A conversation With the Smokies’ Plant Protector

Joshua Albritton has always loved wild places, and as a geography student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville a gig with the National Park Service was his dream. 

He’s now been with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for 11 years, currently as the park’s biological science technician. Albritton oversees management of threatened and endangered plant species within the park, works on GIS and data management projects and collaborates with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on native plant harvest programs within the park. 

What does a typical day look like for you?

That’s the hardest question to answer, because it’s so variable. The first part of the day revolves around preparation and planning. Where are we going to go? How are we going to get there? What are some things that we need to be concerned about? Because I do work well into the backcountry and a lot of times I’m pretty far off trails. And then getting out on location, collecting accurate, good data on whatever the assignment is. And then securing the data in such a way that it’s databased and usable by everybody who needs to see it. 

What are some of the main obstacles facing threatened and endangered plants within the park?

We have about 1,800 plant species in the park. Approximately 500 of them warrant some sort of special concern. That may be because it’s state listed or federally listed or at risk for poaching, or maybe it’s endemic—it occurs only in the Smoky Mountains. About 40 of those we actively monitor on a rotating basis. And then we have unique situations, things that we don’t actively monitor that pop up in relation to compliance projects—a trail work project unknowingly may have an impact on a threatened or endangered plant that occurs adjacent to that trail. We have invasive plants, we have invasive animals, we have things like climate change and air pollution. We also have recreational impact. We do get 12 million visitors a year, and their impact is high on the park.

Tell me about your work with the Cherokee. What does that program entail? 

That’s a really cool program. A couple of years ago a new regulation came out that allows for tribes that border National Park Service units to request through the superintendent’s office to harvest plants for traditional purposes. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have a variety of things they want to harvest, but right now we’re doing sochan, which is a yellow coneflower. I work directly with the program managers on their end to help get EBCI tribal members permitted, and I do all the on-ground work. They’ll come in and harvest a certain location. I come in behind them and collect data on what they harvested. The idea is we’re going to determine through that data collection, does harvesting have a negative impact on sochan populations in the park? 

What part of your job do you find to be the most interesting or enjoyable?

I really enjoy the compliance work. If we can directly protect a resource, I feel like I’m accomplishing the mission. And plus I just like the relationships. I really enjoy getting out with the park crews and some of the other folks who work in other divisions. I do like the sochan project a lot, kind of for the same reasons but we’re also helping the tribe maintain a cultural tradition that is important to them. Not only are we protecting the resource, we’re assisting the tribe to continue on with a cultural tradition that might be otherwise lost.