Learn how to attract native pollinators like this tawny emperor butterfly in your own garden. (Photo: Courtesy Overton Park Conservancy)
Ever dream of waking up to a beautiful garden full of roses and peonies every morning, but you just don’t have a green thumb? Or do you want to be more sustainable in your gardening practices? Well, the Overton Park Conservancy can help with its Pollinator Paradise workshop this Saturday.
The workshop is designed to help beginner gardeners learn more about the art of gardening and how to properly care for their plants. Importantly, this event stresses the need for native plants to be cultivated to help preserve our native wildlife and pollinators, instead of using generic plants that are often sold at many stores. “Eighty percent of food in this country is dependent upon pollination,” says Mary Wilder, former Overton Park Conservancy board member and Master Gardener. “We could starve to death if you didn’t have a bee, a butterfly, a beetle, or a bat because the plants wouldn’t get pollinated. They wouldn’t be able to make their fruit or grow up to be whatever plant they’re supposed to be.
“If we can educate folks to garden more naturally with the locally sourced plants, then we are helping in the long run the whole bigger [eco]system. So that’s part of why it’s significant,” Wilder adds.
And if you are unsure about where to purchase your domestic plants or which plants will survive in Memphis weather, there will be plants for sale to help give you a head start on improving your garden. If you are interested in attending, the workshop will be held this Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and it is pay-what-you-can, with a recommended donation of $5. To register, visit overtonpark.org/event/workshop-pollinator-paradise.
Happy Gardening!
Pollinator Paradise: Cultivating a Wildlife-Friendly Backyard, Abe Goodman Golf Clubhouse, 2080 Poplar Ave., Saturday, April 5, 10:30-11:30 a.m., $5/recommended donation.
Kaci Murley (Photo: courtesy Overton Park Conservancy)
Kaci Murley has been named the new executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy. This announcement comes after Tina Sullivan stepped down from the role this summer.
“I know this work, and I am absolutely energized to build and sustain a strong and lasting public asset while leading an incredible team that embodies dedication to the mission every single day. I love this city so much, and I could not be more honored to begin this new chapter,” Murley said.
Murley formerly served as the organization’s deputy executive director, where she worked on strategic leadership and development management, fundraising strategy, community relations and more. Officials said Murley’s experience in leadership, project management, and fundraising campaign planning will help guide the park into its “next phase.”
Before joining the conservancy, Murley worked in a number of roles in higher education, including being the director of post-secondary success at tnAchieves (also known as Tennessee Promise) and the director of engagement and advocacy at Complete Tennessee.
Murley also worked as the director of programs for Leadership Memphis. A graduate of Christian Brothers University, where she obtained a bachelor of arts in English for corporate communications, Murley also received a master of arts in leadership and public service from Lipscomb University.
In a statement released by the Overton Park Conservancy, Murley was selected from a “competitive field of applicants by a committee comprising current members of the Overton Park Conservancy board of directors, along with several past board chairs.”
“The committee felt that her connection to the park, and the strong internal and community relationships she has built over the past five years, made her the ideal choice to lead the Conservancy into this phase of growth,” they said in a statement.
Sullivan said she is “grateful to be leaving the conservancy in such capable hands,” and that she’s been “accelerating ever since.” She also said she has confidence in the staff and board.
“Kaci has a thorough understanding of the park, its unique history, and its opportunities,” said Yancy Villa, Overton Park Conservancy board chair. “We believe this knowledge will inform her as she strives to protect and improve the park while keeping Overton Park in the center of it all.”
Tina Sullivan leads a mindfulness walk in the Old Forest. (Credit: Overton Park) Conservancy)
Tina Sullivan is stepping down as executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC), the organization announced Tuesday morning.
Sullivan will serve in the role until a successor is brought on board. She has helmed OPC since its creation 12 years ago. In that time, the park has seen a number of improvements, which brought a surge of popularity. OPC said visitor counts over the last several years have reached 1.5 million.
