KNOXVILLE — Volunteer and make your community a cleaner, healthier place to live, work, and play during the 37th annual Ijams River Rescue from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 21. A severe weather date is set for Saturday, March 28.
Ijams Nature Center’s annual cleanup event brings together hundreds of individuals, families, Scout troops, businesses, and church groups to remove tons of trash and tires from sites along the Tennessee River, creeks, and streams.
“Ijams’ goal is to fill about 500 volunteer slots at 36 sites in Knox, Anderson, and Blount counties,” Volunteer Manager Brandy Cox said. “If you’re looking for a fun way to get outdoors and make a positive difference in your community, grab some friends and join us!”
Last year’s 518 volunteers removed an estimated 17.2 tons of trash, 100 tires, large household appliances, and car parts from 34 sites along area waterways.
Potential volunteers can sign up for a cleanup site or learn where they can help.
Site captains will be stationed at each site. Bags, gloves, and other supplies will be provided.
Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt featuring a frog that is passionate about clean water. It was designed by Hellbender Press contributor Stephen Lyn Bales.
Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) is among the wildflowers you may encounter each spring at Whiteoak Sink and other areas of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The sink is such a draw for wildflower lovers the park service limits the number of people who can enter the sink at any one time in a bid to protect the flowers. Wikipedia Commons
GATLINBURG — In what has become an annual plea, rangers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park again reminds visitors to limit group sizes at Whiteoak Sink, a wildflower mecca in the most-visited park in the U.S.
Here’s the release from the National Park Service:
“As spring approaches, Great Smoky Mountains National Park reminds visitors of group size limits during the popular wildflower season at Whiteoak Sink. Individuals and small groups of eight or fewer people may access the Whiteoak Sink area throughout the wildflower season from April 1 through May 3.
“Whiteoak Sink is a sensitive area that hosts many rare plants. Park managers limit group size to protect sensitive wildflower species from trampling. Overuse of the area causes impacts like damage to plants and soil compaction when large groups crowd around plants off trail to take photos or closely view flowers. Parking is limited, so visitors should plan ahead and come prepared with alternative destinations in case they do not find parking available at Whiteoak Sink. Parking is not permitted on road shoulders.”
A father and his daughter pose with a bagged Georgia bird. GDNR
ATLANTA — Youth and mobility-impaired hunters get an early start to turkey season on March 21-22. This special opportunity gives youth and mobility-impaired hunters a chance to harvest a gobbler on private lands before the statewide turkey season opens, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division.
This early weekend hunt opportunity is available on private lands and is only for youth 16 years of age and younger, or hunters that are mobility impaired (i.e. confined to a wheelchair, hemiplegia, monoplegia, paraplegia, or single-leg amputation above the knee). Youth hunters must be accompanied by an adult (18 years or older) who may call for turkey but may not take or attempt to take a turkey.
The season bag limit for turkeys is one gobbler (male turkey) per hunter per day, and a season total of two gobblers.
All turkey hunters, including those under 16 years of age, landowners, honorary, lifetime, and sportsman license holders, must obtain a free harvest record each season. Before moving a harvested turkey, hunters are required to immediately enter the date and county on the harvest record, and within 24 hours, must complete the reporting process through Georgia Game Check. More information at GeorgiaWildlife.com/HarvestRecordGeorgiaGameCheck.
-GDNR
The Walker Sisters Cabin is among the dozens of historic buildings in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Friends of the Smokies
This story was originally published by Compass.
GATLINBURG — It takes a lot of work to keep things looking the way they used to look.
A small army of uniquely skilled artisans labors through the seasons and decades to maintain, preserve and conserve the dozens of historical structures in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Restoration projects have included Cable Mill flume and Elijah Oliver cabin in Cades Cove, and the Walker Sisters Cabin in Little Greenbrier.
It takes talent and an old-fashioned eye for detail in cabins, barns, millraces, schoolhouses and churches. It also takes a lot of money.
The Boyd Foundation in February announced a $750,000 donation to Friends of the Smokies that will push a key historic-preservation endowment to $9 million.
NASHVILLE —The 19th annual Tennessee Tree Day continues to branch toward March 21. This is the first time there will be events in each of the state’s 95 counties. The Tennessee Environmental Council (TEC) is the primary organizer. Tree reservations are open now and close on March 8.
Tennessee Tree Day is an opportunity for residents across the state to purchase native saplings of trees and woody shrubs to foster nature in their yards and neighborhoods. Woody plants provide habitat for wildlife, increase shade cover, help store carbon, and improve air quality.
Participants can pick up their trees on March 20 or 21 at any of the pick-up sites, which are run by various volunteer groups and businesses. Over a million trees have been planted thanks to Tennessee Tree Day since 2007.
There are 11 species to choose from this year, including sweet pecan, black elderberry and American persimmon — iconic Appalachian fruiting plants. Some other species are white pine, river birch, smooth sumac and eastern redbud.
Each sapling can be purchased for either $3.99 or $4.99, depending on species. For those who are unable to afford to participate, TEC offers tree scholarships. These scholarships are funded by corporate sponsorships, agency sponsorships and personal donations.
