Upbeat130 people who guard America's parks sat down together in Knoxville — determined to work harder than ever
The people who look after America's national parks and public lands rarely get to be in the same room. In Knoxville, Tennessee, 130 of them were: staff from the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, conservation groups such as the National Parks Conservation Association, university scientists and students, gathered for the 2026 George Wright Society ParkForum, hosted by the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Under the theme 'It's Time to Meet the Moment', they swapped what is working — from protecting Tennessee's underground karst landscapes and groundwater to the Tennessee RiverLine project — ran a summit for the next generation of conservation leaders, and took field trips into Knoxville's Urban Wilderness and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 'The community is determined to work harder than ever to protect natural and cultural heritage,' said host professor Ryan Sharp.
SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program