National Parks Traveler Episode 109: Great Smoky's Wildlife Corridors

By Kurt Repanshek - March 14th, 2021

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an ideal place to see bear, elk and other mammals, large and small. But too often the place these wild animals are seen most is dead along the side of Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge, victims of a fragmented habitat combined with an increasing number of motor vehicles.

A collaborative effort to study wildlife mortality from motor vehicle collisions and find solutions for wildlife to safely cross this winding highway along the Pigeon River outside the national park is fully underway with nearly 100 stakeholders in North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Traveler’s Lynn Riddick reached out to Jeff Hunter, facilitator of the project, to learn how it will come to fruition and the greater benefits to us all when we create safe places for animals to cross roadways

:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:45 Shenandoah - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of Shenandoah
2:00 Western National Parks Association
2:23 Potrero Group
2:54 North Cascades Institute
3:12 Grand Teton National Park Foundation
3:49 Lynn Riddick discusses wildlife road crossings at Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Jeffrey Hunter from NPCA.
22:13 Almost Home - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
22:27 National Parks Traveler
22:41 Interior Federal Credit Union promotion
23:04 Friends of Acadia
23:30 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
23:54 Washington’s National Park Fund
24:33 Great Smoky Mountains' wildlife crossings with Lynn Riddick and Jeffrey Hunter continues
49:06 Wonder Lake - Various Artists - The Spirit of Alaska
49:26 Episode Closing
49:57 Orange Tree Productions
50:32 Splitbeard Productions
50:44 National Parks Traveler footer

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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There’s no hyperbole in that statement if you pay attention to what the administration already has done in terms of downsizing those agencies’ workforces, and when you listen to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum say he wants to open more public lands to energy development and mining.

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 322 | Congressman Jared Huffman

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