“Having the task of connecting people to nature has been deeply rewarding,” said Sullivan. “Something magical happens when people come to Overton Park and experience its unique beauty and welcoming culture. People from different backgrounds form bonds around their love of this place. The park’s diverse community is vibrant and thriving, and that strength is what will protect this place for future generations.”
Since OPC’s creation, the 126-acre Old Forest was designated as a State Natural Area, and the title brought a number of new protections for the area. New entrances to the forest were created by local artists and erected at its entrances.
Overton Bark, a dog park, was created. The organization conducted research, removed invasive plants, renovated and maintained trails, and launched a schedule of nature-based programming, many of these with the help of park volunteers and supporters.
Maybe the biggest issue Sullivan helped to tackle in her tenure was one that, ultimately, ended nearly 30 years of parking on the Overton Park Greensward. Negotiations and controversy followed the issue for years until OPC leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the city of Memphis signed an agreement in 2022.
“Tina’s patient leadership during that tenuous period kept everyone at the negotiating table until the best possible solution could be found,” said OPC board chair Yancy Villa.
The agreement also brought additional acres of old-growth forest back to the park. It also opened a large area in the park’s southeast corner, as the city agreed to close part of its maintenance facility there.
Sullivan said the time is right for her to step aside.
“With the park thriving and the Conservancy in a steady-but-growing position, this is the opportune time to relinquish the captain’s seat,” she said in a statement. “We’re in a moment of calm before the next growth phase, which gives the board some freedom to spend time recruiting the best possible leader.”
Villa said, “Tina has been the right leader at the right time for [OPC]. From its inception to today, she has led the Conservancy with integrity, tenacity, and passion.”
“I’ve been walking in this park since the late 1980s. I grew up in Memphis, so I know every trail. When I was young, my first dog got swept down Lick Creek into the zoo. I have so many memories. But all of us who work here at the park have a passion for connecting people with nature … Oh, a white-eyed vireo! … Listen. Chick-breeyou-chick. They’re my favorites. They are such comedians!”
Fields Falcone is the rare person who can carry on a human conversation, identify an avian song and mimic it, and then return to speaking English without missing a beat. Her title is stewardship manager for the Overton Park Conservancy, but she is a scientist/avian biologist who’s conducted field and lab work as far away as the Marianas Islands and as near as the Memphis Zoo. Today, she is taking an amateur bird-lover — namely me — on a bird walk in the park’s Old Forest.
“There are only three urban old-growth forests in the country,” says Falcone. “We manage the habitat here mostly by invasive species removal and by trying to control how many trails there are. Beyond that, it’s so ancient that it’s a perfect habitat for many interior forest birds. During the spring and fall migrations many species stop in for a snack, then move on after a few days to bigger wooded areas like the Wolf River or Hatchie River or T.O. Fuller — or further north to their breeding grounds. … Oh, that’s an eastern wood peewee. … Its song is so plaintive.”
In addition to its migratory visitors, which offer “some of the best birding in Memphis,” Overton Park has a healthy population of resident and migratory breeding species, and Falcone appears acutely aware of all of them. “We do a lot of birding by ear,” she says. “And really, when we’re doing a survey, vocals tend to be more valuable, especially song versus call. It’s of higher value than even a perfect picture because it is the true genetic imprint of the bird.”
We both have our Merlin bird-identification phone apps turned on as we walk, careful to keep our footsteps as quiet as possible. It’s a necessary tool for me, and probably of more use as a backup identifier for Falcone.
“Merlin is great, and accessible for everyone,” she says. I’m reassured, and chance a guess at a song echoing through the treetops.
“Isn’t that a robin?”
“No, that’s a red-eyed vireo,” Falcone says. “It sounds like a robin on helium.” Well, sure. I knew that.
“And that’s a great crested flycatcher,” she says, head turned to the lower branches. “Breeep, breep. It’s pretty birdy today, even though most of the spring migration period is over. I wasn’t sure it would be.”
