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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 30, 2010  

Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation
AWARDED NATIONAL ACCREDITATION

Foundation Receives Accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission

Nashville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation was awarded accredited status on March 17 by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.

Accredited land trusts meet national standards for excellence, uphold the public trust and ensure that conservation efforts are permanent. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation was one of a handful of land trusts from across the country to receive accreditation.

“The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation’s accreditation demonstrates our commitment to permanent land conservation,” said Kathleen Williams, president and executive director. “Our organization is stronger by having gone through the rigorous accreditation program, and we are proud to display the seal, which is a mark of distinction in land conservation.”

Community leaders in land trusts throughout the country have worked with willing landowners to save more than 37 million acres of farms, forests and parks. Strong, well-managed land trusts provide local communities with effective champions and caretakers of their critical land resources and safeguard the land through the generations.

“Accredited land trusts meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever,” said Commission Executive Director Tammara Van Ryn. “The accreditation seal shows the public that the accredited land trust has undergone an extensive, external review of the management of its organization and the systems and policies it uses to protect land.”

Across the country, local citizens and communities have come together to form land trusts to save the places they love. Land is America’s most important and valuable resource. Conserving land helps ensure clean air and drinking water, food, scenic landscapes and views, recreational places, and habitats for the diversity of life.

Founded in 1998, the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and preserve Tennessee’s natural treasures. The Foundation’s vision is to link parks and wildlife areas together to “Forever Green Tennessee.” In its 11-year history, the Foundation has protected more than 40 Tennessee natural treasures, many of which are open to the public. For more information on the Foundation and the Forever Green Tennessee campaign, visit the Web site at www.tenngreen.org and the blog at http://forevergreentn.wordpress.com.

About the Land Trust Accreditation Commission

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., awards the accreditation seal to community institutions that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. The Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance established in 2006, is governed by a volunteer board of diverse land-conservation and nonprofit management experts from around the country. The Alliance, of which the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation is a member, is a national conservation group based in Washington, D.C., that works to save the places people love by strengthening conservation throughout America. More information on the accreditation program is available on the Commission’s Web site, www.landtrustaccreditation.org. More information on the Alliance is available at www.landtrustalliance.org.

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East Tennessee State Park Connection Grants Awarded

The following organizations were awarded grants through the East Tennessee State Park Connections program on February 22, 2010. Sponsored by the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, this grant program helps fund greenway or trail projects connecting from nearby communities to one of Tennessee’s beautiful state parks or natural areas. To date, the Foundation has given away $289,484 to fund over 177 new greenway and trail projects.

Cumberland Trail Conference, TN. Grant of $2,500 for their volunteer trail construction program to complete the New River segment of the Cumberland Trail. This will connect Cove Lake State Park (673 acres) to Frozen Head State Park (13,122 acres). Volunteers come from very diverse sources such as Alternative Spring Break students, American Hiking Society, Boy and Girl Scouts of America, Sierra Club and other environmental groups, several hiking associations, AmeriCorps*NCCC, and many local volunteers. 

2.    Lookout Mountain Conservancy, Lookout Mountain, TN. Grant of $1,000 to improve LMC lands and trails access and use through trail rehabilitation and invasive species control. Plans include the restoration of a washed out portion of the Guild-Hardy Trail (adjacent to the Craven’s House of the national military park), and to provide trail clearing of invasive species that will provide connection from LMC’s John Wilson Park to the Guild-Hardy Trail.  

3.    City of East Ridge, East Ridge, TN. Grant of $500 for maintaining and eliminating waste on the two-mile walking trail at Camp Jordan Park.  Camp Jordan Park is a pet-friendly 260+ acre park with 13 ball fields, 9 soccer fields, an indoor arena, and an amphitheater.  

4.    City of Kingsport, Kingsport, TN. Grant of $2,500 to construct wooden foot bridge across flooded portion of the park and provide an observation area of beaver habitat along Lakeside Trail in Bays Mountain Park. Bays Mountain Park is a 3,500-acre nature preserve and the largest city-owned park in the state of Tennessee. The park features a picturesque 44-acre lake, a Nature Center with a state-of-the-art Planetarium Theater, and animal habitats featuring wolves, bobcats, raptors, and reptiles. 

5.    TDEC, East TN Natural Areas Program, Knoxville, TN. Grant of $505 toward production of permanent display panel at Bays Mountain Park with trail and map information.

