP
Leilani will take us through the paces in her electric car and explain why she’s an advocate for electric transportation powered by clean energy. Following the virtual ride, Leilani will answer live questions posed by viewers. Make sure to register to hold your reservation.
“How has the river helped you during this time of isolation?”
Apr 29 submission deadline
Voices of the River Contest
Show Us What the River Means to You!
RiverLink
Details, Contest Guidelines and Submission Form
2020 Winners video
For a justice-centered transition away from fossil fuels
Apr 8 5–6 p.m.
Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition
Shalanda Baker, Deputy Director for Energy Justice & Secretary’s Advisor on Equity, U.S. Department of Energy
Howard H Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, Distinguished Energy and Environment Lecture Series
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public
Dr. Baker will discuss her new book, which offers practical tools to achieve a justice-based transition away from fossil fuels. She argues that transforming our energy system is the next civil rights domain. Those marginalized by our current system, low-income communities, and communities of color, must be the architects to transform the energy sector’s unequal power dynamics.
Join the meeting with this link
What are your ideas and opinions about interpretation at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park?
Apr 22 5:30 p.m. EDT
Manhattan Project National Historical Park Stakeholder Engagement Community Meeting
National Park Service
Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MNHP) is initiating a stakeholder process that will be used to help inform the park’s interpretive planning.
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
Interpretive themes convey park significance. Primary interpretive themes are the key ideas through which the park’s nationally significant resource values are conveyed to the public. They connect park resources to the larger ideas, meaning, and values of which they are a part. They are the building blocks—the core content—on which the interpretive program is based.
Find more details about the process, background information on the MNHP and register for the first meeting here.
The interpretive plan will provide guidance in developing future services, activities, events and exhibits in Oak Ridge, at the other MNHP locations, and through media outreach.
The recording of the April 13 national introductory webinar for this stakeholder process has just been released:
Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast: 2021 Report
Apr 21 1–2 p.m. EDT
Heather Pohan & Maggie Shober, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Webinar - Free and open to the public - more details and RSVP
“Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast: Generation and CO2 Emissions,” a report developed by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, examines the role electric utilities have played in decarbonizing the power supply over the last decade. The report examines power sector carbon dioxide emissions throughout the Southeast, home to some of the biggest utility systems in the nation.
Knoxville solar home project groundbreaking
Apr 22 1 p.m. EDT
Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED)
In-person event with virtual participation option
SEEED is building a completely solar-powered, energy efficient home, including battery backup, and will sell it at an affordable price to a low-income family. The groundbreaking will take place in the Lonsdale neighborhood, and will also be live streamed through Facebook. If you attend in-person, please wear a mask and practice social distancing in line with guidance from the CDC.
Smokies rangers and Gatlinburg cops are cracking down on litter sources
Written by Thomas Fraser
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.
Switch off your lights for Earth Hour
Mar 27 8:30–9:30 p.m. local time
Take part with your family in Earth Hour 2021
It is a symbol of unity. It is a symbol of hope. It is a symbol of power in collective action for nature.
Earth Hour international partnership
Take part in the Earth Hour Virtual Spotlight: Coming to a small screen near you
Step 1: Follow
Make sure you're following at least one of the Earth Hour social pages and turn on notifications:
Step 2: Watch
On March 27 - the night of Earth Hour - we'll be posting a must-watch video on all our pages.
We can't tell you what the video will be about just yet...but we can promise that it'll make you see our planet and the issues we face in a new light.
Step 3: Share
Share the video far and wide, it's that simple! Share it to your Stories or to your wall, re-Tweet it, send it via DM or Messenger, @tag/mention friends in the comments - the choice is yours. Whether you share it with one person, ten people, or a hundred - remember, it all adds up!
Use the hashtag #EarthHour when you can!
Being fire: Volunteers help preserve a classic East Tennessee cedar barren
Written by Thomas Fraser
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.
NC authorities mulling relaxed regulations on Pigeon River pollutants
Knox News: Sam Venable: Now is not the time to backslide on Pigeon River health
Good piece here on a renewed threat to the Pigeon River, which threads from North Carolina into Tennessee. Your friendly neighborhood Hellbender Press editor was a raft guide there for a while — people loved to be on that river, and it is a true environmental and economic success story.
But after years of environmental improvements to the river and accompanying economic gains, the state of North Carolina is considering relaxing standards for a nearby paper mill’s pollutants.
