Ridgeline Voices

06/16/2026

Temporary Closure of Nemo Day Use Area and Rock Creek Campground to Swimming and Fishing Within Obed Wild and Scenic River

In accordance with regulations and the delegated authority provided in Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 1.5(a), authorized by Title 54, United States Code, Subsection 100751(a), the superintendent has temporarily closed Nemo Picnic Area to all pedestrians and vehicles not involved with the incident response and the waters around Rock Creek Campground and Nemo Picnic Area to swimming and fishing, within the jurisdictional boundaries of Obed Wild and Scenic River. This closure will begin at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday, June 12 and will be lifted when the damage has been assessed and cleanup work has been completed to make the area safe for those activities.

This closure is necessary to protect the safety of park visitors, park employees, incident response personnel, and equipment due to a railroad derailment that occurred upstream along the Emory River on the evening of June 11, 2026. It is unknown at this time if contaminants will wash downstream.

Notice of this closure will be posted at the site of impact and the area will be monitored to ensure compliance.

06/16/2026

Due to the detection of increasing ethanol concentrations in the water and air upstream from Rock Creek Campground, the park has temporarily closed the campground in the interest of visitor safety. This closure will be lifted when the damage has been assessed, and cleanup work has been completed.

05/15/2026

Get to know the group of Tennesseans biking from Cummins Falls to the Kingston Fossil Plant this weekend (May 16 & 17), covering most of Enbridge's 122-mile Ridgeline pipeline route!

Pat Cupples, the Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter Director and cyclist participating in the Ride for the Ridgeline, shared with us:

"Many of us in Tennessee don't know what's at stake when TVA chooses new gas infrastructure and keeping coal instead of scrapping their plans for cleaner, cheaper, and faster renewables -- not because we don't care, but because we've never seen the corridor this pipeline runs through. That's where we have to start.

Explore it, and you'll no doubt enjoy it. Then you'll understand why it's worth fighting for. And why protecting our communities isn't just the last word in our mission statement. It's what we need to do."

05/07/2026

This looks like an interesting learning opportunity!

We hope you'll join us and invite a friend to our upcoming campaign briefing next Tuesday - RSVP in the comments section below 👇

05/05/2026

05/05/2026

Ready for a wild ride? 🛶 Check out “Down the Duck” with John Guider!
Follow 70-year-old photographer John Guider as he canoes all 270 miles of Tennessee’s Duck River—one of the most ecologically diverse yet threatened rivers in the world. Along the way, he captures the river's stunning beauty and rich history while chatting with local experts and residents about its future.It’s not all smooth sailing, though; John has to face his own physical limits and several dangerous obstacles to finish his journey.📺 Streaming now on PBS!

https://www.pbs.org/video/down-the-duck-with-john-glider-Zhri0T/

05/04/2026

The targeted facilities are aging, expensive to run, and ill-suited to meet the reliability concern – costing everyday Americans hundreds of millions.

Starting in May 2025, these orders were issued despite grid operators and state regulators having determined that the plants were not needed for reliability. While operating under one of these orders, facilities are often allowed to ignore air quality or emissions laws or limits, polluting nearby communities.

Tell the Trump administration to stop misusing its emergency authority and protect ratepayers by allowing these costly coal plants to retire. 🔗

https://bit.ly/4vX2WAA

04/15/2026

CALL TO ACTION!!

What happens to our forests when we lose our foresters? 🌲💧

The U.S. Forest Service is facing a transition that could lead to a massive loss of experienced scientists and land managers. When we lose these professionals, we lose the eyes and ears on the ground that protect:

✅ Clean drinking water from our Tennessee watersheds.
✅ Rare and endangered wildlife habitats in the Smokies.
✅ Resilience against catastrophic wildfires in our communities.

From the ancient tulip poplars of Albright Grove to the headwaters of the Cherokee National Forest, our local old-growth forests are a legacy of scientific stewardship. We believe these lands deserve stable, science-based leadership.
Please join us in asking Congress to prioritize the health of our natural resources over administrative relocation.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS:
1. Contact Your Representatives: Ask them to require a full impact study before funding any agency transition.
2. Find your local House Representative: house.gov
3. Contact Senator Marsha Blackburn: senate.gov
4. Contact Senator Bill Hagerty: senate.gov
5. Spread the Word: Share this post with friends and family who care about our East Tennessee mountains.
Together, we can ensure our public lands are protected for generations to come. 💚



"This is what scientific management looks like. Let's keep our experts in the field where they belong. Help us protect our old-growth heritage by contacting your representative today."

Image of Great Smoky Mountains National Park – Albright Grove courtesy of U.S. National Park Service

04/14/2026

The chickadee family in your hedge is raising six chicks right now. Between the two parents, they're delivering caterpillars to the nest roughly every ninety seconds from dawn to dark.

By the time the chicks fledge, that pair will have removed thousands of caterpillars from your trees. No spray. No service contract. No invoice.

That's one species. One nest. Three weeks of work.

The bat under your shutter does the same thing for mosquitoes after dark. The garden spider rebuilds her web every night and catches what the bat misses. The earthworms under your mulch are converting dead leaves into soil structure without a rototiller.

Your yard runs a service economy — pest control, pollination, soil building, decomposition — staffed around the clock by animals that don't send a bill.

🌿 What keeps them working:

- Leaf litter stays in the beds — it's where the spiders hunt and the earthworms feed
- No broad-spectrum spray — it removes the employees along with the problem
- Dense shrubs and hedge — that's the housing. No housing, no staff

Nobody notices what the yard does until the system stops doing it. A sprayed lawn with no hedge and no leaf litter is a yard that fired its entire crew.

The most valuable thing on your property works for free. It just needs to not be fired 🌱

04/13/2026

This Earth Month, action is everywhere!

From cleanups and community events to rallies and climate action, thousands of people are showing up for our planet. Earth Day has always been about collective action, and today it mobilizes millions around the world each year.

Find an event near you and be part of the movement: https://sc.org/EarthMonthMap