There will soon be some new territory between the zoo and the forest opening up for Old Forest trail walkers, thanks to a land-use compromise that finally ends occasional zoo parking on the park’s Greensward.
“We’re going to have some lovely new trails,” says Falcone. “Bob’s Trees and Trails has already mapped the area. We got a federal grant with the help of Congressman Cohen to help settle the final plans on the Greensward. The zoo got a chunk, the city got a chunk, and Overton Park got a chunk. We’re designing a loop trail around the Greensward and there will finally be no parking there. We have a great relationship with Matt Thompson, the zoo CEO.”
A young couple, each carrying binoculars, approaches. They are smiling, and say something to Falcone but I don’t catch it. “Ooh,” she says, “They heard a black-throated green warbler. They make this insane, brilliant, lovely song — gee, geegeegee — but they’re only here for migration.”
And I’m only here for this awesome bird walk (and my daily dog walks), but I urge you to check Overton Park’s calendar for nature programs, tai chi, science cafe, and other activities. It’s a great respite from the city’s heat and hustle. And if you’re lucky, you might even run into the remarkable Fields Falcone. If you do, tell her Bruce says, “breeep.”
Overton Park Conservancy Executive Director Tina Sullivan. Photo by Kailynn Johnson.
The Overton Park Conservancy provided a “very early look” of the proposed new trails at Overton Park.
Officials said it would probably be several months before the trail opens to the public as they have to pull invasive plants and cut the trails.
In 2023 the conservancy and the Memphis Zoo worked together on a solution regarding parking on the Greensward. Historically, the zoo has used 12 acres of the Greensward for overflow parking. However, last year the zoo agreed to return this land to free public parkland under the conservancy’s management.
“The acreage, which was once slated to be home to a new Zoo exhibit space, has been behind a chain-link fence for years, disconnected from the 126 acres that the conservancy began managing in 2012,” the conservancy said in a statement. “As we prepare to remove the fence, the conservancy has enlisted a professional trail designer to create a new path that links up to the existing Old Forest trail system, maximizes views, and traverses the varied topography of the space.”
On Wednesday morning the Overton Park Conservancy hosted a walking press conference inviting media to be among the first to go behind the fence. The conservancy’s executive director Tina Sullivan and director of operations Eric Bridges hosted a walk on the proposed trail to share their expected plans for opening the space.
During the preview, Sullivan honed in on the natural beauty of the area as well as how carefully they’re going about planning and designing the trail system. The conservancy is putting a heavy focus on enhancing the innate characteristics such as log placement and sycamores.
“A place like this is so important in an urban area like Memphis,” Sullivan said. “To get another dozen acres of this kind of habitat and this kind of deep, immersive, nature experience for Memphians — it’s such a joy. It’s such a gift to the people of Memphis.”
Sullivan said they hope to preserve and steward the space for future generations. She added that the preservation also improves the park experience from all directions.
“If we were not to have gotten this particular tract of forest back then [the] viewshed from across the Greensward would have been compromised,” Sullivan said. “We would have potentially been looking at the backside of an exhibit or parking lot. We are especially grateful to the zoo that they saw the benefit of preserving this tract of land and the conservation value. We have a lot of opportunities to work together to research [and] study what’s back here and how to preserve it for future generations.”
Bridges said they will soon be starting the process of invasive removal, and as a part of their grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development a team from Nashville will begin the process of an initial reduction.
“It’s not a one and done,” Bridges said. “The goal is whenever you remove something you create a growing space. Something was there and something’s going to fill that space. It’s really critical that you guide the next invasive.”
Bridges added it will be their “test ground” for an ecological restoration strategy.
“We’re good at the removal business. Now we’re going to get into the restoration business, which is that next step,” Bridges said.
This restoration process will likely include replanting and seeding and “guiding the forest” as Bridges put it.