Knox County Parks and Recreation, Knoxville, TN. Grant of $2,500 for greenway signage as part of Phase 2 of the Knox County greenways plan. Knox County Parks and Recreation creates and maintains the parks, greenways, trails, golf courses, and athletic facilities in the greater Knoxville area. It currently manages 44 parks encompassing 3,200 acres, and 19 greenways and 12 nature trails covering 48 miles for Knox County’s 400,000 residents, with a population of close to 700,000 making up the metropolitan statistical area. 

Great Smoky Mountains Regional Greenway, Knoxville, TN. Grant of $1,500.  Over the years, by way of the council and cooperative planning efforts by Knoxville, Knox County, Maryville, Alcoa and Blount County, this greenway has moved closer and closer to being a reality. The grant would be used to assist in funding the creation and implementation of a vision and marketing strategy to raise public awareness regarding the council’s greenway and blueway efforts, particularly its long-range vision of a regional greenway from Knoxville to the Smoky Mountains. 

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Meet Ashley LaRoche Heeren

Ashley LaRoche Heeren is a life-long resident of Tennessee. A Murfreesboro native, she graduated from Oakland High School and then received her B.S. in English from Vanderbilt.

She served on the "Jeff Whorley for Congress" campaign in 1993-94; upon their defeat in November 1994, Ashley moved back to Nashville and began working at the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1996 she began working for Journal Communications, a private magazine-publishing company located in Williamson County. She was the Editor of the company's Travel  Publications division until 2004, when she decided to "retire" to focus on her growing family.

In the fall of 2009, with both children in full-time school, Ashley returned to the realm of working moms and has found the perfect fit at the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, where she spends 20 hours per week in the effort for a "Forever Green Tennessee."

Welcome Ashley!

State Park Connections Grants Awarded December 4, 2009!  

THANK YOU AT&T!!!! 

AT&T's incredibly generous support of the Foundation's State Park Connections will build new trails, bridges and public access to Tennessee’s natural treasures.  We want people from this and future generations to hike, explore and enjoy nature. AT&T's sponsorship will make this possible.

On behalf of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, AT&T has our great appreciation for their financial support.  Additionally, gratitude goes to Senator Norris, Lt. Governor Ramsey and Speaker Williams for their long time support and devoting to the mission of the TPGF.

 “AT&T is proud to support the TPGF in encouraging healthy lifestyles, physical fitness and the preservation of natural areas,” said Gregg Morton, President – AT&T Tennessee.  “This is important to advance the tourist based economy of Tennessee.”

Grant Recipients:

Chickasaw State Park, Henderson, TN. Grant of $1,775 for restoration of the Lake Lajoie trail including replacing one bridge and removal of exotic plants.

Dyersburg Chamber of Commerce, Dyersburg, TN. Grant of $2,500 for design, construction and installation of a kiosk at the western trailhead- Downtown River Park. Kiosk will depict trail system, information, and fauna descriptions.

3.  Greater Memphis Greenline, Inc., Memphis, TN. Grant of $500 toward printing brochures, advertising and administration of Master Plan for Memphis Greenway.

4.  Friends of T.O. Fuller State Park, Memphis, TN. Grant of $2,500 to provide benches, signage and brail, and foliage for touch pathway throughout the Honey Suckle Trail.

5.  Mississippi River Corridor-Tennessee, Inc., Memphis, TN. Grant of $1,000 to purchase a new projector for the Fort Pillow Museum auditorium.

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We’re in the News!

• Foundation Matches $10,000 Gift to Legacy Parks, Bearden Shopper, August 3, 2009 (article)

• Tennesseans Blast Mountaintop Mining Boycott, August 6, 2009 (NRDC.org)

• Mountaintop Mining in Tennessee by Kathleen Williams, The Tennessean, August 6, 2009 (article)

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LWCF Funding Report Released

The Trust for Public Land recently published Conserving America’s Landscapes – a report on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Congress created this fund in 1965 to meet the nation's growing desire to preserve natural areas, culturally and historically significant landmarks, and outdoor recreational opportunities. LWCF funding has been low and unpredictable over the program's forty-four year history, approaching the full funding level of $900 million only twice. In the past ten years, program funding has followed a dramatic decline while demand for these funds to protect our nation's most treasured natural, cultural, and recreation areas has skyrocketed.

Each year, more and more of America's irreplaceable wildlands, fish and wildlife habitats, scenic areas, historic sites, and neighborhood parks are developed, fragmented, and otherwise sacrificed because there is simply not enough LWCF money to go around. The Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition is a group of nonprofit organizations working together to support ample funding for the LWCF, the Forest Legacy Program and natural resource adaptation funding. The coalition produced this report that makes several recommendations to preserve and strengthen this funding source.

