While this is generally true, there are problems that require attention. Before there was a park, people lived in the Smokies and hunted as they pleased. For some of their descendants such traditions die hard. Other people travel to the Smokies and violate park boundaries to hunt for commercial and personal gain. Currently the wild hog is unrivaled for its destruction of park ecology.
Pets running loose and chasing wildlife are an ongoing problem.
There is also growing concern over the inroads of brown and rainbow trout on the native brook trout. . . . In nature, plant and animal populations regulate themselves. However, when human impacts reduce numbers of species, the entire system is affected. For example, the removal of a predator such as a wolf causes an unnatural abundance of smaller, plant-eating animals. Plant life is affected, and eventually food supplies are reduced to the point that animals may die.