Overton Park officials hope construction can begin this year on a project that will end Greensward parking, open new park-land, and relocate some facilities, but they await the arrival of $3 million in federal funds.
In March 2022, Overton Park Conservancy (OPC), the Memphis Zoo, and the city of Memphis announced a plan that would transform the park through a series of land swaps.
In July 2022, the group announced $3 million in federal funding had been allocated for the project. The group is still awaiting the money in order to get the project started.
“The city, the zoo, and the conservancy are all moving aggressively to get this solution implemented as quickly as possible,” OPC executive director Tina Sullivan said in a statement. “With federal funding, multiple partners, and multiple aspects to the project, it’s hard to pinpoint a completion date at this stage. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we do hope to be underway with construction by the end of 2023.”
Last week OPC outlined what will happen when the money becomes available:
• The conservancy will develop a plan for addressing invasive plant species in the forested acreage that is currently adjacent to the zoo’s temporary exhibit space.
• [OPC will] design and build a trail system for the new section of forest, and once it’s ready for visitors, will take down the surrounding fence.
• The city will move its remaining functions from the area in Overton Park’s southeast corner and begin work to make the space more habitable.
• The zoo will then move its maintenance facility there, freeing up its current on-site maintenance facility for guest parking.
• The conservancy will begin piloting potential uses for the remaining parcel of the southeast corner, which will be converted into an area for public use.
The Memphis Zoo parking lot is about to ”undergo a transformative makeover” with a paving project but officials said it is not related to new overall parking agreement between the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC).
The zoo’s massive main lot will be repaved in a project that ”aims to enhance your parking experience and provide a more convenient and aesthetically pleasing environment.”
Work on the project begins Thursday and the lot is expected to re-open to parking on Sunday. Parking plans for Saturday include possible parking on the Overton Park Greensward.
Some new spaces were to be created on the lot after re-striping, according to the agreement between the zoo and OPC signed last year. However, no new parking spots will be added in the repaving project, according to zoo spokeswoman Rebecca Winchester, who noted that it is “just a repaving project.”
Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of the project and what zoo guests can expect:
Thursday
Guests will be directed to park in the Galloway lot. If the Galloway lot reaches capacity, we will utilize Rows B-H of the main parking lot for additional parking space.
Friday
Guests will be directed to park in the Galloway lot. Should the Galloway lot become full, we will utilize Rows I-M of the main parking lot for additional parking.
Saturday
Parking for guests will be arranged in the following order: Galloway lot, Greensward, and the main parking lot.
While the milling process may cause temporary unevenness in the main lot, rest assured that it will be safe for parking. Memphis Zoo Team members will be available to assist with parking.
City leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Conservancy made final Monday a parking plan that came after years of protests, battles at Memphis City Hall, and a host of proposals. It’s a plan that will forever end parking on the park’s Greensward.
Credit: Memphis Zoo, city of Memphis, Overton Park Conservancy
The zoo has parked cars on the Greensward for decades (at least since the 1980s) in a handshake agreement with city. Grumbling about the deal and the cars goes back at least as long as the deal has been in place.
Vehicles periodically cut deep, hard, muddy ruts on a northern edge of the Greensward, rendering it useless for recreation. Sometime around early 2014 an ad hoc group blocked-off the greensward with orange traffic cones and sat around their barrier in camp chairs, daring anyone to pass. This was the opening salvo of what would be a nearly nine-year battle between park advocates and the public, the zoo, members of the Memphis City Council, and two mayors.
Flyer columnist Bruce VanWyngarden deftly summed up the next few years in a 2021 column.
”Things started getting really heated in 2014. Park lovers formed groups: Get Off Our Lawn (GOOL) and Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP). Activists stood on nearby street corners urging zoo patrons to park on nearby streets, rather than despoiling the Greensward. Aerial photographs were taken that showed just how much of the people’s parkland was being taken over by a private entity. The pictures got national attention. Protestors were arrested. Houses all over Midtown bore signs urging Memphis to Save the Greensward.
savethegreensward.org
“Then the zoo cut down some trees. [Activists held a second line for them and planted some new trees in protest.] Some activists threatened to begin spray-painting cars. A zoo sign at the park entrance was defaced. Things were tense.
