Researchers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are looking for a few good volunteers for a one-day project at the park on October 31, 2009. If you'd like to learn some new skills and are up to several miles of hiking, here are the details.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park lures visitors with its rumpled, mist-cloaked mountains, its leaping streams, dense forests, and Appalachian history. The thrill of hearing a bull elk's bugle echoing off the mountainsides also is becoming a powerful lure, thanks to an elk recovery program that's developed a healthy herd of the iconic ungulates in the Cataloochee Valley and Oconaluftee areas.

How should wildland fires be managed at Great Smoky Mountains National Park? The park is updating its plan to answer that question, and has prepared an Environmental Assessment as part of the process. If you have an opinion, now's the time to let the park know your views.

Where do you go to digitally capture fall colors in the National Park System? The National Park Foundation released a list of the Top 10 parks for fall color the other day, and there are some old stalwarts, and some upstarts as well!