State parks documentary to air statewide on October 6

A one-hour documentary, “North Carolina State Parks: Environmental Jewels,” will air on North Carolina Public Television (UNC-TV) Thursday, Oct. 6, at 10 p.m.

On the 100th anniversary of the North Carolina State Parks system, the documentary looks at environmental challenges facing some of the state's most treasured natural resources.

"We're fortunate to have so many beautiful areas within a day's drive of almost every North Carolinian," said Tom Linden, professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and executive producer of the program. "Yet in some areas, we're in danger of loving the parks to death unless we actively protect them."

The documentary begins at Clingman's Dome on the North Carolina-Tennessee border and winds through nine state parks, including Gorges and Chimney Rock in the mountains, Eno River and Pilot Mountain in the Piedmont, before ending up on the coast at Jockey's Ridge, Fort Macon and Dismal Swamp State Parks.

Twenty UNC students produced the segments with script writing from nine others. Six UNC-TV videographers worked on the project with additional footage supplied by 10 students.

Former secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Jonathan Howes, pitched the project to Professor Linden in 2012 and co-taught the MEJO 562: Science Documentary Television class until his death last year. The documentary is dedicated to his memory.

Assistant producers were former UNC master's student Alasdair Wilkins and Brooke Benson, a senior at UNC. "I’m really thankful that the class had a 'go-for-it' atmosphere," said Benson, who wrote the script for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail segment. "It was supremely rewarding to invest so much effort into developing those new skills and to have it tangibly pay off in the final product."