“And then, in the winter of 2016, newly elected Mayor Jim Strickland managed to get both sides into mediation. After months of costly negotiation, a compromise was struck. The zoo would be allowed to enlarge its lot to 415 spaces, taking some of the Greensward, but with the great majority of the land being preserved. The zoo subsequently announced that it would build a parking garage on nearby Prentiss Place and wouldn’t need to expand its lot. Huzzah! Parking on the Greensward was a thing of the past. Peace reigned in the Kingdom.
“At least it did until last Friday night at 5:06 p.m., when the zoo and city issued a joint press release stating that the Prentiss garage project was being scrapped because it was too expensive and that the zoo would go back to the lot-expansion plan, and, oh, while it was being expanded, the zoo would once again be letting its customers park on the Greensward. Enjoy your weekend. Nothing to see here.”
No work was done, however, and not an inch of the Greensward was taken. Winter weather was rightfully blamed at the time.
Credit: Memphis Zoo
In 2018, Zoo CEO Chuck Brady — seen as a zoo-first hardliner and unrelenting negotiator — resigned. He was replaced in 2019 by Jim Dean, a native Memphian who had served as president of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.
Credit: Memphis Zoo
Dean was largely seen as a diplomatic compromiser who helped lead the zoo, park, and city through to the new plan that got the final approval Monday. Dean was replaced this year by Matt Thompson, the zoo’s former executive director and vice president (and the Zoo Dude personality on the zoo’s social channels).
Here’s how the zoo, park, and city described the new plan in a rare joint statement after Monday’s signing of the new memorandum of understanding:
“The new plan, which has been approved by both the conservancy and zoo boards of directors, would move the zoo’s current maintenance area to the park’s southeast corner, making use of existing buildings in the northern portion of what is now the city’s general services area.
Credit: Overton Park Conservancy
“The zoo’s existing maintenance area, located along North Parkway, would then be converted into parking. Along with some re-striping of the zoo’s main lot, this reconfiguration would add the 300 spaces the zoo needs without carving out a portion of the Greensward.
“Following the creation of the zoo’s new parking lot, the Greensward will be permanently closed to overflow parking. The conservancy is exploring the creation of a walking path around the perimeter of the Greensward to make the space even more accessible and increase its recreational potential. Overton Park will also look to remediate soil damage and install some landscaping that serves as a visual barrier between the Greensward and the zoo parking lots.
“Both organizations celebrate this historic day as they announce a permanent solution to the zoo’s parking needs that not only preserves the entire Overton Park Greensward, but restores 17 acres of mostly forested parkland that has been inaccessible for decades.”
The pop-up “Evanescent” closes Friday. (Photo: Abigail Morici)
The age-old debate pits nature against nurture, but being in nature can nurture the mind, body, and spirit. To that point, Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) is hosting its first-ever NatureZen Week.
The week, which kicked off on October 16th, features short mindfulness walks, led by volunteers from various disciplines — spiritual, artistic, wellness, ecology — to encourage people to slow down, take in their surroundings, and disconnect for a bit. “They’re kind of like the Japanese concept of forest-bathing where it doesn’t take a very long time to feel the benefits of nature,” says Melissa McMasters, OPC’s director of communications. “You just have to intentionally go and kick your mind off of other things while you’re there, and your body and your mind start to respond.”
The ultimate goal of these walks and of the week overall is to serve as a launching pad for OPC to implement more mindfulness walks and activities. The idea arose from the times of lockdown. “We started running a NatureZen series on our blog and in our email,” McMasters explains, “and we kept putting out all this messaging to encourage people to still get to the park if they could and enjoy the beauty of nature, just as some kind of a counterbalance to the pandemic. Now we are looking more into public programming.”
