A Natural History Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of America’s most beautiful and popular national parks. Located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, it is home to more than 100,000 species of plants and animals.

Already the most extensive volume available on the park’s natural history, this second edition of Donald W. Linzey’s Natural History Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park updates the wildlife story of the park including the successful reintroduction of peregrine falcons, otters, elk, and four species of fishes along with a discussion of the unsuccessful reintroduction of red wolves. Linzey also discusses the park’s resilience following the Chimney Tops 2 fire and its uncertain future due to climate change, invasive species, and the impact that civilization is playing in altering the area’s landscape.

Written from the perspective of a naturalist who has spent over fifty years conducting research in the park, this volume not only discusses the park’s plant and animal life but also explores the impact that civilization has played in altering the area’s landscape.

Linzey draws from a deep reservoir of research, including the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, a concentrated effort to determine all species within a given area within a short time frame. His book provides a thorough overview of everything a visitor to the park would need to know, without complex jargon. Both casual readers and those more interested in the ecology of the Great Smoky Mountains will find this book an enlightening and educational guide.

Donald W. Linzey, a wildlife biologist and ecologist, is professor of biology at Wytheville Community College in Wytheville, Virginia. He is an authority on the mammals of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its environs.