"During a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1995, Don Barger climbed Chilhowee Mountain hoping to gaze across the valley below. All he saw was a wall of gray haze.
Today, he said, he can see some 50 miles (80 kilometers) across that same valley to the Cumberland Mountains.
A 26-year-old federal regulation known as the regional haze rule has helped cut down on pollution over national parks, wilderness areas and tribal reservations, restoring some of the nation’s most spectacular natural vistas for outdoor lovers like Barger. But conservationists fear those gains may be lost after President Donald Trump’s administration announced in March the rule is among dozens of landmark environmental regulations that it plans to roll back.
“It means a promise that was made to the American public is lost,” Barger, 74, said. “More and more generations of people are going to grow up as ignorant as I was, not realizing what I’m missing and not seeing.”"
Todd Richmond and Mary Katherine Wildeman report for the Associated Press April 10, 2025.
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