Click here to download a copy of the report: http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/lwcf_report_webfinal.pdf

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Dr. Arthur Cushman donates $200,000 to acquire Mound Bottom tract

Dr. Cushman, a Nashville neurologist with a lifelong passion for Indian culture and history, generously stepped in to help the Foundation buy the gateway to Mound Bottom. Below is a recent article and video from The Tennessean regarding our acquisition of this spectacular site.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081228/NEWS01/812280386/1906/GREEN

THANK YOU DR. CUSHMAN!

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We recently a grant in the amount of $1,000 from the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. This is for our State Park Connections program and will help create and enhance opportunities for people to connect to the outdoors and to each other, to be physically active, and to enjoy the natural beauty of Middle Tennessee. THANK YOU!

THANK YOU FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF TENNESSEE!!!! 

Board members of First National Bank of Tennessee recently presented a check for $6,890 to Steve Walsh, Director of Membership.  The check is for sponsorship in the amount of $10 an acre for the Foundation’s most recent purchase of 689 acres in the Scott’s Gulf to Fall Creek Falls corridor project.  First National Bank of Tennessee is challenging other banks to step up and be a sponsor for the Foundation’s land conservation work. 

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2008 State Park Connections Grants Awarded December 3, 2008!

Friends of Cumberland Mountain State Park, $550. To replace two wooden bridges, damaged by a tornado in 2002, on the 6 mile Cumberland Overnight Trail which is not available now. Also replacing wire fencing on suspension bridge over Byrd Creek.

Rock Island State Park, $1,000. To replace 247 feet of safety rail and support posts and re-pour concrete steps along steep access trail to Caney Fork River Gorge, Old Cotton Mill Trail.

Friends of Fall Creek Falls State Park, $2,000. To build a linking trail from Fall Creek Falls to the public lands at Virgin Falls SNA, Bledsoe State Forest and Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness. Money will also be used to purchase planning tools--maps, flagging material, and GPS system.

Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association, Access Committee, $1,000. To build river access ramp and parking area in designated Greenway area in Bellevue to Harpeth River which lies between Harpeth River SP Newsom Mill and Hwy 100 Harpeth River State Park river access.

Friends of the Cumberland Trail, $500. To produce promotional materials to launch large scale capital campaign for land acquisition projects includes photo display panels and display.

Friends of Henry Horton State Park, $750. To construct a 4.3 mile hiking connecting existing Wilhoite Mill Trail and the proposed Adeline Wilhoite Horton Trail. Grant will also be used to purchase materials, signage, and native plants.

Scott's Gulf Wilderness Foundation, $2,000. To repair and improve trail to Virgin Falls includes repair of steps, reinforcement of cable across Big Laurel Creek, directional signage. These improvements are necessary for the safety of the public.

David Crockett State Park, $1,000. To repair and resurface existing trail system, rebuilding trail steps, removing exotic invasive plants, and providing new signage and trail guides.

Big Bone Cave State Natural Area, $500. To remove old breached gate with new bat friendly gate at the entrance to Big Bone Cave. This cave has prehistoric and historic archaeological remains and need protection of its significant resources.

Pickwick Landing State Park, $1,500. To make enhancements to existing 5-mile Island Loop Trail includes signage, foot bridges, erosion breaks and overlooks to TN River.

Friends of T.O. Fuller State Park, $2,500. To Resurface 1/2 mile of the Honeysuckle Trail – a nationally designated trail for the blind and add signage including Braille signage. Also requesting concrete to construct the trail.

Friends of Big Cypress Tree State Natural Area, $2,500. To fund 150 feet of boardwalk traversing seasonal wetland connecting to parking area.

Friends of Ft. Pillow State Historic Park, $1,000.  To purchase 6x6 timbers to rebuild retaining wall so reopen Swinging Bridge trail and access to reconstructed fort.

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Hike to Virgin Falls! 

We have been working to protect land in the Scott's Gulf to Fall Creek Falls Corridor. To date, we have protected almost 3,300 acres. Join Tennessee's WILD SIDE guide Ken Tucker, photojournalist Barry Cross, and friends of the Foundation on their recent hike to Virgin Falls. 

Virgin Falls Hike

The newest addition to our staff is Dianne Naff, who has been hired as our Land Acquisitions Manager. Dianne has a background in real-estate and specializes in land and rural properties in middle Tennessee. She has also volunteered for land conservation groups and has a working knowledge of conservation easements. Dianne will be assisting our Executive Director and our two Regional Conservation Directors in the east and west with all aspects of the sale and purchase of land to be preserved……forever.  

