Woman sitting on the forest floor examining something in a small tray she is holding

Snapshot: Rare Spider Monitoring Season Comes to a Close in the Smoky Mountains Backcountry

Story

The 2024 monitoring season for spruce-fir moss spider ends with visits to remote plots in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Gary Peeples

September 25, 2024

Updated: July 9, 2026

There’s a certain level of intimacy you share with backcountry shelter-mates. You may have known them only a couple of hours. Maybe you don’t even know their name. But you quickly become familiar with their snoring.

And it was amidst snoring, bad camp food, and one brilliant sunset that the Asheville Field Office’s 2024 spider season came to a close.

Sue Cameron, biologist with the Asheville Field Office, is leading a six-year monitoring effort for the endangered spruce-fir moss spider – the most comprehensive ever undertaken for the spider. Year three just concluded with searches of two 10-acre plots in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park - the most remote plots yet visited for the effort. Mark Endries and Gary Peeples, both of the Asheville Field Office, and spider expert Brian Bockhahn with N.C. State Parks, joined Cameron for the three-day trip into the backcountry.

Day one was marked by a nine-mile hike; a pre-packaged, off-the-shelf trail lunch that tasted marginally better than its unsightly appearance; arrival at the backcountry shelter that would serve as home base for the effort; and finally, a brilliant sunset.

Three people, each wearing a large backpack, hiking down a trail — Sue Cameron and Mark Endries, US Fish and Wildlife Servie, join Brian Bockhahn, NC State Parks, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to monitor spruce-fir moss spiders.

Man standing in a forest looking at a map on a phone screen — Mark Endries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, checks the route map during a monitoring trip for spruce-fir moss spiders in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Man sitting down, resting bare feet on the ground — Brian Bockhahn, NC State Parks, rests after hiking into the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Two people playing cards — Playing cards at the end of a day spent hiking into the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Clouds reflecting the setting sunlight over rolling mountains — Sunset in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Coming off a night rich in snoring, day two was all business - coffee and instant oatmeal, then bushwhacking across two, ten-acre plots, checking them for the spruce-fir moss spider. It’s a tiny animal, found only in the Fraser fir and red spruce forests atop the highest peaks of Southern Appalachia. It’s reliance on a cold, moist climate means it can serve as an indicator of ecological health in these areas with a very specific temperature and precipitation regime that may make them more susceptible to climate change.

Some animals are fortunate enough to benefit from massive amounts of conservation effort, maybe even having an entire organization devoted to them. Not so the spruce-fir moss spider. Although it has been on the federal threatened and endangered species list since 1995, few people have taken interest and it never received much attention outside of a few sporadic surveys. This monitoring effort aims to track long-term trends in presence of the spider and its habitat across the six mountain massifs where it lives. Using a protocol developed at Clemson University, six plots are visited each year for six years – 36 plots total. This outing covered plots five and six for 2024, one yielding three spiders and the other, one. Far from the record, which is 11, but not zero, which is good in a situation where every individual counts.

Three people seated on the ground looking at a map on a cell phone — ark Endries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Brian Bockhahn, NC State Parks, and Sue Cameron, US Fish and Wildlife Service, discuss the morning's approach for monitoring for spruce-fir moss spiders in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Person walking through an exceptionally dense forest — Mark Endries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, makes his way through a high-elevtion forest while searching for spruce-fir moss spider habitat in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Woman sitting on the forest floor beside a rock face looking at a small tray in her hand — Sue Cameron, US Fish and Wildlife Service, inspects a spider to determine if is a spruce-fir moss spider during a monitoring effort for the species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Two people in a forest, one holding a phone, the other examining a fish with a hand lens — Sue Cameron, US Fish and Wildlife Service, inspects a spider, while Mark Endries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, photographs habitat during spruce-fir moss spider monitoring in Great Smoky Moutains Park.

Tiny spider in a tray being held in a biologist's hand — Spruce-fir moss spider in-hand. Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

An arriving weather front brought clouds, spoiling the second day’s sunset, though the mountaintop view was still good. The morning of the third day, we discovered the front also brought a steady, brisk, cold wind – an unwelcome feature on our hike out which started in the pre-dawn darkness. Off the trail by mid-day, the miles and wind made a hearty lunch taste all the better. The successful outing laid the groundwork for the summer for 2025, when two more plots that sit deeper in the Smokies backcountry are scheduled to be checked.

Woman sitting in the darkness, holding a bowl and lifting a mug to her lips — Sue Cameron, US Fish and Wildlife Service, having oatmeal and coffee before hiking out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park backcountry.

Two people standing on a trail looking out over a mountain vista — Sue Cameron and Mark Endries, both US Fish and Wildlife Service, enjoyed the trail view, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Two people wearing large backpacks on the edge of a parking lot — Sue Cameron and Mark Endries, both US Fish and Wildlife Service, return to the parking lot after monitoring spruce-fir moss spiders in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Two people in a parking lot changing shoes — Sue Cameron and Mark Endries, both US Fish and Wildlife Service, prepare to head home after monitoring spruce-fir moss spiders in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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