This February, Tremont welcomed its first official class to our second campus in Townsend – a fitting milestone that began with caring for the land itself.
Led by Tremont Land Manager Elizabeth Davis, the Forest Stewardship workshop brought a group of adult learners together for a hands-on day of exploring, understanding, and tending the forest. Participants practiced winter tree identification, inventoried a forest stand, and used their observations to consider what the landscape could reveal about its history, health, and future.
Then they put that knowledge into action. The group treated hemlock trees to help protect them from hemlock woolly adelgid and learned the fundamentals of safely felling a tree with traditional tools.
The workshop was the first in Seasons of Connection, a series of single-day adult programs designed to invite people onto Tremont’s second campus to learn new skills, deepen their relationship with the land, and experience the property as it continues to take shape.
Located in Townsend adjacent to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the second campus will expand the ways Tremont can connect people with nature. Long before its future buildings are complete, though, the land itself is already becoming a place for learning.
Photos by Lauren Hulse, Richard Secrist, and Tohmi Barrett.
