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Help us record life in the Smokies as a community scientist! Use the iNaturalist app to record any animal, plant and other lifeform you find in the National Park. Want to take things up a notch? Look for the 100+ high priority species found in our Smokies Most Wanted Guide.

Discover Life in America, the nonprofit research partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is inviting the public to participate in its latest project, Smokies Most Wanted, an initiative that allows visitors to help conserve park species by recording sightings of animals, plants and other organisms from their smartphones. Powered by the nature app iNaturalist, Smokies Most Wanted encourages park visitors to document any organism they encounter while hiking, camping, or otherwise enjoying the park — from birds to wildflowers, insects to lichens. DLiA then uses the data collected through iNaturalist for a variety of functions, like recording new park species or detecting invasive ones, learning about under-studied or rare species, and mapping species across the park.

For more information about the Smokies Most Wanted project, visit dlia.org/smokiesmostwanted — or browse the list of Smokies Most Wanted species at inaturalist.org/guides/9115.

See also: Publications and Multimedia Catalog for more resources

White-nose Syndrome is a mysterious disease that is killing bats across the northeast United States. Many research projects are underway to help in the fight against WNS, from researching fungicides to modeling the spread and effects of the syndrome. If you would like to help, there are many ways in which you can:

• Report any unusual bat activity (bats flying in the daytime) or unexplained bat deaths to your regional TWRA office. Or check out the Report a Bat Link on this website.
• Donate to a number of funds collecting money for WNS research (see National Speleological Society and Bat Conservation International pages below).
• Adhere to state and federal cave closure advisories.
• Encourage state and federal agencies to assist in WNS research and monitoring activities.