Tag: outdoors

Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Environment, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability

Urban Understory

Written by Ansley Barry

Chattanooga Tree Project is a local nonprofit in Chattanooga, Tennessee, dedicated to planting trees in neighborhoods with low canopy coverage. Chris Winters (Director of Workforce), discuses the the team’s efforts of planting over 900 trees in the last year with the help of volunteers and the community. In the next four years, they plan to plant an additional 4,000 trees in the surrounding area.

In the sweltering summer heat, sweat drips down the necks of residents as they walk along the bustling streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee in search of shade. While some are able to find reprieve amongst the tree-lined paths, there are many areas around the city that are noticeably lacking these resources.

To address this problem, the City of Chattanooga was awarded a $6 million dollar grant from the United States Forest Service in April 2024 to fund the Chattanooga Tree Project (CTP). This project is dedicated to planting thousands of native tree species to increase canopy coverage across the city in neighborhoods that need them the most. 

Volunteers use pickaxes to break up the rocky soil in Ridgedale neighborhood. Saturday, November 8, 2025 (Photo by Corbin Winters).

“From start to finish, I’ve spent a lot of my time mapping forest loss, and the data has shown that over the years, we’re losing forests in Chattanooga,” said Mimi White, graduate research assistant for the UTC Interdisciplinary Geospatial Technologies (IGT) lab. “A lot of the trees that we’re planting, we’re planting in neighborhoods that have lost their tree cover a long time ago,… so it’s really beautiful to walk through a neighborhood in Chattanooga and see the new trees that have been planted and know that the people who live in these neighborhoods are going to be able to enjoy the benefits that come with having a healthy urban forest years down the road.”

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Environment, outdoors, Safety, Spelunking, Sports, Sustainability, teachers, UTC, women

Spelunking Shenanigans

Written by Emily Petitt Dwyer

Rachel Sakar talks about her experience in caving and how she is involved in the caving community as a mentor and a teacher.

Beneath the rugged mountains of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, a region known as TAG, is a network that is somewhat unknown to most, boasting intricate passages, waterfalls, and hidden chambers that Blake Webber has devoted himself to exploring and preserving.

Webber, a civil engineering major at UTC and active member of the UTC Wind Ensemble and Men’s Ultimate Frisbee, first discovered caving in 2021 at a local festival.

“I was thrown off the deep end, completing a relatively challenging vertical trip my first time in a ‘real’ cave,” Webber said. “I was immersed in the challenge and felt like I had stepped into another world.”

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Animals, Chattanooga, Chattanooga Audubon Society, community, donate, Entertainment, Environment, Healing, History, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability, Uncategorized

Healing Wings

Written by Alexis McMurtry

John Stokes transfers one of his two eagles, Yazta, from the pen to his enclosure at his and his wife’s house in Trenton, Georgia. Monday, November 11, 2024. Photo by Alexis McMurtry.

At the end of a rugged, unpaved mountain road in Trenton, Georgia, John Stokes and Dale Kernahan’s home stands as a sanctuary surrounded by the wild beauty they work to protect. Outside, hand-built enclosures house majestic birds of prey, while bird feeders invite a chorus of smaller birds. Here, nature is more than a backdrop – it’s the heartbeat of their lives.

Wings to Soar, a nonprofit organization founded by the duo 11 years ago, serves as a sanctuary for birds of prey that can no longer survive in the wild alone. These raptors – many of whom are injured or have imprinted on humans – are given to them by various wildlife veterinarians and rehabilitation facilitators. This organization also focuses on education by offering programs that help the public understand the vital role these birds play in maintaining the balance of nature.

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga Audubon Society, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Environment, outdoors, Sustainability

Responsible Recreation

Written by Maleah Holder

“All aboard!” Benny Braden, founder and former president of Responsible Stewardship tied his trash bags and tossed them on his jon boat as his volunteers shuffled back through the woods. The shoreline of Watts Bar Lake, previously covered in loose trash, old tires, and tangled fishing line, was near spotless after Braden and his team took on the challenge of collecting the debris. 

Responsible Stewardship is a non-profit organization that works with a volunteer base to remove trash from outdoor recreation spaces such as Watts Bar Lake to keep the space clean and family-friendly. Braden started his organization in August of 2022 working to clean up illegal dump sites and move them to landfills while recycling what he can. 

“That is something we are striving for in the next couple years to…recycle everything. We typically like to do zero added waste cleanups which means we use the barley bags and reusable gloves,” says Braden.

