A Conversation with the Smokies’ Litter Fighter

Jerry Willis, 56, is the chief operating officer for the University Physicians’ Association in Knoxville, and, along with his wife, Darlene, has hiked every mile of trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Jerry and Darlene are also the founders of Save Our Smokies, a nonprofit organization they started in October 2020 in response to rampant litter and graffiti in their beloved park. The organization has been growing ever since.

Before you started Save Our Smokies, what role did the park play in your life?

Both my wife and I are 900-milers, so we spend a lot of time in the park. It’s our respite. It’s where we go to recharge and rejuvenate and continue our mental and physical well-being.

Growing up, I lived in South Georgia and came up to visit my grandmother who lived here—she was actually born inside the park, so we’ve had a long connection with the park.

What inspired you to start the group?

In October 2020, my wife and I and two other friends were hiking in the Smokies. We were over on the North Carolina side on Thomas Divide coming out of Mingus. On our drive back across Newfound Gap, we got to Alum Cave. There was a car that was parked in the road, and traffic was backed up several miles. We just noticed so many people and so much traffic congestion, and we were noticing more and more litter. Everywhere you looked there was litter. Seeing all of that, and seeing the destruction, it just angered me. That evening I started a Facebook group called “Save Our Smokies” thinking that some of my hiking friends would jump in and we would try to pick up litter. I never dreamed of it becoming what it has.

What has it become?

When we first started out, there was a lot of caution. There were a whole lot of regulations that we were completely ignorant of that we were having to operate within, so it became a journey. Now we have a very good working relationship with the park. We have volunteers that come from various places in the country and help do litter pickups. We also do graffiti removal. We fundraised and purchased a pressure washer trailer, and the Park Service helps provide the chemicals that we need to remove graffiti off the stonework, parking areas, rocks, etc. We’ve grown, and we did formally form a 501c(3). We have a board, so we have some formal oversight, and we’re still strictly a volunteer organization—we have no paid positions at all.

What motivates people to get involved?

I think a lot of it is just wanting to give back to a place that gives them so much. But we do have leaders who come strictly to lead a cleanup. We do get a lot of communication from people who are coming on vacation. They’ve seen something about it, and they reach out and say, “Hey I’m going to be in town, is there anything going on?” The last few years we’ve done a big Earth Day cleanup and removed 3,000 to 4,000 pounds every year, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re talking about coke cans and candy wrappers and McDonald’s bags, it’s a lot of trash.

What impact do you hope your work will have as it continues?

The environmental part is the biggest thing for us. We see where litter and human waste and everything is in the streams, unfortunately. We just hope to reduce that negative impact from that and as well as, unfortunately, we’ve seen where animals have consumed trash. We just try to make sure that the environment and the animals are taken care of. The third component of that would be just keeping it beautiful for the visitors. Whether they’re local or out of country or out of state, it’s keeping it beautiful for the visitors who come to see it.