Cades Cove closing for insecticide spraying on December 3rd and 4th

If the weather holds up the national park service will be spraying hemlocks trees to fight the woolly adelgid infestation in the Cades Cove Valley so the entire 11 mile Cades Cove Loop Road will be closed to traffic an bicycles Wednesday December 3rd and a partial closing on Thursday December 4th.

Hikers can hike the entire 11 mile loop both days of spraying for the hemlock woolly adelgid both days of spraying.

Motor vehicles and bicyclists on the second day of spraying can go as far into Cades Cove as Hyatt Lane and then exit the cove.

As seen by the picture above it was cold in Cades Cove today and as long as the weather stays above freezing and there is no rainfall the spraying can commence.

Rain is dampening spirits of leaf peepers and barely helping drought in the Smokies

Today marks the second day of light rain in the Great Smoky Mountains, just in time for one of the heaviest weekends of peak leaf season visitation and damping the spirits of some leaf peepers, but not enough to put a dent in the water shortage caused by 2 years of drought.

The rain though light, is knocking many leaves that turned in the trees onto the ground making hiking and driving on the wet slippery leaves a little more hazardous than normal.

As more and more leaves fall to the ground the threat of wildfires increases especially given the huge numbers of trees that have died in the past 2 years due to the stresses of drought, last years late freeze and the massive hemlock kill off caused by the invasive exotic pest the Hemlock woolly adelgid which is decimating the hemlock trees throughout the Great Smoky Mountains.

All of this excess fuel is creating the potential for a huge wildfire situation and we need to make sure that we clear as much brush as possible from around our homes and make firebreaks.

Last week a cabin rental company America Mountains Rentals had just cleared brush from the sides and behind a cabin for rent on Bluff Mountain in Wears Valley just days before a brush fire broke out threatening the entire mountainside.

A total of 5 local fire departments fought the wildfire day and night and were able to put it out that to the fact that there was a firebreak that slowed the fire down.

That entire section of Bluff Mountain was evacuated and fortunately American Mountain Rentals had a large enough inventory of cabins that they were able to give the evacuees alternate accommodations for the rest of their vacations.

Another cabin fire a few days ago burnt a large 4 bedroom luxury rental unit to the ground and luckily everyone was able to escape without injuries.

It is also crucial that we don't treat fire carelessly in the backcountry only making a fire when absolutely necessary in within a safe campfire containment area in designated campsites. More than once, I have come across a deserted campsite in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and found a fire still smoldering in a fire pit or ring.

It is also important that if you have been driving for a while that you do not park on top of a pile of leaves as your hot exhaust system can actually cause the leaves to ignite setting the leaves and your car on fire.

Light rain is expected to fall on and off throughout much of the Smokies today, and the weather should return to bright sunny skies by tomorrow.

R-A-I-N Spells Relief for the Great Smoky Mountains.

For the second year in a row the Great Smoky Mountains has been experiencing drought conditions not seen for more than 100 years, but finally the Smokies are getting much needed rain.

Hiking around the Smokies one can see how low water levels are and how much dryer and browner the plant life is even in higher elevation of the Great Smoky Mountains national park which can see as much as 85 inches of rain a year qualifying it as a temperate rain forest.

Rhododendron plants leaves curl when stressed due to extreme cold or lack of water and the photo here was taken last week which clearly shows a drought stressed bush that is along the Noland Divide Trail at an elevation of more than 3,500 feet.

2 years of back to back droughts in 2007 and 2008 is taking its toll on weakened plants and may further hasten the demise of our beloved hemlocks which are waging what appears to be a losing war against the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid infestation plaguing the park and surrounding areas.

Businesses have been hit hard by 2 years worth of droughts and locals are having to deal with an unprecedented 20% hike in electric power costs from the TVA of which a large portion of is due to the lack of enough cheaper and environmentally friendly hydroelectric power.

The last thing we need to do in the Smokies is have to buy more dirty power produced by coal which is already acidifying our creeks, streams and rivers seriously effecting the higher altitude aquatic environments and choking our air with life and plant damaging ozone. Global Warming? Oh yea that too!

Add to all of this the pressure of municipalities and homeowners to maintain enough drinking and household water and you can see why were are all singing in the rain these past few days even though our beloved tourists may not be so happy as to spend more time indoors as they wanted.

A week or so of rain is not going to get us out of the woods with our drought but it sure will help.

The plus side is now with a nice cool snap we can have some stunning fall colors and since we are getting some much needed moisture the colors may last a little longer rather than a quick flame out. We are hoping that the 2008 fall leaf season peak will run from mid October to mid November and we are already starting to get sporadic changes in mid elevations of around 2,000 feet.

Another nice bonus to the rain is our waterfalls will be at their best instead of the measly trickles we have seen the last few weeks. Rainbow Falls in North Carolina was almost dry and even Mouse Falls in Big Creek pictured on the right was running lighter than normal when this photo was taken last week.

Cades Cove Loop in the Great Smoky Mountains national park to be closed to traffic

It is that time of the year again where the National Park service closes Cades Cove to vehicles while they spray the hemlock trees close enough to the road which can be reached in order to fight the invasive exotic pest the hemlock woolly adelgid. While the Cades Cove loop was closed in late November of 2006, this year the closures will be in the first week of December.

As long as the weather is conducive to spraying the hemlock trees in Cades Cove which are infested with the woolly adelgid, the whole 11 mile Cades Cove loop will be closed this Wednesday December 5th. If you wish to hike the Cades Cove loop you can do so but cars and bicycles are forbidden to be on the road.

If all goes as planned on Thursday December 6th only the far section of the Cades Cove Loop past Hyatt Lane will be closed to motorist and bicyclists. Hikers can access the entire loop on the second day of spraying.

Spraying is one of three methods that the Great Smoky Mountains National park has been successfully using to fight the woolly adelgid from destroying all of the hemlock tees in the park.

The spaying with national park service trucks will only be done as long as a heavy rain or freezing temperatures are not expected during or immediately after the spraying is to be done.

To check on the status of the Cades Cove road closure you may call the national park service general information number at (865)436-1200.

Wildfire in Cove Mountain TN chars 500 acres and destroys 6 vacation rental cabins.

High winds, dead tress and the right conditions for a fire spelled disaster for the Cove Mountain area of Wears Valley in Sevier County Tennessee where flames as high as 50 feet tall have kept crews busy to suppress this untamed beast.

Firefighters have even contemplated using a helicopter if necessary to dump water on the fire. Presently crews have already been using bulldozers to create a fire break to keep the fire contained. Another firefighting tactic that is going to be deployed is to set smaller "back fires" in order to keep the fire from spreading along the fire break the firefighters created with the bulldozers.

Although the cause of the fire has yet to be determined, since there has been an infestation of pine beetles in the trees in the Cove Mountain area, the fire has been using the abundance of dead and damaged trees as a fuel source further accelerating the growth and speed of the wild fire.

Nathan Waters the Assistant Director of Forestry for the Tennessee Division of Forestry was quoted as saying "It's the high winds that are hurting us the most even though we got some rain the winds keep it dry and keeps the fire moving".

Local residents close to the blaze as well as cabin rental companies managing property for absentee owners are keeping a close eye on the situation.

This wildfires damage has been exacerbated by the fact that an insect infestation killed or damaged trees in the area. This further demonstrates the fact that that the Hemlock woolly adelgid that is infesting and destroying many of the hemlock trees throughout the entire Smoky Mountain region must be brought under control. Please support the Friends of Smokies page in their battle for this important cause.