Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area

A partnership between Georgia State University and the NPS Paleontology Program has enabled more focused paleontological resource support in parks in the Southeast Region of the U.S. During the past several years students mentored by Dr. Christy Visaggi have helped to complete paleontological resource inventories in several parks in the southeast region uncovering the fossil records of these parks.

Celebrate the return of spring at the annual Spring Planting and Music Festival at Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area. The skills and traditions that sustained families in the region during the late 1800s and early 1900s were closely tied to the environment. Today, the connection between the landscape and local lifeways survives in the resources at Big South Fork, and the annual festival provides opportunities to explore the role of these traditions.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

The Charles Rudy Slaven/John Litton Homestead is a 184 acre landscape located on the North Fork of the Fall Branch in Scott County, Tennessee. The diverse resources of the district are united historically by their association with farming activity and rural life in the Upper Cumberland from 1821 to 1950. The district is significant in the areas of agriculture, architecture, archaeology, community planning and development, exploration and settlement, and industry.

There are many ways to experience national parks by bicycle, with route options for all levels of experience and preference. Here are just three examples of ways to explore park cultural landscapes by bike in the southeastern part of the United States. Ride a loop road through an agricultural community in a fertile valley, follow the path of a former railroad that once brought tourists to Mammoth Cave, or travel mountain bike trails to a farmstead from the late 1800s.

This finding aid describes the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) Southest Region Collection, part of the NPS History Collection.

During 2024 scouting for a large eastern grassland restoration project funded by IRA and BIL, several old growth remnant grasslands were identified in National Capital and Northeast Region parks that were previously unknown. These remnants preserve the genetic integrity of the original grassland flora of the eastern US and are true unexpected treasures that in some cases, were hidden in plain sight.

The Lora Blevins Farmstead is typical of the settlement patterns found throughout the Big South Fork plateau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A number of historical landscape features still exist at the site, including fields, fruit and nut trees, hedgerows, road traces, fences, foundations, an animal pen, and a cemetery.