Volunteers Needed For Clingmans Dome Information Center

One of the greatest contributions you can make to the Great Smoky Mountains national park is your time as a park Volunteer, and right the now the National Park Service is actively looking for volunteers to staff the Clingmans Dome Information Center from April 1st through November 30th, 2014.

The volunteers need to work at the Clingmans Dome Visitor Information Center will be asked to work at least one 4 hour shift per week and are needed all days of the week with the most staffing required Friday through Sunday. Shifts are from 9:30 am until 1:30 pm and 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm.

Since Volunteers are needed to provide educational, recreational and trip planning information a basic knowledge of the Great Smoky Mountains national park and surrounding area is very helpful even though volunteers are provided orientation and training before their tour of duty.

The Clingmans Dome Information Center first came into being last year by moving the bathrooms into the Clingmans Dome parking area and converting the space into an information center where visitors could ask questions of park staff and volunteers as well as make small purchases of book, maps, tee shirts and other park related items.

If you are interested and could attend the mandatory training that will be held at the Oconaluftee Administration Building just inside the park on 441 North of Cherokee, North Carolina on Thursday, March 13, 2014, please contact Ranger Florie Takaki Monday through Friday at (828)497-1906 or by email at: Florie_Takaki@nps.gov.

The Great Smoky Mountings National Park Is Looking For Volunteers in North Carolina

If you love the Great Smoky Mountains national park, you can give back to the park by becoming a volunteer which is a very rewarding experience.

Presently the GSMNP is looking for volunteers to rove in and around the Oconaluftee Mountain Farm Museum, the Oconaluftee River Trail and along a part of Newfound Gap Road/US441 from now until Nov 9th, 2013.

Volunteers should have knowledge about the park and will be providing information to park visitors such as approaching and disturbing wildlife, littering, historical information and places to go in the park. When necessary, a volunteer will need to assist park rangers with traffic management.

Volunteers will also need to provide visitors with information on viewing elk and other wildlife safely, about the elk reintroduction program in the GSMNP and the elk's role in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

To participate or for more information, contact the Oconaluftee Visitor Center at (828)497-1904. Volunteers will be required to take an orientation and training session on Friday, April 26 from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm at Oconaluftee.

Volunteers Needed To Help Survey Tree Arthropods in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park

If you love science, want to get your hands dirty, become more intimately knowledgeable and help the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, here is your chance to do something exciting and help advance science in the GSMNP.

For those who are seriously interested in helping collect specimens and data compilation on an ongoing long term basis, Discover Life in America (DLIA), the non-profit organization coordinating the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in GSMNP, will host the Tree Team Training program beginning at 9:00 am on June 18th at the Twin Creeks Nature Center just outside Gatlinburg off Cherokee Orchard Road.

For those who wish to partake in this program, you will be collecting insects, spiders and other arthropods specimens at what is considered easily accessible areas, on both Tennessee and North Carolina sides of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

You will be trained and will make use of a variety of collection techniques in order to survey these animals so that not only can the vitality, but unknown ecological linkages between flora and fauna can be studied.

Registration in advance is required. You must contact Todd Witcher the executive director of DLIA, at (865)430-4757 or email him at todd@dlia.org.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs more Volunteers to assist with the Elk Program

For those of us who love the Great Smoky Mountains national park, nothing feels better than giving back to the place which means so much to us and for locals who live in the Smokies this is your chance as the park still needs more volunteers for the Elk Bugle Corp program.

Probably this first animal that comes to mind when you think about the Great Smoky Mountains national park is our beloved black bear which has been a visitor favorite since the GSM national parks formation 75 years ago.

North American Elk used to freely roam the Smoky Mountains until the 1800's where they were hunted to extinction, but thanks the Friends of the Smokies and other conservation groups between 2001 and 2002 a total of 52 North American Elk were reintroduced into the Cataloochee Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

The park service is looking for volunteers to join the Elk Bugle Corps to assist park rangers by giving park visitors information on the elk as well as responsible elk viewing practices and to help with parking and traffic management in the Cataloochee Valley.

Additional Volunteers are needed to help from May to November and work for at least 2 scheduled, four hour shifts per month. Help is especially needed on day shifts from 1 pm to 5 pm through the summer.

Anyone interested in joining the Elk Bugle Corp should call Mark LaShell the Cataloochee Park Ranger at (828) 269-3161 for training which will be held tomorrow at the Palmer Barn from 10 am to 4 pm. Volunteers are asked to bring their own lunch as there are no facilities at the park.

Related Elk in the GSMNP Stories

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park Elk Poaching Suspect Confesses and Arrest is Emanate
• Elk poaching takes place in Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.
• Elk Reintroduction in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs more Volunteers for Elk Bugle Corp Program

Last call for volunteers to help the GSMNP remove non native plants.

Non native plant removal will take place this Saturday in the Big Creek section of the Great Smoky Mountains national park and Your Smokies officially declares that for this weekend Tennessee and North Carolina are both to be called "The Volunteer State".

OK maybe my official declaration doesn't mean much, but your help removing non native plants that have invaded the Great Smoky Mountains for a few hours would really help the national park!

We are looking for a few good hands willing to enjoy the fresh air and beauty of the GSMNP while helping by pulling out 2 plants that are disturbing the ecology of the park.

Bring nothing but yourself (and maybe a few friends); a great attitude, water, lunch and a pair of gloves wouldn't hurt. Meet us before 10:00 am in the picnic area and expect to be done by 2:00 pm.

Further details about the Non-Native Plant Control in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

National Parks America Tour Earth Day in GSMNP

Volunteers around the country will be helping clean, maintain and build in the nations national parks for America Tour Earth Day on Saturday April 21st but we need your help right here in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

We need your help so that we may perform trail maintenance, perform litter patrols, riverbank cleanup, help with park landscaping and other park beautification projects that all the visitors who come here can enjoy.

If you want to join us you must register by calling the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Volunteer Office at (865) 436-1265.

For those who are registered we will meet at 8:30 am at the Sugarlands Visitor Center located near the Gatlinburg, Tennessee park entrance where there will be breakfast which is sponsored by Unilever and Wal-Mart Stores and check in for volunteers from 8:30 am to 9:00 am. We will only work until 12:00 noon at which time a free Great American Picnic Lunch will be served to all volunteers.

We are expecting more than 200 volunteers to participate and we ask everyone who is attending the America Tour Earth Day event to dress properly with sturdy shoes and long pants. You may get dirty so I would suggest you wear old clothes.

Among pride in a job well done all participants will receive a free t-shirt!