GSMA publishes educational adventure book

Great Smoky Mountains Association is pleased to announce the publication of A Search for Safe Passage, an educational adventure for readers ages seven to 13 written by Frances Figart and illustrated by Emma DuFort.

A Search for Safe Passage tells the story of best friends Bear and Deer, who grew up together on the north side of a beautiful Appalachian gorge. In the time of their grandparents, animals could travel freely on either side of a fast-flowing river, but now the dangerous human highway divides their home range.

“Frances’ new book is a very accessible introduction to the problems and solutions associated with highways, traffic, and wildlife,” said Senior Research Ecologist Marcel Huijser, with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University in Bozeman. “Through easily understandable stories of the animal characters, we learn that a busy highway can be a barrier to the search for food, water, mates, and new areas to live.”

The book is closely connected to Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project, a new road mitigation campaign in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It includes an additional nonfiction section with educational lessons about animal habitat requirements, behavior, migration patterns, and road ecology problems and solutions developed with input from international and local experts.

A Search for Safe Passage is available in the park’s visitor center bookstores and at GSMA’s online store. More information on Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project can be found on its website.

Great Smoky Mountains Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical and interpretive activities of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services to park visitors. GSMA depends on the generous support of its members to fulfill its mission, preserving the Smokies for generations to come.