She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Marketing and has 20 years of marketing and advertising experience. She has backpacked around the world and has lived all over the country, but is glad to be back home in middle Tennessee, where she says the rolling hills, friendly faces, family-size tea bags and pimento cheese keep her coming back for more.  

“The grandeur of the west, the pastel colors of the desert, and the rugged east coast are all very nice, but they don’t hold a candle to my home state of Tennessee, with all its diverse scenic beauty, abundance of water (which must be conserved) and melodic topography. I hope you will join us in helping preserve in perpetuity our land and all things that are nurtured, fed and grow because of it.”

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Read about our latest acquisition in Scott's Gulf!

Knoxville News Sentinel

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jun/28/piece-by-piece-preservation/

Sparta Expositer

http://www.spartaexpositor.com/articles/2008/06/30/news/doc48692e425c01a328414349.txt

Herald-Citizen

http://www.herald-citizen.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=D1719A9D-19B9-E2E2-67ABD5F5C5F6FE4D

Photo by Alan Poizner  (www.poizner.com)

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Robert McCaleb works in the South Cumberlands region. He is a graduate of Auburn University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering.  He is a licensed engineer in the States of Tennessee and Alabama, with over 25 years of experience in environmental remediation of hazardous waste sites and the manufacture of water treatment chemicals. Since 2001, Robert has been associated with the consulting firm ST Environmental Professionals. 

He and his wife, Patti, have three children:  Laura, a senior at Covenant College; Leah, a freshman at Tennessee Tech; and Landon, a freshman in high school. Robert and his family are active in Westwood Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee. Robert has volunteered extensively for various  conservation groups and state agencies over the years. His hobbies are outdoor activities including hiking, camping, and cave exploring.

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Go inside Devilstep Hollow Cave

LAND DEAL PROTECTS CAVE WITH ANCIENT DRAWINGS

By Anne Paine • Staff Writer • February 26, 2008

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. — The green, 385-acre Devilstep Hollow has guarded a secret since prehistoric times. 

A cave lies underground with bird-man creatures and other mysterious images carved into the limestone or painted on the walls.

This is one of only about 60 cave art sites documented in the Southeast, and 48 in Tennessee, according to Jan Simek, distinguished professor of science and interim chancellor of the University of Tennessee.

The Devilstep cave art should survive modern times because the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation has acquired the land, and the state is buying it at cost, about $2.1 million, including surveying and fees.

This will protect the natural area and spring that helps form the Sequatchie River, but the cave is its most unusual feature.

People of the mound-building, culturally-rich Mississippian Era crawled on their bellies through the cave and left the artistic marks of their existence, probably about 1280-1300 A.D., Simek said. "These are spiritual places," he said. "They are very precious things, very delicate and fragile."

The cave is gated and locked, and the property has a caretaker. The land above, however, will open to the public one day.

The pastoral Devilstep Hollow, ringed with the Cumberland Mountains and graced with trees, a clear river and cabins, looks like a national park, said Kathleen Williams, head of the foundation.

Williams foresees a hostel there and possibly a museum with a virtual reality cave tour. "Hopefully, this will be a place for hikers to stay along the cross-state Cumberland Trail State Park," she said, waving an arm towards the cabins.

The land was bought at a half-million-dollar discount from private owners, and the state plans to pay for it with federal and state park and land acquisition funds. The foundation is one of the nonprofit groups that, through donations, can act quicker than the state when significant natural, historical or cultural locations come on the market.

Adam Sherrill, a Revolutionary War veteran who scouted with Daniel Boone and whose sister was married to Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, settled the land about 1790, according to the foundation. That's barely old compared with the era when cane torches of another people blackened parts of the cave underneath and they drew their art.

"This is kind of a cross between a bird and a human," said Bill Lawrence, archaeologist with the Tennessee State Parks' Natural and Cultural Resource Management division. He was shining his flashlight on a falcon/warrior cut into the wall, a mythical figure with god-like status. "He's holding a mace … a kind of ceremonial axe." You see the wing feathers coming off the arms there?"

Variety of art rare

A sprinkling of bats clinging to the low ceiling ignored the five, dust-covered humans who had squeezed on their stomachs through a series of passageways to get there. Another picture showed a man transformed into an axe, with beaded forelocks typical of the era's art.

A painting, with charcoal or other materials, of a dog or wolf could be found, as could mud impressions call "mud glyphs." "This is one of only two caves that I know of in the South that have all three of those art forms in them," Simek had said in a phone interview earlier.

The designs are dated by what they depict and how they are made. Radiocarbon testing to determine the time has been done elsewhere on the torch black.

