Don’t worry, you can’t kill it
A hundred years ago, much of the area that is now Great Smoky Mountain National Park was extensively logged, and back in the day logging practices weren’t very environmentally friendly, or logger friendly for that matter. Almost all the land drained by the Little River, which is most of the Tennessee side of the park, was clear-cut. And getting all of that timber down off of the mountains to the sawmills was a bit disruptive as well. But in 1924, the Little River Lumber Company sold its 75,000 acres in the Smoky Mountains to the state of Tennessee as a part of the formation of the new national park. Fast forward a hundred years and the forest has regenerated, although not to its former glory, and today GSMNP is the most visited U.S. national park by a factor of two.
In late November of 2016 parts of this same area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were scorched by arson related wildfires, as were some of the towns in the surrounding area. The fires claimed 14 lives, injured 134, and were one the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee. If you are not familiar with that fire some of the details are in the caption of this photo:
www.flickr.com/photos/tim_lumley/34486334193/
This image was taken along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail about three miles south of Gatlinburg, TN. in one of most severely burned areas in last winter’s fires. The fire was hot enough to burn almost everything in the area but for rock and mineral soil. The good news is that even after this intense fire, when spring came most burned-out tree stumps sported new root sprouts, indicating the recovery had begun. While it won’t be in my lifetime, I have no doubt the great hardwood forest in this area will return. I guess Mother Nature is not as fragile as we sometime fear. Unfortunately, it’s a different story for the 14 people that lost their lives, and one that doesn’t have a happy ending.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee, USA. Elevation: 2,950 ft. May 2, 2017.
Don’t worry, you can’t kill it
A hundred years ago, much of the area that is now Great Smoky Mountain National Park was extensively logged, and back in the day logging practices weren’t very environmentally friendly, or logger friendly for that matter. Almost all the land drained by the Little River, which is most of the Tennessee side of the park, was clear-cut. And getting all of that timber down off of the mountains to the sawmills was a bit disruptive as well. But in 1924, the Little River Lumber Company sold its 75,000 acres in the Smoky Mountains to the state of Tennessee as a part of the formation of the new national park. Fast forward a hundred years and the forest has regenerated, although not to its former glory, and today GSMNP is the most visited U.S. national park by a factor of two.
In late November of 2016 parts of this same area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were scorched by arson related wildfires, as were some of the towns in the surrounding area. The fires claimed 14 lives, injured 134, and were one the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee. If you are not familiar with that fire some of the details are in the caption of this photo:
www.flickr.com/photos/tim_lumley/34486334193/
This image was taken along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail about three miles south of Gatlinburg, TN. in one of most severely burned areas in last winter’s fires. The fire was hot enough to burn almost everything in the area but for rock and mineral soil. The good news is that even after this intense fire, when spring came most burned-out tree stumps sported new root sprouts, indicating the recovery had begun. While it won’t be in my lifetime, I have no doubt the great hardwood forest in this area will return. I guess Mother Nature is not as fragile as we sometime fear. Unfortunately, it’s a different story for the 14 people that lost their lives, and one that doesn’t have a happy ending.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee, USA. Elevation: 2,950 ft. May 2, 2017.