Feedback requested on Park Values - July 27 thru Aug. 7

The National Park Service is starting the process of preparing a Foundation Document for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park would like to invite park stakeholders to join in this effort.

A Foundation Document involves revisiting the park's core purpose and significance, most important resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell the park's important stories. Although the Foundation Document is not a decision-making document and does not include actions or management strategies, it describes a shared understanding of what is most important about the park. In this capacity, the Foundation Document will reestablish the underlying guidance for future management and planning decisions for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The National Park Service invites you to play a role in charting the park's future by sharing your thoughts on what is most important about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and to help identify its most pressing threats and its greatest opportunities. Park staff will take your thoughts and feedback into consideration as they prepare the Foundation Document.

You may submit your feedback at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/GRSM_Foundation_Document beginning on Monday, July 27 through Friday, August 7, 2015 by responding to five questions about the park's significance, threats, and opportunities.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park encompasses 800 square miles in the states of Tennessee and North Carolina and is the showcase for some of the most inspiring natural and cultural treasures that the Southern Appalachians have to offer.  The Park’s abundant plant and animal life and historical significance, coupled with its accessibility, makes the national park the most visited in the nation with over 9 million visitors annually.