15 Life on Land (131)
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Cedar glade habitat protected in fast-growing Tennessee county
MURFREESBORO — To close out 2024, TennGreen Land Conservancy and Allen Patton protected 50 acres of globally unique cedar glade habitat in Middle Tennessee’s Rutherford County with a conservation easement.
Called Rockdale Cedar Glades and Woodlands, Patton’s land abuts TennGreen’s Lamar Cedar Glades & Woodlands Conservation Easement, increasing this connected corridor of protected land to an expansive 256 acres. Limestone cedar glades and barrens, which are incredibly diverse but under threat from development and pollution, are found on the protected properties. This additional 50-acre easement is also within the Spring Creek HUC 12 Watershed and the Stones River Upper HUC 12 Watershed, marking it as critical habitat.
(Hellbender Press has previously reported on the special nature and importance of cedar barrens, including one located in Oak Ridge, just on the cusp of the Cumberland Plateau, which is better known for its cedar glades).
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Hop on a call to start planning Amphibian Week
Join an engaging webinar to jumpstart planning for Amphibian Week 2025, which highlights the diversity and ecological importance of amphibians while exploring ways to support their conservation.
The annual hopalong, set for May 4-10, is organized by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.
The event is highly collaborative in nature; anyone from scientists to teachers and regular citizens can celebrate amphibians during the week, which will feature different themes each day. PARC is hosting a planning webinar at 3 p.m. Jan 30.
According to organizers, the call will discuss the significance of Amphibian Week, its history and the urgent need to protect these fascinating creatures. Get a first look at the 2025 theme, “Masters of Two Worlds,” along with exciting activities and success stories from last year. Learn how to get involved, access valuable resources and collaborate. Register for the Zoom call.
Audubon Christmas bird tally hits 125 years and counting
Written by Holly Kays
Citizen-led Audubon Christmas Bird Count tallies our feathered friends for yet another year
Holly Kays is the lead writer for Smokies Life.
GATLINBURG — Since its origin in 1900, the Christmas Bird Count has become a holiday fixture for ever-expanding numbers of birders across the globe, giving a valuable gift to generations of wildlife scientists — a massive trove of data on bird populations in the Western Hemisphere.
This annual avian census, set to commence for the 125th time, began in an era when many bird species were facing steep declines, especially waterfowl prized for their feathers. The Christmas Bird Count was the National Audubon Society’s answer to the traditional Christmas Side Hunt, a team competition that encouraged participants to kill as many furred and feathered creatures as possible in a single outing.
“The Christmas Bird Count really got started as an alternative to those kinds of hunting efforts,” said Curtis Smalling, executive director of Audubon North Carolina. “This year is the 125th annual Christmas Bird Count, and that makes it the longest-running community science project in North America.”
Anyone can participate in the CBC, regardless of their birding skill level, by joining one of the thousands of circles, each 15 miles in diameter, that comprise the event. The organizer of each circle chooses a day between December 14 and January 5 to conduct their count. On the appointed day, all participants in the circle have 24 hours in which to tally as many birds as they can. In addition to listing the individual species spotted, they also count the number of individual birds seen and participant hours logged.
The Great Smoky Mountains region includes circles in Gatlinburg, Cades Cove, Knoxville, Franklin, Highlands, Waynesville, Hot Springs and Asheville.
Learn about using your forest as a carbon sink
KNOXVILLE — The next installment of Conservation on Tap is set for 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at Albright Grove Brewing Company, 2924 Sutherland Ave., Knoxville.
Join forester Sean Bowers to learn about the Family Forest Carbon Program, a partnership between the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy. The program allows owners of small tracts of forest access to carbon markets, empowering them to improve the health and wellbeing of their forests and help tackle climate change.
All proceeds from Conservation on Tap benefit Discover Life in America.
Feds to restart “technical and design work” for Foothills Parkway extension
Written by Thomas FraserConservation groups have cautioned against the zombie roadway between Wears Valley and Gatlinburg; EIS-level study uncertain
This story will be updated.
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.
Helene: ORNL forest disturbance tool tracks devastation wrought by wind
Written by Stephanie G. Seay
Information will help timber gleaning, fire-hazard mitigation
Stephanie Seay is a senior science writer and communications specialist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
OAK RIDGE — A visualization tool that tracks changes to the nation’s forests in near-real time is helping resource managers pinpoint areas with the most damage from Hurricane Helene in the Southeast.
The ForWarn visualization tool was co-developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory with the U.S. Forest Service. The tool captures and analyzes satellite imagery to track impacts such as storms, wildfire and pests on forests across the nation.
