WHY I LOVE THESE MOUNTAINS

time lapse: Thursday, May 23, 2013:
http://www.outragegis.com/weather/img/animation/yesterday/ColdMountain.gif

THE SMOKIES APPROACHING SUNSET WEDNESDAY, MAY 22ND, 2013

Next Phase of Work on Newfound Gap Road Gets Underway

Great Smoky Mountains News Release

Release Date: Immediate

Contact: Dana Soehn, Dana_Soehn@nps.gov

Phone number: 865-436-1207

Date: May 21, 2013

Next Phase of Work on Newfound Gap Road Gets Underway

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that a project to repave 6.1 miles of Newfound Gap Road will begin in May. This work is part of a multi-phased rehabilitation project started in 2007. The section to be resurfaced extends from Chimney’s Picnic Area south to an overlook approximately 2 miles south of the Alum Cave Bluffs parking area where the last phase ended.

The work will be performed under a $13.2 million contract with Estes Brothers Construction of Jonesville, VA and will be administered by the Federal Highway Administration’s Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division. Funding is provided to the NPS through the Federal Lands Transportation Program to support this work.

Park Superintendent Ditmanson said, “In developing this contract we made every effort to minimize the disruption to visitor access to Park attractions and to our gateway communities. The contract incorporates a variety of work restrictions that are tailored to minimize lane closures during the busiest periods.”

Motorists should expect delays due to lane closures through June 15. There will not be any daytime lane closures from June 15 through August 15. After August 15, daytime lane closures will again be allowed. No work of any kind will be permitted on federal holidays or during the month of October.

This section of road was last repaved in the 1980s and is badly deteriorated. In addition to the repaving, major work items in this project include the replacement of drainage culverts and the repair of several guard walls. This work is the second of three phases to repair all 15 miles of the Road from Newfound Gap to the Park boundary at Gatlinburg - a process that Park managers expect to finish in 2016.

For more information about road closures, please visit the Park’s website at www.nps.gov/grsm and or call the Park’s Road and Weather Information Line at 865-436-1200.

CLOUDS ROLL IN FOR THE WEEKEND

 PURCHASE KNOB webcam - 7:45 am Friday, May 17

LOOK ROCK webcam - 7:45 am Friday, May 17

MIDDLE PRONG LITTLE RIVER at Tremont May 10, 2013

A BEAUTIFUL TUESDAY IN THE SMOKIES

 COLD MOUNTAIN WEBCAM - Shining Rock Wilderness   Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina

 LOOK ROCK WEBCAM - on Foothills Parkway in Blount County - overlooking the park

 JOYCE KILMER WILDERNESS WEBCAM     Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina

 

PURCHASE KNOB WEBCAM - North Carolina side of national park

LOOK ROCK AFTER A RAINY WEEKEND

Look Rock webcam, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on Blount Co. portion of Foothills Parkway

 

 8:00 am Mon. May 6, 2013

 

Park Releases New Species of Predatory Beetles

Great Smoky Mountains News Release

Release Date: Immediate

Contact: Dana Soehn, Dana_Soehn@nps.gov

Date: May 1, 2013

Park Releases New Species of Predatory Beetles

Great Smoky Mountains National Park resource managers plan to release two new predatory beetle species to aid in control efforts to stop the spread of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect pest that has devastated hemlock forests throughout the eastern United States.

The park began releasing predatory beetles, which feed exclusively on adelgids, as a biocontrol in 2002. Park managers are hopeful that the addition of these two new beetle species will further enhance our bicontrol treatment program. Both beetles, Laricobius osakensis and Scymnus coniferarum, will be released at biocontrol sites throughout the park. L. osakensis beetles come from Osaka Japan where the Smokies strain of HWA originated. S. coniferarum beetles come from Washington where a similar HWA species occurs and has been kept in check by natural beetle predation.

Park managers currently utilize two other beetle species for HWA control including Laricobius nigrinus from Washington and Sasajiscymnus tsugae from Northern Japan. Both of these species are established in the Park and are increasing in numbers and in their ability to control HWA. In the long term, Park managers expect beetles to control HWA as populations reach a natural balance as they have in Washington, British Columbia, and Japan.

The park employs a three-prong approach in managing HWA that includes foliar applications of horticultural oil in developed areas, stem and soil injections of systemic insecticides (imidacloprid or dinotefuran), and the release of predatory beetles. All of the chemical and biological control techniques are showing positive effects. Currently about 600 acres are being sprayed annually, over 250,000 hemlock trees have been hand-treated with systemic pesticides spread across 11,000 acres, and over 545,000 predatory beetles have been released.

Each of these species of HWA predatory beetles are very small black lady beetles and should not be confused with the larger red and black spotted lady beetle that is typically found overwintering in large numbers throughout the area. All introduced biological controls such as the HWA predatory beetles are first quarantined and researched in depth before given approval by the USDA for release.