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Here's How You Can Follow Science At Great Smoky Mountains National Park From Afar

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By Kurt Repanshek - May 16th, 2009

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the most biologically diverse units of the National Park System. And now you can get a feel for that diversity without leaving the comfort of your home (though hopefully you'll be inspired to visit the park).

Using a $1 million grant from Toyota, Great Smoky has launched a new on-line educational initiative that is intended to make the park’s natural resource and science programs and research findings much more accessible to the public.

The new “Dispatches From the Field” is an online, bi-monthly source of information from scientists, resource managers, and park partners. Each issue of “Dispatches” includes an in-depth profile of researchers and resource managers in the park, as well as volunteer and educational opportunities. Through photographs, narratives and podcasts, it aims to reconnect citizens with science by inviting them into their public lands.

The first podcast takes viewers into the field on a beetle release to protect hemlocks from the Hemlock woolly adelgid. The podcast is closed captioned and was produced entirely using in-house staff resources (including the dulcimer soundtrack) and using equipment purchased using 2008 Centennial Challenge funding.

You can view these Dispatches at this site.

Comments

Submitted by robmutch on May 17, 2009 - 10:33am.

Thanks, Kurt. This is a nice example of what can be done with the web. The first story link (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) came back as broken when I tried it. Keep up the great work!

rob
---
Executive Director,
Crater Lake Institute
www.craterlakeinstitute.com


Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on May 17, 2009 - 11:04am.

Thanks for pointing out the link problem, Rob. It's now fixed. If you like this web innovation, check back tomorrow to see what the folks at Zion (with help from Glacier, I think) are doing. A great piece of interpretation and education.


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