‘Much-needed’ Smokies facility in the making

Science and education center will be first for park news@theheraldnewspapers.com Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) officials hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the park’s first and only made-to-order lab facility, which will be the first major new building constructed in the park since the 1960s. The Twin Creek Science and Education Center will give park scientists and the hundreds of annual outside researchers working in the park each year with five-times the amount of space they have today. The facility will also provide dedicated space for volunteer projects and education programs, as well as exhibit space for natural history collections. “In this paradise there are lots of threats including air quality issues, exotic pests and others,” said Keith Langdon, the head of inventory and monitoring program in the park. Langdon said that, with the help of the new facility, the park science program will study the park’s natural resources and how to deal with these threats to the park. “The fact is that the National Park Service does not have unlimited funds to deal with these threats,” said Langdon. “This is such an exciting time to be here, to break ground on this facility,” said GSMNP Superintendent, Dale Ditmanson. Ditmanson opened the event by thanking a host of partners that have been working with the park to make the much-needed facility a reality. “One of the things that’s so wonderful about this park is that we have so many partners to work with,” said Ditmanson. “Congress, in recognizing the importance of the science and education work done in the park and the need for a new facility, appropriated the majority of the funding,” said Ditmanson. In all, nearly $4 million came from congressional appropriations. He thanked United States senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson who, he said, have been supportive of the project since first envisioned in 2001. The project took a while to work through the planning process and, rather than cutting costs to make sure the facility came to life, project organizers turned to its other partners to fill in the funding gaps. Two funds and awareness raising arms for the park—the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA) and the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park—each contributed $285,000 for the construction of the Twin Creeks facility. GSMA Executive Director, Terry Maddox, said that the group diverted funds from other projects to make this gift for Twin Creeks. “This is a no-brainer,” said Maddox. “Everyone knows that this is really needed in the Smokies.” Ditmanson also thanked officials with the City of Gatlinburg who entered into a partnership with the park to expand the city sewer system to the site, reducing the park’s upfront construction costs by $300,000. The Twin Creeks site is located just inside the park, near Gatlinburg, off the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. The $4.5 million facility is expected to be completed by late spring of 2007.