National Public Lands Day will be observed Saturday, and the Tennessee Valley Authority is encouraging people to take part in cleaning up.
TVA, working with local organizations, will host a series of clean-up events on area trails, recreation areas and other lands.
“It’s important to not only be the best stewards we can of the land that we manage, but to see who is out there and already doing good work so we can help them and help get people involved,” Scott Brooks, TVA public relations representative, said. “A lot of what we did this year was work with advocacy groups and community groups that have been doing good work for a while. What we want to do is help them with the good work that they’re already doing.”
Among the locations listed was the East Lakeshore Trail, which runs along the Tellico Reservoir in Loudon and Monroe counties.
The trail was built and is currently maintained by the Watershed Association of the Tellico Reservoir.
“What we have on the East Lakeshore Trail, it’s broken down into I believe it’s seven sections,” Georga Zola, WATeR vice president, said. “Each section has a section leader and then within each section we have volunteers that come out and hike the trail on a regular basis and look for problems.
“... I hike mine on a monthly basis,” he added. “We probably get it covered a couple of times a month between myself and the volunteers. Today I was out — we had two big downed trees on my section that we had to clear.”
While WATeR is able to stay on top of most issues on the trail, the organization is happy to have the East Lakeshore Trail highlighted by TVA for National Public Lands Day.
“We would like to have as many people as we can hike the trail because that keeps the weeds down, keeps the vegetation down and makes my job easier,” Zola said. “... Any assistance we can get is fine. The more I have on the trail — I could walk the trail going north to south and totally miss something. If we have somebody going from south to north they might spot it.”
The need for trash pick up along the East Lakeshore Trail is minimal in most places because the majority of hikers are mindful of litter, Zola said, but there are certain areas that do need regular pick up.
“There are certain sections that get more use because along the trail there are a couple of campsites that (Tellico Reservoir Development Agency) put in,” he said. “Those will get more trash.
“I think overall they’re going to find the trails are in really good condition,” Zola added. “We put a lot of time and effort into maintenance issues. If somebody sees a downed tree or branches down we want to be told so we can get it taken care of as soon as we can.”
TVA tries to take every opportunity it can to get people out on public lands like the East Lakeshore Trail, Brooks said, and for multiple reasons National Public Lands Day was something they wanted to make a focus.
“No. 1 is to get people involved to help with the upkeep, but also to get people out no matter where you are,” he said. “You don’t have to get involved with a particular clean up, but get out there and take advantage of the lands that the TVA has to offer.”
