To celebrate #20YearsDiscovering with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we’re sharing a genus of caddisfly with you this week! Neophylax kolodskii was named in honor of Park Ranger Joe Kolodski, who was shot and killed while on duty. The description was published in 2000, by Charles Parker, former USGS employee stationed in […]

  “Each year at this time, colleague Kyle Dexter and I (together with the most amazing set of hard-working volunteers and field friends) escape to collect data on a one-hectare long term study plot nestled in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, under the tallest canopy in eastern North America (it’s […]

  Draparnaldia is a widespread genus of charismatic freshwater green algae. The genus contains many endemic or restricted-distribution species. In 2004, algologists conducting research in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the ATBI discovered a distinctive population of Draparnaldia in Cades Cove. It was distinctly different than the other three […]

  Though it takes a lot of work to document the park’s biodiversity, sometimes new park records do almost drop into one’s lap. High school intern, Scott Futral, was speaking with the park’s Research Coordinator and two ATBI (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory) scientists on the deck of the Purchase Knob […]

Throughout 2018, Discover Life in America will be celebrating its 20th year of discovery in Great Smoky Mountains National Park by sharing posts about a few of the park’s wondrous varieties of plants and animals. All are species that were discovered in the national park as part of the All […]