When staff with the Forest Service’s Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center in Asheville, North Carolina, were unable to work in the immediate aftermath of Helene due to utility outages, the ORNL-hosted ForWarn system continued monitoring the storm’s impact and providing reports. ForWarn indicated areas of severe disturbance to the forest canopy that were later confirmed by aerial photography.
“ForWarn helps quickly identify areas that may need remediation such as timber harvesting or prescribed burns as piles of felled trees dry out and potentially pose wildfire hazards,” said ORNL’s Jitendra Kumar.
Gear up/look out: Deer hunting shot off Saturday
KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s 2024-25 statewide gun hunting season for deer opens Saturday, Nov. 23. The season traditionally opens each year on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. During gun season, sportsmen may also use muzzleloaders or archery equipment.
The statewide bag limit for antlered bucks is two. No more than one antlered deer may be taken per day, not to exceed two for the season. In Units 1, 2 and 3 there is an antlerless bag limit of three per day, and a limit of two antlerless for this season in Units 4, 5 and 6. The bag limit may only be exceeded as part of the Earn-A-Buck program or as replacement buck in a CWD positive county.
During season setting, new hunting units were implemented for this season. Hunters should refer to the 2024-25 Tennessee Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Guide for specific information about their hunting unit and complete license requirements.
Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1969, is required to carry proof of satisfactory completion of a hunter education class or be in possession of the Apprentice Hunter Education Permit (along with other required licenses) while hunting any species in Tennessee. Hunter education can be completed online for free along with in person options offered by TWRA.
The statewide deer hunting season will continue through Jan. 5, 2025. The second Young Sportsman Hunt is Jan. 11-12.
In war-torn Ukraine, nature refills reservoir destroyed by Russia
Written by Ruchi Kumar
Russia’s bombing of Kakhovka Dam in 2023 killed hundreds of people and tens of thousands of animals, but it also provided a potential ecological reset.
This story was originally published by The Revelator.
KYIV — In the early hours of June 6, 2023, two large explosions reverberated across cities and small towns located on the banks of the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine. The Russian military had reportedly set off multiple bombs, destroying the three-kilometer-long Kakhovka Dam and draining its massive reservoir into nearby settlements.
Water from the dam flooded the plains, killing hundreds of civilians and countless livestock, destroying farms, and displacing the residents of more than 37,000 homes.
The bombing made headlines around the world. It’s the long-term impact of the attack on the local biodiversity, however, that has scientists and experts concerned. In the weeks following the explosion, researchers from Ukrainian ministries and independent organizations carried out several assessments as best they could to the backdrop of the war.
They found that the attack had flooded about 60,000 hectares (230 square miles) of forest in at least four national parks, threatening an estimated population of 20,000 animals and 10,000 birds.
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Red-cockaded woodpecker gets new lease on wild life
Written by Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Staccato voice of Southern woodlands removed from Endangered Species List
ATLANTA — Life is looking up for red-cockaded woodpeckers.
These perky, family-focused woodpeckers of mature Southeastern pinelands — they’re the nation’s only woodpecker that excavates cavities in living pines — had been federally listed as endangered for 50 years. Yet late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted them to threatened.
Their recovery from an estimated 1,470 family groups in the 1970s to about 7,800 groups today from Virginia to Texas reflects decades of work by government agencies, nonprofits and private landowners.
Georgia mirrors that outlook and effort. The number of red-cockaded woodpecker family groups here “is now well north of 1,500,” said Joe Burnam, lead Department of Natural Resources biologist for the species.
The success story ranges from military lands like Fort Stewart, where controlled burns and “recruitment” clusters of artificial nest cavities inserted in trees are helping the population grow, to southwest Georgia quail properties enrolled in Safe Harbor, part of a U.S.-first habitat conservation plan that DNR developed in 1999 for the woodpeckers and private landowners.
Burnam said the downlisting keeps federal protections in place and will not affect DNR conservation practices in the state. “We’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing … managing for the birds (and) their habitat.”
Habitat loss and degradation, a combo that landed the woodpeckers on the Endangered Species Act list, remain the leading threats. For example, Hurricane Helene wiped out over 40 percent of the nest cavity trees at Moody Forest Wildlife Management Area and Natural Area near Baxley.
But new cavity inserts have already been chainsawed into pines, and others will be added, Burnam said.
TennGreen protects unique stream habitat amid population boom
Written by TennGreen Land ConservancyTennessee cave salamanders, other wildlife will benefit from creation of unique preserve
LEBANON — TennGreen Land Conservancy joined with Headwaters Reserve LLC to protect and restore a high-risk stream habitat adjacent to Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Located on approximately 47 acres, the property’s streams and wetlands are protected by a conservation easement held by TennGreen in perpetuity.
The waters of this property, called Cedar Forest, are within the Spring Creek watershed, which has been noted to contain more than 28 rare species, including the Tennessee cave salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus).