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE

State archaeologists say this creature painted on the wall at Devilstep Hollow Cave is probably a fox or a wolf. The checker pattern is a scale that archaeologists use to size things.

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DEVILSTEP HOLLOW CAVE AND HEAD OF SEQUATCHIE SPRING

By Kathleen Williams

The Cave entrance is massive and humbling

and at its base is a blue green pool, with barely churning waters collected from the other side of the mountains. It percolates and drains underground again … and then gushes out of the ground.  Like someone turned on a fire hose.  And immediately you have a sizeable creek that quickly turns to river … the beautiful Sequatchie.

Both these cosmic, tribal, awe-inspiring wonders are on one 393 acre parcel of land.  Framed on all sides by Cumberland Mountains, the valley will surely soothe a world-weary soul. It has mine.  The cave is a destination and so is the spring but the land around these wonders is “good for what ails you,” as my mama says.  One of the most beautiful walks I’ve ever had was just a couple of weeks ago up Selby Creek, on this good land.  Dorton’s Knob glowed red in the setting sun and the fields glowed gold with tendrils backlit and I felt blessed and healed.  You’ll be able to visit and I bet you will get a blessing too.

For more information about this or any other project, contact Kathleen Williams (615) 386-3171 or by email  tenngreen@earthlink.net.

2007 STATE PARK CONNECTIONS GRANT RECIPIENTS

The following State Park Connections grants were awarded at our annual board meeting and reception on December 5^th.  Funding for these grants are made possible through the generous support of Janie and Ric Finch in honor of Janie’s parents, Howard and Winnie Cooper; with additional funding provided by Bill and Rita Bruce, formerly of Smithville; The Boeing Company; and John Noel and Melinda Welton.

Thank you to our generous sponsors! You make these great projects possible!

§  Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Natural Areas - Stinging Fork Falls State Natural Area, $2,110. Replace decayed stairs/wooden steps and maintain trail up to safety standards for visitors. Build and install interpretive kiosk and reblaze trail and install permanent trail signage to accessible waterfall spot from parking lot. Install boulder to block vehicle access.

§  Friends of the Cumberland Trail, $2,500. To produce 2,000 trail maps and 13 kiosk displays for three new sections of the Cumberland Trail State Park – North Chickamauga Creek, Laurel-Snow, and Piney River.

§  Pickett Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Memorial State Park, $2,500. To purchase an information/interpretive kiosk for visitors which would be located at Visitor's Center in the park.

§  City of Algood, $2,500. To purchase three 6-foot benches and concrete pads, install benches on sidewalk connecting city with Algood School for resting on walks and memorial in honor of Howard and Winnie Cooper longtime residents of Algood.

§  Henry Horton State Park, $1,500. To extend the Duck River Scenic Trail to loop back to campground through newly acquired land. Grant will purchase supplies and materials for trail construction and two bridges crossing over washout areas.

§  Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association, $1,000. To build safe river access on the Harpeth River within the Harpeth River State Park. This adds to the Harpeth River Blueway Trail. Native plantings will be used to help riverbank erosion.

§  Burgess Falls State Natural Area, $1961.40. To purchase materials to refurbish existing picnic tables and replace parts with recycled plastic lumber, thus reducing staff time in repainting or replacing wooden benches and tables located in the Native Butterfly Garden and Picnic Shelters.

§  Cumberland Trail Conference, $1,000. To cover materials cost and construction of ten mile section of trail in remote part of Campbell and Scott Counties on the Cumberland Trail at Cove Lake and Frozen Head State Park which includes building rock steps, retaining walls, and footbridges.

§  T.O. Fuller State Park, $2,500. To construct a new trail from Riverport Road to McKellar Lake providing scenic views of wildlife with bird watching area, plants and waterfront within Memphis city limits. Trail will be handicap accessible with plant/tree identification signs.

§  Greater Memphis Greenline, Inc., $1,000. To provide funding for preparation of Master Plan for proposed 13-mile multi-use urban park/trail.

§  Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency - Tumbleweed Wildlife Management Area, $2,500.  To help with land acquisition costs of the Escanaba Tract at Tumbleweed WMA.

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Funding for this program is currently based on annual solicitations and grantwriting efforts. Our long-term goal is to establish a permanent partnership with a corporate sponsor that will enable the program to be self-sustaining.  We have been successful in establishing strong collaborative partnerships across the state and would welcome a new joint venture partner. Corporate support of this program is a strategic investment in Tennessee, as well as in the local communities.

For more information, please contact us at (615) 386-3171 or by email: developmenttpgf@earthlink.net.