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Trail Work Volunteers Needed

September 17, 2019

Smokies-Trail-Volunteers

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is excited to announce a number of trail maintenance volunteer workdays in North Carolina and Tennessee that showcase a number meaningful partnerships with organizations who actively support our mission.

All necessary paperwork to register as a “Volunteer in Park” (VIP) can be done on site.  Prior notice of attendance is necessary.  Please email adam_monroe@nps.gov or call 828-497-1949 to sign up for a workday.

Opportunities include:

Working Wednesdays:

Contribute to the ongoing major rehabilitation project of the Trillium Gap Trail supported greatly by Friends of the Smokies with the Trails Forever initiative.  Volunteers meet at the Grotto Falls/Trillium Gap trailhead, located off of the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail at 9:00 am each Wednesday throughout September and October.

The Volunteer crew will continue to prune back vegetation that has encroached into the trail corridor.  Our job site begins approximately 2 miles from the trailhead and we hope to reach Trillium Gap at mile 2.8 in the coming weeks.  Please be prepared to hike with personal gear and tools to this part of the trail.  We will return to the trailhead by 3:30 pm.

Saturday, September 28th – National Public Lands Day

Volunteers are invited to participate on a trail rehabilitation project on the Kanati Fork Trail from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.  The trail is located just off of Newfound Gap Road (441) in North Carolina.

Volunteers will perform trail maintenance including installation of drainage features, rehabilitation of trail surfaces, and removal of brush.   The workday will offer a great opportunity to learn about sustainable trail design and gain a behind the scenes look at what it takes to maintain the vast trail network of Great Smoky Mountains National park.

National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands across America. This year’s celebration is expected to draw more than 200,000 volunteers at more than 2,600 sites. For more information about National Public Lands visit https://www.neefusa.org/public-lands-day.

Thursday, October 17 – Brushy Mountain Trail

Join corps members from the Southeast Conservation Corps out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and staff from REI Knoxville from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm to accomplish much needed trail maintenance in the Greenbrier area of the park.

In addition to completing self-sufficient projects in the backcountry, the corps members are encouraged to engage with the local volunteer community to extend their reach and production.  Great Smoky Mountains National Park is pleased to host this hardworking crew for extended work weeks made possible from funding from the National Park Foundation and REI.