Todd Witcher News Today

GATLINBURG — Discover Life in America is pleased to present its third annual “Fireflies at Norton Creek: Candlelight Dinner” fundraising event on Friday, June 7 at 5:30 p.m.

NATIONAL PARK

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The Great Smokies Eco-Adventure, a fundraising event for Discover Life in America, will be held Sunday, April 30, through Tuesday, May 2, near Gatlinb...

The annual Great Smokies Eco-Adventure fosters deeper connections with nature via a guided, biodiversity-focused exploration of the Smoky Mountains.

The National Park Service relies on four primary nonprofit partners to serve a growing number of Smokies visitors and care for a vast and varied park.

“Ive hiked many trails before, but until I was with this group, Id never slowed down to really see the details,” said participant Amanda Hollinger.

In November 2011, when a pregnant beaked whale drifted ashore on New Zealand’s Waiatoto Spit, Ramari Stewart, an Indigenous whale watcher, noticed that the whale looked slightly different to those usually stranded. It measured about 5 meters (17 feet) long, and after its skeleton was prepared and featured in the National Museum of New Zealand, […]

There are now 21,183 known species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and new ones are always likely to be discovered during bioblitz events.

View Comments Warren Bielenberg spends a lot of time photographing Southern Appalachian butterflies in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But he willingly admits that his journey of butterfly discovery didn’t begin in earnest until he retired from 34 years as a park ranger and began volunteering in the park’s popular Cades Cove. “One day there was a family of three with a little girl, maybe 11 or 12 years old, near a group of blue butterflies along the road,” said Bielenberg. “I wen...