GSMA Budgets over $1 Million for Park

The National Park Service will benefit from a total of $1.7 million derived from the Great Smoky Mountain Association’s sales at park bookstores, its website and member’s dues. The amount is $500,000 greater than what the association provided last year.

There are no entrance fees charged to the public to drive into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and it is interesting to us that this one association can spread their funds wide enough to cover the following highlights of the park budget:

$169,400 to pay salaries for seasonal rangers who staff visitor centers and present interpretive walks and talks in the park. This sum will include a new ranger stationed on Mt. Le Conte who will contact day hikers, backpackers, and lodge guests and stress different ways these users can help preserve the fragile eco-system atop the mountain.

$100,000 for supplies, equipment and personnel for the save the hemlock trees project.

$25,750 to sponsor the ongoing bear population monitoring project conducted by the University of Tennessee, including the work of a bear warden.

$127,000 for the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at Purchase Knob, located above Maggie Valley. Funds will cover facility renovations and mini grants for scientific research.

$20,000 for the ongoing experimental elk reintroduction project.

$72,000 for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory – a project to identify all species of plants and animals in the Smokies.

$72,500 for the continuing environmental education provided for adults and children at Tremont in the Park.

$31,000 for two seasonal wildlife technicians to control bears and non native wild hogs.

$27,000 to mow Cades Cove fields. This preserves the beauty and the historical integrity of the cove and enhances the wildlife viewing for visitors.

$26,000 to store the park’s artifact collection in Oak Ridge, TN.

$13,000 for air quality monitoring equipment.