The state is considering loosening the discharge standards for the paper mill’s current owner. A public hearing on the matter is set for April 14.
Brood X cicadas to emerge this spring for last gestures of beauty, reproduction and death
Written by Stephen Lyn Bales
After 17-year wait, millions of cicadas are coming
“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at the close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." — Dylan Thomas
Imagine living 99.99 percent of your life underground largely unseen and then emerging above the earth for one last grand gesture of panache and reproduction and death.
This year it’s time for the 17-year cicada Brood X to pop up. The last time they appeared in Knox County was 2004. Periodical cicadas are related to the more frequently seen and heard Dog Day cicadas or harvestflies that appear every July.
Periodical cicadas remain subterranean for years. Here in the Tennessee Valley, we actually have two populations that overlap. Brood X, known as “the big brood” that will be seen and heard this summer, emerges every 17 years. Brood XIX climbs from the ground every 13 years, and is not scheduled to reappear in the valley until 2024.
Annual cicadas look like large green flies. Periodical cicadas are more colorful: bluish with red eyes and gold wings. Both groups are in the insect order Hemiptera and spend their larval stage underground tapping into tree roots for nourishment.
At this moment, this year’s brood is inching its way upward. The cicadas lie in wait below the surface until the right conditions — day length and temperature — signal it’s time to move out. If you happen to be in an area where the cicadas are, you’ll see hundreds, maybe thousands, all over the place. It’s truly one of nature’s most spectacular occurrences.
They usually begin to climb from the ground at dusk in early May and quickly scurry to a nearby tall object that they climb and shed their last larval skin. After their wings dry, the new adults leave behind the husk of their former life and fly away. For the next few weeks, the males buzz to attract the females. After they mate, the females lay eggs in tender branches. All the adults die in a few weeks; when the eggs hatch the tiny larva crawl to the ground to disappear for another 17 years.
The library SkyFi Project helps breach Blount County’s “digital divide”
Written by Tracy Haun Owens
Users can charge devices and access the Internet through two solar-powered charging tables just installed at the Blount County Public Library as part of a larger SkyFi Project to bring access to technology to the community’s disenfranchised. Courtesy EnerFusion
The Blount County Library, one of Maryville’s busiest spots, was closed to the public from mid-April to the beginning of July 2020, thanks to the pandemic. Even though the library was closed, people pulled their vehicles into the parking lot to access the library’s high-speed Wi-Fi, according to library director K.C. Williams. Some people even got out of their cars and dragged lawn chairs to the sidewalk in front of the building to access the rare public Wi-Fi.
“We had over 11,000 hits on our Wi-Fi,” while the library was closed, Williams said. It wasn’t the first time that she and her staff realized the vital role they were playing in helping their neighbors access digital resources.
“Our county has 20 percent of the population that’s disenfranchised economically or geographically,” Williams said. “The library is the playing field equalizer.”
Searching for ways to provide more access to the community, she looked at the solar-powered charging picnic tables Maryville College installed on campus a few years ago. The tables, made of recycled plastic, use solar panels to generate and store solar electricity. Manufactured by EnerFusion, the tables cost $12,500 each. The Blount County Friends of the Library secured a grant from the Arconic Foundation for $25,000 to purchase two of them.
The two were installed at the rear of the library and dedicated at a ribbon-cutting Feb. 25. Users will be able to charge devices and access the library’s Wi-Fi any time of the day. The ribbon-cutting also kicked off the larger SkyFi Project, a plan to bring charging tables to accessible locations throughout the community. The Maryville Rotary Club is within $3,000 of meeting its goal to purchase two more tables, which it will install at the Alcoa Duck Pond. Williams said those involved in the project are looking for more locations in Blount County where the tables can be set up with secure Wi-Fi.
“What’s making this work is that it’s a partnership,” Williams said. The project partners are the three library funding bodies (Blount County and the cities of Maryville and Alcoa); the Arconic Foundation (the philanthropical wing of a large community employer); Rotary Club of Maryville; and Blount County Friends of the Library.
Maryville City Councilwoman Sarah Herron was at the ribbon-cutting to celebrate the SkyFi Project.
“Libraries are an important part of something I care deeply about, which is digital equity,” Herron said. She is a digital media specialist and communications professional, and made digital equity and digital literacy part of her candidate platform when she ran for council in 2020. She said that with so many people working remotely, attending virtual classrooms, and using telehealth services, we increasingly require technology, bandwidth, and access to people who can help us navigate tasks online.
