Your Smoky Mountain Adventure Awaits: Smoky Mountain Field School

Picture yourself walking a misty trail while an expert points out the difference between two salamanders you would have stepped over, or standing in Cades Cove at dusk learning how monarchs find their way to Mexico. That is the Smoky Mountain Field School, a University of Tennessee program that has been teaching people about Great Smoky Mountains National Park since 1978. Here is what it is, what you will do, and how to sign up.

What Is the Smoky Mountain Field School?

The Field School started with a conversation on an icy winter drive between Gatlinburg and Cherokee. Dr. Gayle Cooper, then assistant director of non-credit programs at the University of Tennessee, had seen similar programs succeed out west. Her colleague Dr. Ed Clebsch, who was involved with the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage, encouraged her to talk with park staff. On that drive across the mountains, Cooper and the park’s assistant chief of interpretation, Don DeFoe, worked out the idea. Cooper became the program’s first director.

Nearly five decades later it remains one of the longest-running educational partnerships between a major state university and a national park. Today it is administered by the UT Center for Professional Education and Lifelong Learning.

The format is simple: one-day courses, held on Saturdays, taught in the park by people who know the subject cold. You do not need any background. Whether you have hiked the Smokies for thirty years or you are looking at a park map for the first time, the courses are built for curious adults.

What’s So Awesome About Smoky Mountain Field School?

The Field School is all about getting you into the heart of the Smokies. Here’s why it’s a blast:

• You learn the park, not just facts about it. Courses cover plants, wildlife, geology, history, and culture, with the underlying goal of building genuine stewardship of the place.
• The instructors are the draw. Faculty include professors, professional naturalists, current and former park personnel, authors, and wildlife specialists. Class sizes stay small so you actually get access to them.
• The range is wide. Wildflowers, birds, trees, edible and medicinal plants, butterflies, synchronous fireflies, nature photography, historic communities, and Cherokee plant traditions have all appeared on recent schedules.
• It is social. Bring an adult friend or family member, or come alone and meet people who care about the same mountains you do. A lot of participants come back year after year.
• Low commitment. Most courses are a single day, so you can try one without rearranging your life.

How the Program Works

• Who can join. You must be 18 or older to register for and attend a Field School course. Participants sign an electronic release and assumption of risk form before attending.
• Season. Courses run from early spring through late fall, when conditions in the park are best for field work.
• Format. Most courses are one-day Saturday sessions built around a hike, a workshop, or hands-on field observation. A few, such as the firefly night walks, are scheduled in the evening and may be added to the calendar on short notice.
• Where. Courses meet at sites throughout the park. Recent schedules have used White Oak Sink, Cades Cove, the Cove Hardwood Nature Trail, and Elkmont, among others. Some sessions are held indoors in Knoxville.
• Registration. Register online through the UT Center for Professional Education and Lifelong Learning at cpell.utk.edu, or call 865-974-0150. Popular courses fill quickly, so book as soon as the season schedule is posted.

A Sample of Recent Courses

The schedule changes every year. These have appeared recently and give a good sense of the range:

• Hiking with Confidence. Trip planning, what belongs in your pack, wildlife-watching etiquette, animal behavior basics, and how to handle sudden weather and rough terrain.
• White Oak Sink Naturalist Ramble. A guided walk through one of the park’s more unusual geologic pockets.
• Birds of Cades Cove. Identification by sight and sound in one of the park’s best birding locations.
• Spring Climbs the Mountain. How the season moves up in elevation, and what blooms when.
• Community Science. How ordinary visitors contribute real data to park research.
• Foraging for Food and Farmacy. Wild edible and medicinal plants and the Southern Appalachian traditions attached to them.
• Photography for Naturalists. Field technique for photographing plants, wildlife, and landscapes.
• Trees of the Cove Hardwood Trail. Identification in one of the finest old-growth cove hardwood stands anywhere.
• A Night Walk with the Fireflies. An evening in the park during firefly season.
• Plant Diversity of the Smokies. A broad look at why this park holds the plant variety it does.
• Monarchs, Butterflies, and Flutterbies in Cades Cove. Migration, host plants, and identification.
• Cherokee Plant Lore and More. Native plant use and cultural knowledge.
• Elkmont: Transition and Change. The logging camp, the summer colony, and what the park did with the site afterward.

Going Deeper: The Naturalist Certification

If one Saturday is not enough, the UT Center for Professional Education and Lifelong Learning also partners with the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont on the Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certification Program. It is an eight-course sequence covering Southern Appalachian ecology and interpretive technique, and finishing all eight earns a certificate from the University of Tennessee. You can also take single courses in the series without pursuing the full certification. Details are at gsmit.org.

Who’s Teaching

The instructors are what people remember. Recent faculty include:

• Wanda DeWaard holds an M.Ed. in environmental education and has taught outdoor programs since 1974. She is a former program director at Tremont and a former executive director of the American Camp Association Heart of the South, and she volunteers teaching about monarchs, pollinator gardening, and citizen science.
• Joel and Kathy Zachry have been with the Field School since the 1980s as both directors and instructors. Joel is a former field biology professor who spent two summers researching brown bears on Kodiak Island, and is a past president of Appalachian Bear Rescue and the Great Bear Foundation. The two section-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and co-wrote a book about bear encounters.
• Liz Domingue has more than 30 years as a professional naturalist, guide, writer, and nature photographer, with a wildlife biology degree from Cornell and a master’s in wildlife ecology and conservation biology from the University of Florida.
• Ila Hatter is an interpretive naturalist, wildcrafter, and cook with more than 35 years teaching the cultural heritage of native plants. She has produced a wild foods cookbook and a video series on edible and medicinal plants of Southern Appalachia.
• Arthur “Butch” McDade spent three decades with the National Park Service, including in the Smokies. He is the author of several books on the region and has written more than 75 articles on the natural and cultural history of the Southern Appalachians.

Why You’ll Like It

The Field School is one of the best values in the Smokies for anyone who wants to understand the park rather than just drive through it. You spend a day outdoors with someone who has spent a career on the subject, in small enough company to ask every question you have. Most people leave noticing things on ordinary hikes that they walked past for years.

How to Join

• Website: cpell.utk.edu
• Phone: 865-974-0150
• Email: professionaled@utk.edu

Bring broken-in shoes, water, rain gear, and your curiosity. Courses fill fast, so check the current schedule and register early.