Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors is inviting the community to head outside for a week of activities that go well beyond a typical Earth Day celebration.
Running from April 18th through the 25th, this year’s Earth Week also marks a major milestone: the one-year anniversary of Chattanooga officially earning its designation as a National Park City.
"Hitting our first anniversary as a National Park City is a huge moment for Chattanooga," says Brian Smith, Interim Administrator for Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors. "Earth Week is the perfect time to celebrate. We’ve spent the last year working to connect our community to the National Park City vision, and we want everyone to come out and see what makes this city so special. Best way to do so is check out the NPC calendar, and get plugged in."
The city has organized a full slate of events across local parks and trails along with numerous partners that support the Chattanooga National Park City initiative. The week’s schedule is packed with opportunities to explore Chattanooga’s landscape through several guided hiking adventures.
A few examples include an opportunity to join the Stringer’s Ridge Nature and Art Hike, a guided trek through East Lake, or participate in City Nature Challenge Guided Hikes at Reflection Riding, Greenway Farm, and Stringer’s Ridge. These hikes coincide with the City Nature Challenge, an international competition where Chattanooga goes head-to-head with cities worldwide to document the most local wildlife and plants using the iNaturalist app.
Mid-week, Renaissance Park will host a multigenerational “Storytime in the Trees” - an interactive reading of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. This immersive outdoor experience encourages the audience to "speak for the trees" alongside costumed performers, in partnership with the Chattanooga Library. Join us, Earth Day, April 22nd at 10 am - 11 am and/or 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm.
Organizations outside of Parks and Outdoors are organizing dozens of events for Earth Week as well, and the City encourages you to get involved with your community. Bike rides, kayaking adventures, volunteer opportunities, yoga, and crafting classes barely scratch the surface of the week full of community-led programs. Over 50 events during Earth Week can be found on the National Park City Calendar.
The week culminates on April 25th in a day-long National Park City Celebration at Greenway Farm, located at 4960 Gann Store Rd. The day features a robust schedule of FREE programming:
- 9 AM – 3 PM: 'GEAR'age Sale and Repair Fair in partnership with Waterways
- 9 AM – 11 AM: Bird Banding with Dr. Aborn with UTC
- 11 AM – 12 PM: City Nature Challenge Guided Hike
- 12 PM – 3 PM: Notes in Nature, featuring live music by Cody James Harris, Ashly Dilbeck, Ryan Oyer, and Tyler Lackey (Walk to different spots at Greenway Farm)
- 12 PM – 6 PM: Earth Week Vendor Fair, featuring local artisans, makers, and food vendors
- 3 PM – 5:30 PM: National Park City Family Seed Pitch
- 5:30 PM – 8 PM: Live music by the band Land Camera at Sniteman Cabin
- 8 PM – 9 PM: Lookout Wild Film Festival selected short films
The evening film lineup explores our connection to the planet through several powerful stories:
- One Inch From Flying: A young climber grapples with the complexity of modern life, and celebrates the sense of balance he gets from walking highlines while rigging and walking an alpine highline in Washington's North Cascades.
- Red Wolf in Time Out: The Red Wolf got tattled on for something it didn't do and now it's in time-out. Child narrated, stepdad animated.
- Beyond Beliefs: A young woman from Cleveland, Ohio earns a scholarship to attend a 4-day river trip through the Wild Green River's Gates of Lodore Canyon. The only catch... she doesn't know how to swim and is terrified of water. Join Danielle and her peers on this wonderful journey, and bear witness to her inspiring first-hand account of what it took to go beyond her beliefs about water, and how that expanded the vision for her future.
- Unseen Peaks: After enduring discrimination and trauma due to her blindness, Addie seeks freedom through skiing, ice climbing, and rock climbing, facing both the challenges of these activities and the need for acceptance within the outdoor community as a disabled person.
- Canopy Climbers: A group of friends in the Costa Rican jungle has adapted traditional rock climbing techniques to scale massive strangler fig trees, helping pioneer the emerging sport of tree climbing. Living in a landscape without rocks, they turned to the forest itself and now share that passion with local kids, using climbing as a way to connect them more deeply to their environment.
- A Little Bit Different: The film follows Afghan refugees and U.S. teens on a life-changing rafting trip down Idaho’s Main Salmon River, where they face challenges, connect through nature, and build real friendships. Through striking visuals and heartfelt storytelling, the film explores identity, belonging, resilience, and the shared human experiences that unite people across very different backgrounds.
For the full Earth Week 2026 schedule, including specific times and meeting locations, please visit outdoorchattanooga.com calendar and chattanooganationalparkcity.org