The Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA) is pleased to announce the publication of “A Search for Safe Passage,” an educational adventure for readers ages 7-13 written by Frances Figart and illustrated by Emma DuFort.
“A Search for Safe Passage” tells the story of best friends Bear and Deer who grew up together on the north side of a beautiful Appalachian gorge. In the time of their grandparents, animals could travel freely on either side of a fast-flowing river, but now the dangerous “Human Highway” divides their home range into the north and south sides. On the night of a full moon, two strangers arrive from the south with news that will lead to tough decisions, a life-changing adventure, and new friends joining in a search for safe passage.
The book is closely connected to Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project, a new road mitigation campaign in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It includes an additional nonfiction section with educational lessons about animal habitat requirements, behavior, migration patterns, and road ecology problems and solutions developed with input from international and local experts.
After joining GSMA as the creative services director in 2017, Figart got involved with a group of federal, state, tribal, and non-governmental organizations discussing the need for wildlife-crossing structures along I-40 near the park boundary. That group, with GSMA playing a key role, formed the I-40 wildlife crossing project.
This is the first children’s book by author Figart and the debut book-length work by illustrator DuFort. Figart also wrote “Seasons of Letting Go: Most of What I Know about Truly Living I Learned by Helping Someone Die.”
“A Search for Safe Passage” is available in the park’s visitor center bookstores and at GSMA’s online store at here. More information on the wildlife crossing project can be found on its website,
here.
Information for this story provided by GSMA
