A rescue was underway in the Smokies Thursday after a Great Smoky Mountain National Park Service employee fell while working along a steep slope below the Foothills Parkway.
At approximately 10:53 a.m., NPS said it received a report that an employee had slipped along the Foothills Parkway between mile marker 24 and 25.
"This is on the Walland end of the new section of the Foothills Parkway before you reach the Missing Link section," said park spokesperson Dana Soehn. "He was hand treating invasive plants about 50 feet down the slope of the roadway when he slipped and tumbled an additional 30 feet or so further down the slope."
Soehn said he is conscious and alert.
Park Rangers, including the park's technical search and rescue team, and rescuers from Blount County have responded to the scene to assist transporting him up the slope to the roadway.