“Not everyone has those kinds of resources,” Herron said. She commended director Williams and her staff for “working so hard to close that digital divide,” especially during the pandemic.
Herron predicts that many of the recent changes in how we use technology will persist.
“Even as we try to get back to ‘normal,’ we’ll continue to rely on more technology,” she said. “There is such a need for people to come together to function in a digital world.”
Reckoning with racism with a walk in the woods
Written by Thomas Fraser
Video documents success of ‘Smokies Hikes for Healing’ endeavor
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash was as shaken as the rest of us this past spring and summer when a national reckoning of racism erupted across the country following the homicide of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
Also like many of us, Cash, who is Black, wondered what he could do to help heal 400-year-old wounds.
He determined we needed to take a walk in the woods and talk about things.
“As an African American man and son of a police officer, I found myself overwhelmed with the challenges we faced in 2020 and the endless news cycle that focused on racial unrest,” Cash said in a press release distributed Feb. 26.
“My medicine for dealing with this stress was a walk in the woods, and I felt called to share that experience with others. Following a summer hike in the park, I brought together our team to create an opportunity for people to come together for sharing, understanding, and healing.”
Sixty people directly participated in Cash’s Smokies Hikes for Healing program, Smokies Hikes for Healing, which ran from August to December in the national park. Hundreds of people visited an accompanying website to learn more or acquire information on how to lead their own such hikes.
Cash, who credited the park team who helped him organize the innovative project, correctly determined there was no more appropriate place to honestly discuss racism and the importance of diversity than a hike in one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet.
David Lamfrom, Stephanie Kyriazis and Marisol Jiménez, facilitated the hikes and created a “brave space for open conversations about diversity and racism,” according to the park release, which also announced the availability of the Smokies Hikes for Healing video produced by Great Smoky Mountains Association.
Friends of the Smokies and New Belgium Brewing Company also contributed financial support to the effort.
Save the environment using your phone
Feb 9 7 p.m.
Community science: how you can save the environment using your phone
Mac Post, Ecosystem Ecologist Emeritus (ORNL)
Harvey Broome Group, Sierra Club
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
More details and required RSVP signup
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Oak Ridge reacetrack at Horizon Center
Feb 4 7–8:30 p.m.
Why We Oppose the Proposed Oak Ridge Motorsports Complex
Virginia Dale and Ellen Smith
Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation (AFORR)
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
The proposed racetrack would destroy natural assets that DOE committed to protect and adversely affect recreational users and nearby residents.
Sponsored by Oak Ridgers for Responsible Development (OR4RD), Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP), and AFORR.
More details and required registration
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Adventures in investigating Mars using places on Earth
Feb 26 noon–1 p.m. EST
Anna Szynkiewicz, Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of Tennessee Science Forum
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
Dr. Szynkiewicz will show how studies in Antarctica and New Mexico provide clues about past water activity on Mars.
After registering,
you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Chickamauga Lake cleanup
Mar 6 9 a.m.–1 p.m. EST
Cleanup at Chickamauga Lake of the Tennessee River
Possum's Creek, Harrison Bay State Park
Keep the TN River Beautiful with Chickamauga Fly, Bait, & Casting Club
Hands-on volunteer activity
Keep the TN River Beautiful coordinates with TVA, Keep TN Beautiful, TDOT, Keep America Beautiful, and Yamaha Rightwaters
For more information, call (865) 386-3926 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Help control invasive exotic plants at cedar barren
Mar 6 9 a.m.–noon
Spring Cedar Barren Cleanup / Weed Wrangle
Cedar barren next to Jefferson Middle School, Oak Ridge
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning with City of Oak Ridge and State Natural Areas Division
Hands-on volunteer activity
Cedar Barrens — a habitat characteristic of our ecoregion — have become scarce in East Tennessee. They are reduced or eliminated by economic development and our rare native species specialized to live in them get overwhelmed by invasives.
For more information, contact Tim Bigelow at 865-607-6781 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Specifics subject to prevailing conditions at time of event. COVID-19 precautions will be observed.
Zoom in to biodiversity on the Oak Ridge Reservation
Mar 10 6 p.m.
