The newsletter of Great S m o k y M o u n t a i n s Institute at Tremont Spring 2011 avis b D osh J oy C C M hristina C hives C r a it M s bG Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont 2010 Annual Report avis D osh J ilver s c o n n epeople c ti nandG nature ary M www.gsmit.org From the Executive Director What Can Visiting a National Park Do For You? 2010 Accomplishments, The Back-Story By Jeremy Lloyd, special programs coordinator ational parks will figure into the such as the Smokies, no one is reading a standards to the lowest common hen I was a kid, one of the best things my mom ever in their home neighborhoods. Many of the children don’t vacation plans of many Americans this script or maneuvering levers behind a denominator, instead encourages visitors to did for me was to tell me, “Don’t come home until know what is available in their own backyard. N W summer, and that’s a good thing. When curtain. Instead it’s a real life adventure. pursue forms of recreation that are more the street lights come on.” My friends and I rode our Recently, one of our teacher naturalists, Tesha, began people visit parks they fall in love with The fact is, most people who visit the challenging and demanding than they’re bicycles all over creation and found those out-of-the-way researching what natural areas, parks, nature centers, etc., them, which in turn ensures their prolonged Smokies come not because of the natural used to. And it’s why here at Tremont we places that Robert Michael Pyle so aptly dubbed “ ‘rough are near the kids’ home communities. She encourages existence so future generations can enjoy scenery but because of the wide variety of lead middle school age children into the ground’—little patches of undeveloped nature that are not them to visit these places when they return home. them. attractive activities the surrounding area woods on hikes, cultivating in them the manicured, planted, controlled or protected, but are close- A teacher who is working to bring a group of students But what good does it do us to visit a offers—all of them mediated experiences. desire for wilderness, adventure, and to-home and available for kids to play in, as they please.” to Tremont expressed the need to engage students with national park? Besides glimpsing wildlife But in order to experience something more learning in nature. My family took me camping. We went to state and the outdoors. and seeing beautiful scenery, breathing authentic, you must visit the national park. The result is a generation of youngsters national parks. We canoed, hiked, water-skied, and “Many of our teachers have volunteered to sponsor as fresh air and spending time with family, how Climbing a mountain, catching a who possess a firsthand knowledge of the explored both new and familiar wild places. There was a many students as we can because we believe that these exactly do we benefit? A book I’ve been salamander, watching a snake slither across natural world and who will grow up to take natural history museum in our students need to be able to see the world outside their reading recently, a classic in conservation the trail, carrying a backpack full of a care of it. town that I loved to visit. They own. literature, Mountains Without Handrails: week’s worth of supplies—these are just a had animals there, and classes Many of them know only about many trees by the Reflections on the National Parks by Joseph few experiences that about the animals, and books I have in my classroom, or by the pictures they see L. Sax, offers some insights. What’s happen on a regular basis opportunities for kids to on their television screens at home. I work with a intriguing is how closely several of his at Tremont, all of them volunteer to help. I did that and population that does not value the outdoors. They do not answers relate to our work here at Tremont. unmediated. It only appears later even got a job on their see the importance of nature or wildlife or conservation of on the surface that teacher/ “junior staff!” land in this country. So many of these students don’t contemplation naturalists are controlling Last year the President really know why they want to come to Tremont yet. hives C Sax points out that from their very them. Rather, they act as r a announced America’s Great If we can get a large enough group to experience what beginning the national parks were created to it midwives helping to bring M Outdoors Initiative. He asked Tremont has to offer and then bring those students back to s provide visitors with more than just scenery. them into being. And that’s G the leaders of those agencies that share what they saw and what they were given, we might Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central in part what going to a deal with people and the be able to change the culture in a way that will place more Park in New York City and chairman of the national park means: giving outdoors to go to the American people and find out what importance in nature, in conservation and education.” commissioners managing Yosemite when it up some control and being is needed to begin the implementation of a 21st century It is a joy to witness this kind of change in children was first formed, argued that parks are for open to having an ilver s conservation agenda. The resulting report was submitted through our programs and their experience with Great the “contemplative faculty.” Parks, in other experience that is visceral, ary to the President this February and represents ideas from Smoky Mountains National Park. M words, are for leisure and recreation. hands-on, and self- 51 public listening sessions held across the country. What I’ve tried to relay in these few paragraphs is Unstructured time creates space for soul- directed. It is not surprising that what was heard was a important context for this annual report issue of our searching and getting to the bottom of our Your national Park Awaits You description of childhood experience today that is very newsletter. It explains the people and nature piece that is selves. This, in turn, benefits a democratic cultivating Desire In closing, Joseph L. Sax argues in his different than what I had growing up. It was also heard woven throughout the numbers and statistics that are a society and keeps it healthy. Our culture champions individual choice book that satisfaction from activities we that “Americans care deeply about our outdoor heritage part of this report. Here at Tremont I have witnessed the and taste above almost everything else. This take part in come not from merely occupying and want to enjoy and protect it.” People realize that we Without the back-story, the depth of experience, and the kind of deep contemplation on people’s way of thinking ultimately leads each of us ourselves, but from engaging ourselves. It’s are less connected with the outdoors, with nature, and story of what they represent, the numbers and statistics faces that you don’t see at the mall, or the to believe that we’re the center of the hard to imagine a better way for this to they believe that it is important to find ways to remedy don’t reflect the full impact of our mission... Connecting post office, or in the workplace. I’ve seen it universe. One result is that we only choose happen than by getting outdoors. that. The report goes on with a number of people and nature in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. in people sitting by the banks of the Middle to do whatever is easiest and least So come visit your national park in the recommendations and great ideas for how to implement Much thanks to all of those who helped us with that Prong, as they finish the solo hike during a demanding. Smokies this summer. Come sit by the them. You can view the entire report at http:// mission in 2010! Teachers, students, naturalists, the wilderness trek, or as they gaze into the Sax argues that we humans ultimately do shores of the Middle Prong and contemplate americasgreatoutdoors.gov/report/. National Park Service, donors, board members, staff, dying embers of a campfire at day’s end. not know, and cannot specify, what we want. life deeply. Come for an adventure no one Tremont has been connecting people and nature for volunteers, advisors, guest presenters, friends, and Opportunities to “get outside yourself” True desire, he argues, must be cultivated. alive will ever experience in quite the same over forty years. Hopefully the President's Great Outdoors family—the list is endless but THANKS TO ALL! simply to think and feel do not occur easily This means sometimes accepting the way. Come and stimulate your appetite for Initiative will help us and others who have similar goals. I hope you will appreciate reading about our 2010 in our daily routine. That’s one reason possibility that others may know what is lifelong learning in the outdoors. What we do is critically important work. Utilizing our accomplishments and will choose to get involved in 2011 people come to Tremont, because for a short good for us better than we do ourselves. The reasons for visiting a national park national parks as places to reconnect people with the as we go about this great and important (and enjoyable) time at least, every person who comes here Children provide a good illustration for this, this summer are too many to count.