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Great Smoky Mountains National ParkWild Turkeys are plentiful in the park.
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Volunteer
 
Volunteers assist the park in a variety of ways.
Photo by Don McGowan.
The Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program allows people from all walks of life to step in and lend a hand to help the park.
   
 
While the number of visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park increases each year, funding and resources to provide for these people and their needs do not keep increasing rapidly enough to keep up with the increased visitation. The Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program allows people from all walks of life to step in and lend a hand to help the park staff assist the visitors by doing jobs that otherwise could not be done. Some of the way the VIP's help out here are by:
  • Staffing information desks
  • Serving as Campground Hosts
  • Maintaining and patrolling trails in the park
  • Presenting living history programs
  • Assisting in Resource Management projects.
To apply for the program, you simply call or write the park requesting the Volunteers in Parks information packet. It will contain more details of these and other positions available here, along with an application form you fill out and return to the park. Please keep in mind that housing in the park is not available.

To receive a packet contact :
VIP Coordinator Great Smoky Mountains National Park
107 Park Headquarters Drive
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738

Or telephone (865) 436-1265
 

Student Conservation Association
We also utilize Resource Assistants and high school work crews from the Student Conservation Association, Inc. (SCA), which accepts applications for various agencies like the Smokies. They recruit applicants for high school volunteer programs and college-age and older volunteers as Resource Assistants and Conservation Career Development Program fellows. Each year the park utilizes a number of individuals and high school crews, recruited by SCA, in Resource Management activities such as:
  • Wildlife and fisheries management
  • Vegetation management
  • Air quality monitoring
  • Backcountry management
  • Long-term inventory and monitoring activities of the resources
  • Support of the Park's Visitor Services and Parks-as-Classrooms programs
  • Support of backcountry management and trails maintenance activities.
Applications are accepted for winter/spring and summer/fall periods. For more information contact:

The Student Conservation Association, Inc.
PO Box 550
Charlestown, NH 03603-0550
(603) 543-1700
www.sca-inc.org
Spring Wildflowers
Spring Wildflowers
The Great Smoky Mountains are known as the "Wildflower National Park."
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Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Infestation
Hemlock Woolly Adelgids
Eastern hemlock trees are under attack from a non-native insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid.
more...
Scientists estimate that 100,000 different species live in the park.  

Did You Know?
What lives in Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Although the question sounds simple, it is actually extremely complex. Right now scientists think that we only know about 12 percent of the plants and animals that live in the park, or about 12,000 species of a probable 100,000 different organisms.

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Last Updated: July 24, 2006 at 22:37 EST