Stream restoration, a vital process that breathes new life into natural aquatic environments, is a key objective of this conservation easement, offering numerous benefits to both wildlife and the community.
This permanent protection and intentional restoration will help to remove pollutants from waters in one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties while protecting the resource for generations to come.
TennGreen has previously conserved land in the area to expand Cedars of Lebanon State Park and Natural Area and Cedars of Lebanon State Forest.
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Editorial: Fight legislation that rolls back environmental protections
Written by Dan Ritzman
Stand up for wildlands, wildlife and water — all threatened by proposed Congressional bills
Dan Ritzman is director of the Sierra Club Conservation Campaign.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our public lands are facing unprecedented threats, and time is running out to protect them. Scientists tell us we need to double the amount of protected lands and waters in America by 2030 to fight the climate and extinction crisis. Congress is pushing through several dangerous bills that could dismantle essential safeguards and open up our natural treasures to devastating exploitation.
Here’s the urgent situation and what we’re fighting against:
- Fix Our Forests Act (HR 8790): This bill could weaken environmental protections, promote excessive logging and bypass crucial reviews, risking the health of our forests and worsening climate change.
- Save Our Sequoias Act (HR 2989): While claiming to protect Giant Sequoias, this legislation could actually harm these iconic trees by speeding up logging projects and removing key environmental protections.
- Forest Information Reform Act (FIR Act) (HR 200) & Senate Bill S 1540: These bills would exempt the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management from critical environmental consultations and reviews, ignoring new information and putting endangered species at risk.
- Cottonwood S1540: This bill aims to undermine important environmental checks established by previous court decisions, threatening sensitive habitats and wildlife.
- Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (S1348): This proposal could compromise protections for Wyoming’s public lands, increasing resource extraction and reducing conservation efforts.
Protecting wild places will keep drilling and logging from dumping pollution into the air, sequester emissions, provide protection from extreme weather, homes for wildlife and opportunities for people to enjoy the outdoors together.
Your support today will help ensure that our public lands remain protected for future generations.
Save our salamanders: Shoot wild swine in Big South Fork for $5
Written by Daniel Banks
Tennessee side of Big South Fork best for hunting invasive hogs
Daniel Banks is a public information officer at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
ONEIDA — Deer hunting season opened in Kentucky on Sept. 7 and opens in Tennessee on Sept. 28. During these big game seasons, wild hogs may be harvested by licensed hunters with the appropriate weapon that is legal for that specific season.
There is also an extended hog hunting season that lasts from the end of the deer season until the end of February with a weapon that is approved by that state for harvesting big game.
The wild hog is an invasive exotic species that has a significant negative impact on native species and do a great deal of damage to farmlands and residential areas. The damage they cause threatens park resources, including federally listed plants. (Their rooting also damages salamander and other amphibian habitat).
(Check out this video of natural pest control: A bear eating a hog in Great Smoky Mountains National Park).
Tennessee Fish and Wildlife commission returns to Paris Landing
BUCHANAN — The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission will return to Paris Landing State Park for the first time in 15 years for a one-day meeting on Friday, Sept. 20. The meeting will start at 9 a.m.
A new video titled “Safe Boating Near Locks and Dams” will be presented. The video was produced by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in partnership with, Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard and Hardin County Emergency Management Agency.
Retired TWRA Wildlife and Forestry employee Mark Gudlin will be recognized for his induction into the National Bobwhite and Grasslands Initiative Hall of Fame. He served in a variety of roles during a 38-year TWRA career and was serving as Habitat Program Manager upon his retirement in 2021.
Will Bowling from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will be recognized for a donation from the Foundation and the Mildred T. Edwards Trust. The gift will go toward purchasing a 1,322-acre tract at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.
There will also be a preview for rules and regulations governing licenses, permit fees and boating certificates.
Don’t hate the diggers. Hate the ginseng game.
Written by Justin Law
Wild ginseng is declining, but small-scale ‘diggers’ aren’t the main threat to this native plant — and they can help save it
This article was originally published by The Conversation. Justine Law is an associate professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies at Sonoma State University.
KNOXVILLE — Across Appalachia, September marks the start of ginseng season, when thousands of people roam the hills searching for hard-to-reach patches of this highly prized plant.
Many people know ginseng as an ingredient in vitamin supplements or herbal tea. That ginseng is grown commercially on farms in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. In contrast, wild American ginseng is an understory plant that can live for decades in the forests of the Appalachians. The plant’s taproot grows throughout its life and sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, primarily to East Asian customers who consume it for health reasons.
Because it’s such a valuable medicinal plant, harvesting ginseng has helped families in mountainous regions of states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio weather economic ups and downs since the late 1700s.