Since 1998, DLiA—with the help of scientists, volunteers, and students—has added over 12,000 species to park records, more than doubling the number known at the start of the project. An astounding 1,095 of those species were “new to science,” meaning that they had not been documented anywhere else in the world.

"For years, ATBI folks suspected that webspinners were here in the Smokies," said Will, "but no one had seen them yet, until now!"