In just over a year of action, volunteers turned into ambassadors leading their own teams all over the country collecting trash and weighing it to report back to Braden. Recently, a new ambassador in Taiwan took it upon herself to collect trash overseas after being inspired by his work in the U.S. and has so far collected over 1,000 pounds by herself.

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Animals, Chattanooga, Chattanooga Audubon Society, Chattanooga outreach, community, donate, Environment, outdoors, Sustainability

Chasing Cranes

Written by Maleah Holder

A conversation with Jason Jackson about the migration of the Sandhill Cranes with a focus on the refuge and TWRA.

As the sun peaks over the horizon, lighting the waters of Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, thousands of trumpeting birds flock to the sky. Standing at just over three feet tall, the loud Sandhill cranes were a species once locally extinct east of the Mississippi River before making a victorious comeback.

These unique red-headed cranes take up residence at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Birchwood, Tennessee during the months of November through February for winter migration to feast on corn, wheat, and legumes planted by rangers along the river. 

The Sandhill cranes, though far from the only species to winter at the refuge, make up the majority of the avian population that roost along the waters of the Hiwassee River and have steadily grown in number in the nearly thirty years they have migrated there. 

Their unique appearance and success story have inspired a tight knit community. Locals from surrounding counties and an even larger population of photographers, birdwatchers, and storytellers alike are drawn in from across the nation for a chance to watch the cranes perform their sunrise spectacle. 

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Chattanooga, community, Family, Healing, Hugs, Philanthropy, Sports

Addie’s Angels

By Kylee Boone

Chris Ray pushes his daughter Addie during a training session for Addie Ray Racing while volunteers follow. Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Photo by Kylee Boone).

From the sweat dripping down a runner’s back to the endorphins rushing through their veins, racing is an activity many would describe as euphoric, including married couple Chris and Michelle Ray. Knowing how empowering a runner’s high feels, the Ray’s made it their mission to share the unique experience of racing with the disabled community by founding a nonprofit organization, Addie Ray Racing.

The inspiration behind this was Chris and Michelle’s 16-year-old daughter Addie who was born with Angelman Syndrome. After taking her along for her very first race and seeing the joy that it brought her, they knew this was something that needed to be shared with the people of Chattanooga.

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Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Environment, Health, outdoors, Sports, UTC, women

Row As You Grow

Written by Anna Truss

Filmed by Jake Redfern and Madison Van Horn. Edited by Jake Redfern.

“Shoulders, ready, up,” calls the coxswain as the team of rowers lifts the boat onto their shoulders.

Kay Hughes and her team were moving their boat to a different dock to prepare for the Head of the Hooch regatta in early November. Even after 10 years of rowing, the thrill has not died for Hughes.

“We had so much fun and people started posting pictures and the camaraderie and the group coming together, it really is truly a team sport,” Hughes mused.

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art, Chattanooga, community, Family, Healing, outdoors

Legacy in the Cedar

Written By Hannah Blair Hurt

Video By Cassandra Castillo.

If you happen to find yourself deep in the woods of Dunlap, Tennessee, you may come across the smell of burning timber, the peaceful chirping of birds and Steve McBryar wielding his chainsaw, ready to carve his next piece of work. 

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Chattanooga, community, Environment, History, outdoors, Photography

To Preserve and Protect

By David Whalen

Caleb Timmerman stands at St. Elmo Boulders. Wednesday, April 6, 2022. (Photo by David Whalen)

The Southeastern Climbers Coalition (SCC) is a grassroots non-profit coalition with only three employees. Although, throughout the past 29 years they have had hundreds of helping hands working to conserve and preserve publicly accessible climbing areas in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.

Caleb Timmerman recently became that third employee in the form of marketing director for the SCC. Here he helps tell the story of climbers and conservationists who have fought to keep public land accessible to all. 

“Access to outdoor rock climbing in the southeast is never guaranteed,” Timmerman says. “It takes a community of people who care deeply about this outdoor resource to come together and form a coalition to protect that access.”

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Environment, outdoors

Caving Cautiously

By Maggie Weaver

Captain Brandon Powers of Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Services pulls out a radio used in the field to communicate with the rescue team. Monday, April 11, 2022. (Photo By Maggie Weaver)

It’s estimated that over 2 million people visit caves annually in the United States. Brandon Powers is one of them, having been an avid caver for over two decades. He has been working with Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Services since 2016 and now holds the rank of captain.

“Caving, in general, is a sport that I feel like a lot of people don’t have a tremendous amount of information about, and you can find yourself way over your head real quick,” says Captain Powers.

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