-Emelia Delaporte
KNOXVILLE — The East Tennessee chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (ETSPJ) once again will partner with the League of Women Voters Knoxville/Knox County (LWVKKC) to hold the annual legislative forum of the Knox County delegation. The forecast for Knoxville is warm and sunny, unlike the original date on Jan. 31.
When: Saturday, Feb. 28, 9-10:30 a.m.
Where: YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center
What: Discussion with Knox County legislative delegation
Why: Hear from state senators and representatives about the 2026 session
It will be livestreamed on Facebook by the League of Women Voters HERE for those who can't attend in person.
The date is Saturday, Feb. 28, from 9-10:30 a.m. at the YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center, located at 124 S. Cruze St., in East Knoxville near downtown. A parking lot next to the building and street parking are available. Parking is free.
Jesse Mayshark, a co-founder of Compass Knox, will serve as moderator. Access for one-on-one, in-person media interviews with the legislators in attendance also will be available at 10 a.m. after the hour-long forum.
Coffee and breakfast bagels and pastries will be available at 8:30 a.m. and are free while they last. The event is open to the public.
-ETSPJ
KNOXVILLE — In a startling about-face, the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday voted unanimously to reverse plans to decommission two aging coal-fired power plants in Tennessee.
The board’s decision represents a dramatic departure from a utilitywide effort to move away from coal as an energy source.
Climate activists panned the board vote as a sop to the fossil-fuel industry and an abdication of the massive public utility’s statutory responsibility to the public.
The decision during the board’s meeting in Hopkinsville, Ky., applies to the Cumberland and Kingston fossil plants, both of which were to be replaced with natural-gas plants. The utility will continue planned natural-gas upgrades but will still fire the coal plants, which were both set to be decommissioned by 2028.
The site of the 70-year-old Kingston plant in Roane County was also supposed to be home to a solar array and other alternative-energy sources. A 2008 coal-ash slurry spill at the Kingston facility devastated a wide swath of adjacent property and the Emory and Clinch river watersheds. The Cumberland plant is situated near Clarksville in Middle Tennessee.
The Bull Run coal plant in Claxton near Oak Ridge was taken offline in 2023. Its locally iconic stacks were demolished in 2025. Last month, TVA announced a multimillion-dollar fusion energy research complex at the site in cooperation with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and Knoxville-based Type One Energy.
The board’s decision on the Kingston and Cumberland facilities represents a dramatic departure from a utilitywide effort to move on from coal and shutter coal-fired boilers in favor, largely, of natural gas.
Burning coal and other fossil fuels releases large amounts of sulfates, nitrates and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and worsens a greenhouse effect that drives global temperature increases. Fine particles are also a threat to respiratory health. TVA has long operated costly emissions-control technologies at its coal plants.
LONE MOUNTAIN ― The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking the public for comments on plans to issue a permit and 30-year easement for a new marina and connected facilities on 63 acres on Norris Reservoir at Clinch River Mile 134.7 in Claiborne County.
Per TVA’s draft environmental assessment: “The proposed (Norris Lake Serenity, LLC) Project would include 1,216 public boat slips, a floating marina store, fuel docks, a wave break, utilities to service the boat slips, land-based porticos, a boat ramp, and access roads and associated infrastructure. TVA’s action includes approval of the construction of proposed facilities within TVA’s flowage easement and approval of a 30-year easement for operation of the commercial marina.”
Details on the proposed Tennessee Vues Marina are found in a draft environmental assessment posted at tva.com/nepa. The draft assessment considers the potential environmental impacts of the commercial marina as requested in Section 26a permit applications. The marina would include boat slips for public rental and is consistent with TVA’s land management policies.
Comments on the draft EA can be submitted by Dec. 22, 2025, and may be submitted online at tva.com/nepa, emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or mailed to Jessica Wykoff-Carpenter, NEPA Specialist, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 W. Summit Hill Drive WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 37902. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the project administrative record and will be available for public inspection.
-Tennessee Valley Authority
CHATTANOOGA — The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission will hold its final meeting of 2025 at the Tennessee Aquarium (Lupton Room) on Dec. 4-5. Committee meetings begin at 1 p.m. Dec. 4, with full commission proceedings continuing at 9 a.m. Dec. 5. Both meetings will be streamed on Youtube.
The commission will have three rule-making hearings, which were previewed by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency staff at the TFWC’s October meeting in Nashville. To view the October TFWC meeting, click here. They pertain to the deer-baiting privilege license (only on private or leased lands), the North Cumberland OHV permit, and changes to the endangered or threatened species list.
One species, the teardrop darter, is under consideration to be added to the state Threatened and Endangered Species list. It is only found in Tennessee and Kentucky, where it occurs in the Barren and Green river systems. Two species, the Clinch dace and Sequatchie darter, are proposed to be removed from the list because they are not recognized by the American Fisheries Society.
Leading up to the rule-making hearing, Wildlife and Forestry Division Assistant Chief Mark McBride and wildlife veterinarian Dr. Dan Grove will present background information on the Deer Baiting Privilege License during Thursday's committee meetings. Expected impacts of baiting on deer, deer harvests, impacts on other species, and CWD will be among the topics discussed.
-TWRA