To conclude the week, OPC invites all to Club House Zen at the Brooks Museum Plaza. “It’s gonna be kind of a happy hour,” McMasters says. The celebration will also mark the closing of the Brooks’ outdoor pop-up exhibit, “Evanescent,” a collection of larger-than-life bubbles.
“It’ll be really cool to have a dance party with the bubbles,” McMasters adds. DJ Bizzle Bluebland and Ross al Ghul will spin tunes, and food and drink will be available for purchase. A donation of $25 to the conservancy will get you a wristband for free food and drinks for the evening. For more information and a full schedule of mindfulness walks, visit overtonpark.org/naturezenweek.
Club House Zen, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Plaza, Friday, October 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m., free.
The project to forever eliminate parking on the Overton Park Greensward got $3 million in federal funding Wednesday.
The U.S. House passed six spending bills Wednesday totaling more than $400 billion. Some of that money includes discretionary spending for projects all over the country, including the $3 million to further the Overton Park parking plan.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen announced the funding Thursday morning, noting that he voted for the bill that includes it. Cohen said the bill includes more than $17 million for Memphis projects, including $4 million for the renovation of the historic cobblestones at the river’s edge Downtown.
The new Overton Park parking plan was announced in March (more at the link below). It came after decades of complaints about Greensward parking, testy debates during Memphis City Hall meetings, a mediation process that ended at an impasse, a compromise plan that would have taken some acres from the Greensward, a hopeful new plan that would have built a parking deck on Prentiss Place and left the Greensward intact, and then the removal of that proposal after it proved too costly in favor of the previous compromise plan that would remove part of the Greensward.
The new plan preserves the entirety of the Greensward, restores 17 acres of parkland that has stood unused behind chainlink fences, swaps land between the park and the Memphis Zoo, and forever ends the zoo’s use of the Greensward for overflow parking.
Much work is to be done before that happens, though, said Tina Sullivan, executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC), which oversees the park for the city. The $3 million, she said, will help that work get done, make for quality work, and, maybe, get that work done more quickly.
Memphis Flyer: How big of a deal is this federal funding to the project?
Tina Sullivan: This is a huge deal. We knew we had this wonderful solution in hand and we knew we had the support of stakeholders on both sides and the city of Memphis. But we also knew it was going to cost a lot to implement, and that was gonna require everyone to go out and raise more money. Congressman Cohen delivered in getting this to sail through the House process.
I know there is still work to be done, and that we have a little bit more to go before it’s completely finalized, but this allows us to implement a better solution in a shorter timeframe than we would have. This will allow us to have a high-quality result on every piece of property that we’re going to touch with it.
What needs to be done?
TS: The project moves the zoo maintenance facility over to that southeast corner [of Overton Park] and allows the zoo to repave that current maintenance area [current home of the city’s General Services facility] for members parking.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in that southeast corner to make it ready for the zoo to move in and make it ready for the Conservancy to move in to the Southern portion of that. There is a lot of work to be done on the zoo’s current maintenance area demolishing buildings and designing a new parking lot over there.
A lot of work needs to be done on the Greensward. We’re going to need to remediate the Greensward. Our vision is to have some sort of permanent barrier between the zoo parking lot and the rest of the park. So, I think the “berm” that was discussed in our early negotiations, that may soften into something that’s a visual and a physical barrier, but maybe not. Maybe it’ll be something a little more appropriate to the design of the park. So, that still needs to be designed and then implemented.
Then, finally, part of this solution includes reclaiming that 17-acre tract of forest that’s been behind the zoo fence since for a couple of decades, at least. So, the zoo’s gonna need to move its exhibit space out from behind Rainbow Lake. And we need to take that big, chainlink fence down and move it over to establish a new zoo boundary in the forest. From there, we’ll have we’ll have some work to do in the forest, like invasive [plant] removal.
There is a large amount of work yet to be done. That’s going to cost a lot of money.
