The university has teamed up with the National Park Service and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in a cooperative effort to provide students and Knoxville residents the educational tools to pursue various kinds of outdoor hobbies and activities such as fly fishing and five-day hikes.
“The Smoky Mountain Field School is about 70 non-credit courses, usually offered on Saturday, usually one-day classes, and they’re offered inside the Park,” program coordinator Mary Jerger said. “There are a group of instructors. Some of them are professors and some are professionals in their field.”
The school is currently enjoying its 28th year teaching students of all ages how to safely enjoy the country’s national parks, with courses ranging from hiking to photography to wildlife observance.
Safety is the first priority for the school’s instructors.
“Believe it or not, the park is a very dangerous environment,” said Joel Zachry, one of the school’s leading hiking instructors. “This is an educational effort to get people into the park and not only to learn about all the wildlife, but also to teach guests how to act inside the park: how to have a safe trip, how to get rid of litter and those sorts of things.”
Zachry and his wife Kathy have been hiking in the parks and instructing hikers for years. They have also set up their own outdoor instructional business in the area and said they are thrilled to be a part of the school.
“To me it’s a great thing because it does teach people how to enjoy the wilderness wisely,” Zachry said. “And because of national park budget cuts … this kind of education really helps park guests to uphold their environmental responsibilities.”
Photography instructor Kendall Chiles agreed that the school helps educate visitors while enabling people to discover new outdoor hobbies.
“It’s a great way to start an outdoor hobby,” Chiles said. “You can take some classes in the Field School that you probably can’t take in your regular university, like a one-day hike or an outdoor photography class.”
The Field School offers classes from March to November in a wide array of disciplines. Classes are focused around hands-on experience in the park, with a few half-classroom, half-park courses such as photography. Tuition for instruction ranges from course to course, but most one-day classes are about $49.
Though the classes are open to anyone, many attendees are middle to older aged residents with jobs who have more time on their hands than busy college students. Zachry said that most of his students range from ages 35 to 75, with hardly any younger college-age students.
“We do occasionally see college students who hike a lot, sometimes even the entire AT (Appalachian Trail),” Zachry said. “So there is a little interest there.”
Most classes are geared towards novice and beginner students.
“Most of the people, especially in my photography class, are beginner photographers,” Chiles said. “I don’t meet too many people who are already professionals. It’s mainly people who are starting out.”
For this year’s season, there are only a couple of courses left: photography, taught by Chiles, and a hike on Oct. 28 lead by Zachry, called the Ghost Town Hike.
The Ghost Town Hike will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. near Little Cataloochee, N.C., and will tour the area of an old settlement in remembrance of the late Maryville journalist Pete Prince.
“There used to be an old community, with a couple of old cabins and an old church and cemetery,” Zachry said. “That’s where it gets its name Ghost Town. We share a lot about the background of the old settlement. The average life expectancy in these settlements was about 30 years old.”
Though the Field School’s season ends in early November, it will start back up in early March. Students who are interested in both this season and next season’s classes can visit the school’s website at http://www.outreach.utk.edu/smoky, or visit UT’s department of Professional and Personal Development in the University Conference Building.
