Want to Volunteer in a National Park? Great Smoky Mountains Needs Help Protecting Visitors and Elk
Here’s your chance to give back to a national park. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is looking for volunteers to help with their 2024 elk viewing season.
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Elk viewing brings thousands of tourists every year to GSMNP, the country’s most-visited national park. With the crowds comes a need to remind visitors about safety around wildlife, since the animals can be unpredictable.
According to a press release, elk volunteers will help with traffic management while educating visitors about the park’s natural and cultural resources.
Those interested must commit to one four-hour shift per week starting in May 2024 and running through November of next year. Volunteers must also attend an April training seminar.
All visitors to Great Smoky Mountains should keep a distance of at least 150 feet away from elk. Approaching the animal any closer is illegal. Also, guests should not enter a field to view elk and are asked to watch from the roadside using binoculars.
Elk are relatively new to the park after missing from the area for decades. In 2001, the National Park Service reintroduced 25 elk into the park. Twenty-seven more animals arrived in GSMNP in 2002. Since then, the population has grown.
If you are interested in volunteering, you can contact GSMNP Ranger Lauren LaRocca at [email protected].
Looking for a new pair of binoculars to view wildlife? Find some in the Outdoors.com store.
