How One Woman Started a Movement to Restore the Great Smoky Mountains Habitat

In partnership with: Tennessee Department of Agriculture

Out of the destruction of the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires in 2016 sprouted renewal and rebirth. A grassroots effort to save the area’s natural resources emerged from the massive firestorm, which destroyed 2,500 homes and businesses and tragically killed 14 people. Though Cherise Guesford’s Gatlinburg home and neighborhood weren’t damaged, the real estate agent could see the damage all around. The fire created a glowing red horizon over neighboring Ski Mountain.

“There was so much devastation here,” Guesford says. She wondered how many people would not be able to procure native species for replanting and how differently the region would appear in the future. She could not fathom the Great Smoky Mountains changed from their original beauty – and that weighed on her for a long time.

Getting Involved

The need to return the landscape to its former grandness drove Guesford to take action. “It just wasn’t being done, so someone had to do it,” she says. “I didn’t want to think about this area looking just like everywhere else instead of what it’s supposed to be and what everyone comes here for. I thought about the change that would come from such great devastation. I wanted to make sure we can impact it as best as we could.”

After making some calls and contacting her county fire administrator David Puckett, Guesford – who didn’t have a forestry or agricultural background – created a volunteer effort to protect and replant the region’s indigenous plants. That effort resulted in Smoky Mountain Roots, Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps landowners in Sevier County replant native plant life. Its mission is to preserve native plants in the Great Smoky Mountains region through growth, disbursement, education and community service.

“We have a magical forest here,” Guesford says. “It’s like no other place. I would like it to stay that way as long as possible.”

Numerous organizations, including cabin rental companies, nurseries, homeowners associations and the Girl Scouts, help with the replanting efforts.

Branching Out

Guesford planted the first trees in 2018. Since then, her group has planted more than 10,631 trees and is distributing seed for grasses. “If we can put our trees there, our grasses and wildflowers that are supposed to be there, they will take up space instead of invasive species like kudzu, which can grow 12 inches a day,” she says. With a suggested donation of $5, Smoky Mountain Roots provides homeowners bundles of five tree species, including dogwood, redbud, red oak, and fruit and nut species, sourced from the state nursery in East Tennessee. The nonprofit also loans out dibble bars, which speed hole creation for seedlings. Up to seven volunteers help with each replanting.

Where once stood somber, blackened and burned trees now stand new trees with hopeful ribbons tied around them, put there by the volunteers. “Knowing we have helped makes all the difference,” Guesford says. “The willingness people have to bring our area back is very overwhelming.”

See more: A Few Things You May Not Know About Tennessee Honeybees

Guesford is “an amazing spark plug” within her community, says Brook Smith, area forester in the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry’s Knoxville office. “She really cares about the forest ecosystem and the value it brings to the people. It’s so important to have people like Cherise spreading good information about the right tree in the right place. She helps me sing the song of wise stewardship and forestry throughout the community.”

See more: Kids Learn About Forest Resources at Tennessee Forestry Camp