Tree Team Research

Calling all citizens concerned for the well-being of Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s forests!

The Tree Team project is designed to find if relationships exist between arthropods and high elevation clonal American Beech trees, Fagus grandifolia. A series of active and passive collection techniques are being used to capture arthropods within American Beech stands and control sites. If all continues to go well, the project could expand to other trees that are of conservation concern within the park.   

We have a series of upcoming events for this project. 

April 28th : Fieldwork event on both the North Carolina and Tennessee sides of the park. Volunteers will do some light off trail hiking and help with techniques such as hand collecting, beat sheeting, sweep pole netting, root sampling as well as set passive traps like Lindgren Funnels and collar traps. This is a great opportunity to see the park in all of its fall colors.

Every 3rd Thursday of the month : Training and identification day in the science center at Twin Creeks. Volunteers along with specialists will help identify and organize captured arthropods in a lab setting. This is a great opportunity for people with all backgrounds to come see and learn new things about arthropods. We have already found a rare St Lawrence tiger moth in its even rarer caterpillar form and are very excited about what we might find at this event.

All events are subject to change, so please keep an eye on our calendar. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in volunteering, or to receive all of the latest information on this and other projects via e-mail.

All interested should contact Executive Director Todd Witcher at todd@dlia.org or 865-430-4757 to register to become a volunteer for this important citizen science research with DLIA.  

For a video on the project's equipment and proper technical usage there of, watch the following video: