Parson Branch Road, a bucolic route that runs from Cades Cove to the western boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has been closed since 2016 due to hazardous trees. Now, however, the road could reopen this summer as tree removal work is completed and rehabilitation of the gravel road is tackled.
The Friends of the Smokies provided critical funding to support the removal of the trees, according to the park.
Park crews originally delayed opening the road in the summer of 2016 due to a damaged, 20-linear-foot section of road caused by an uprooted dead tree. After further inspection, crews identified more than 1,700 hazardous trees within falling distance of the road corridor. As a result, the road was closed to all vehicle use by the public.
The estimated cost of hazardous tree removal for the area at the time, ranged between $300,000 and $450,000, the park said.. The narrow, low speed roadway closely winds along the creek through mature forests containing a high concentration of Eastern hemlock trees that were dead or dying due to a widespread infestation of the non-native forest pest, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA).
Park crews have continued to work diligently during the five-year closure to remove downed trees blocking the road and to make needed road repairs to ensure that the corridor was passable for emergency vehicles. Over this time period, more than half the dead trees have fallen due to natural deterioration and multiple large storm events. The park secured funds for the removal of an additional 800 standing hazard trees along the road corridor from a $100,000 donation by the Friends of the Smokies, and taht donation was matched by an additional $50,000 from federal funds to pay for tree removal.
Once the tree removal work is complete, park crews will begin working on road clean-up, ditching, and grading of the road surface to ready it for opening.
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Comments
2016-2022: 6 years to get a job done. Sounds about right for NPS work.
Gawd awful.