Biodiversity on the Oak Ridge Reservation
Dr Evin Carter, Research Associate in the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public
The Oak Ridge Reservation supports remarkable biodiversity, including species and ecological communities absent or uncommon in surrounding areas. The Reservation is home to 26 state-listed threatened and endangered plants, 20 federally and state-listed animal species, with appropriate habitat for additional listed wildlife species. It contains seven registered State Natural Areas and has been recognized as an International Biosphere Reserve. Dr. Carter will share his knowledge and amazing photos of the Reservation.
https://zoom.us/j/94589800994?pwd=aUZobzJScnJBSzAraE41VklQTWhpQT09
Meeting ID: 945 8980 0994
Passcode: 705330
One tap mobile:
+13126266799,,94589800994#,,,,*705330# US (Chicago)
+16468769923,,94589800994#,,,,*705330# US (New York)
How disease changes evolution
Mar 5 noon–1 p.m. EST
Epidemics, Societies, and Math: How disease changes animal, including human, evolution
Nina Fefferman, professor in the UT Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics
University of Tennessee Science Forum
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
Learn how evolution, despite risks of infectious diseases, reaped benefits from social contact and group organization.
After registering,
you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Male sparrows sang sexier tunes during lockdown
Mar 12 noon–1 p.m. EST
Songbirds Changed Their Tune During the Pandemic
Elizabeth Derryberry, associate professor in the UT Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Tennessee Science Forum
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public - RSVP
Dr. Derrberry’s study of white-crowned sparrow songs during lockdown received nationwide attention.
With noise pollution from traffic cut in half, white-crowned sparrows sang more softly, using tones more attractive to females.
After registering,
you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Become a Volunteer Forester
Mar 24 6–8 p.m.
Volunteer Forester Certificate Level One
Learn how to properly plant, mulch and prune trees
Trees Knoxville
The class will combine video instruction, 4 weekly Zoom meetings (Mar 24, 31, Apr 7, 14), and one 2-hour field day at a local park for hands-on training, which will follow The Arbor Foundation Covid best practices guidelines.
Virtual Volunteer Forester Registration
Class cost is $25. More information and financial aid available on the registration site.
Knoxville Neighborhood Conference
All the virtual content remains accessible
through Apr 3
The City of Knoxville's virtual 2021 Neighborhood Conference
Yearly neighborhood-focused event to connect neighborhoods & strengthen communities
Brought to you by the City of Knoxville's Office of Neighborhood Empowerment, in collaboration with numerous city and county departments
Engage with our community through the Virtual Convention Center Platform — FREE but registration is required
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s conference will be virtual but will include all of the aspects of our in-person conference from the comfort of your own home. You will be able to attend workshops, hear remarks from Mayor Kincannon, visit information booths and more.
Conference details and registration
Open to everyone—neighborhood leaders, members and participants of neighborhood organizations and any city resident interested in the quality of life in Knoxville’s neighborhoods.
Integrating economics and ecology
Mar 26 10–11 a.m.
Integrating economics and ecology for seasonal migratory species conservation
Dr. Charles Sims
Howard H. Baker Jr Center for Public Policy
Baker Cafe Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public
The Baker Cafe Series is an informal discussion about various topics. Guests are encouraged to ask questions that pertain to the topic and gain insight straight from the experts.
Species that migrate face different natural and anthropogenic threats than other species. Protecting migratory species poses unique policy challenges because survival depends on the migratory process's integrity through space and time.
Zoom meeting link
Register now for Drive Electric Earth Day event
Apr 10 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Knoxville Electric Vehicle Association (KEVA), Ijams Nature Center, Drive Electric Tennessee (DET), East Tennessee Clean Fuels
Drive Electric Earth Day event in front of the Ijams Visitor Center
Owners of a variety of fully electric & plug-in electric vehicles will bring their cars, answer questions, and share their enthusiasm for driving electric.
Literature & information will be available, along with panel discussions on electric vehicle topics. Expected vehicles include: Tesla models 3, Y, S & X, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt & Volt, Zero motorcycle, and Honda Insight (conversion). More will be added as details develop.
Free and open to the public but due to limited admission, advance registration is required
A series of short presentations/discussions will offer visitors a chance to learn more about specific topics such as EV benefits, tax rebates and purchase incentives, EVs coming in 2021-2022, batteries and charging, used EVs, and road trips.
Register now
COVID-19 safety restrictions will be followed for this event and masks will be required to enter the electric vehicle area.
Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act webinar
Watch the webinar recording of
Apr 1 8 p.m.
Reintroduction of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Citizens' Climate Lobby
Zoom Meeting - Free and open to the public
Today the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2021 has been reintroduced into the House by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL-22) and 28 original cosponsors. Tune in to learn the updates and details.