Tag: Wolf River Conservancy

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The Fight for the Wetlands

Sarah Houston kayaks the Mississippi. (Photo: Courtesy Protect Our Aquifer)

Huge cypress trees rise from placid waters of the Wolf River, moss clinging to their trunks. This land where the Wolf’s channels widen and the flow slows in Fayette County is called the Ghost River. It is one of West Tennessee’s most beautiful natural wonders.

Jim Gafford knows the magic of the Ghost River. As recreation coordinator for the Wolf River Conservancy (WRC), he leads paddling trips on the first Saturday of every month along different sections of the 100-mile-long Wolf. “The water is a natural element to everybody. If you get on the water, it supports you, it relaxes you, it has a calming effect on you,” he says.

Jim Gafford (Photo: Courtesy Wolf River Conservancy)

Nowadays, the Ghost River is a Class I Scenic-Recreational State Natural Area. But it wasn’t always like that. It’s hard to believe that, as recently as 1995, the ancient wetland was almost destroyed. “The Conservancy was founded in ’86,” Gafford says. “In the mid-’90s, we found out that Peter Beasley had sold the Beasley Plantation to a development company. The development company actually published plans to go in and harvest all of the cypress and all the usable timber in the bottom land, and then sell off the land into what they called ‘farms’ — they were just narrow strips of land with river access that would have no restrictive covenants at all. So people could have purchased the land and done what they wanted to with it and just have a little access to the river. Our first conservation effort was to save that 4,000 acres from development. Fortunately, we were able to, and we’re still using it now. It’ll be here for thousands of years and allowed to evolve naturally.”

After that first victory almost 30 years ago, the WRC has continued their mission of protecting the waters of the Wolf and making sure they’re available to everyone. But not all wetlands have the Ghost River’s rizz. Most of Tennessee’s approximately 787,0000 acres of wetlands are swamps, bayous, and muddy creek beds, tucked away in neglected corners of farms or undeveloped land on the edges of suburbs. But that does not mean wetlands are not valuable, says Sarah Houston, executive director of Protect Our Aquifer. In flood-prone West Tennessee, wetlands act as a buffer against too much rain. Less wetland acreage means more and bigger floods.

Sarah Houston (Photo: Courtesy Protect Our Aquifer)

“Wetlands really do us a big favor in absorbing floodwater, holding on to it,” Houston says. “And that water is either going to be slowly released into surface water or it’s going to be slowly released into groundwater. … Housing developments get built in what used to be wetlands or downstream near floodplains, and then they see regular flooding. Those developments probably should have never been approved in those places because the water is gonna keep flowing. Now, it’s just flowing into your house.”

Wetlands also play an important role in mitigating climate change. The trees, plants, and mosses in swamps and bayous absorb carbon dioxide, the buildup of which causes global warming, from the atmosphere. In a regular forest, when the leaves fall and the trunks die, their decomposition can release methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, into the air. Or they can burn, throwing soot and carbon dioxide high into the atmosphere. But in swampy areas, organic debris falls into the water and is buried in sediment, where it cannot contribute to global warming. Much of the coal and oil we burn today was formed from remains of wetlands buried during the Permian period 290 million years ago.

As wetlands are drained, developed, or paved, they lose the ability to sequester carbon, and some of the stored carbon dioxide and methane is re-released into the atmosphere. A 2016 paper by A.M. Nahlik and M. S. Fennessey, published in the journal Nature, found that “wetland soils contain some of the highest stores of soil carbon in the biosphere.” In some cases, up to 40 percent of wetland soil was carbon, compared to the 0.5 to 2.0 percent found in agricultural soils. The study found that freshwater wetlands were much more efficient at storing carbon than river deltas or saltwater estuaries. All told, the study estimated that the continental United States’ wetlands contain a whopping 11.52 gigatons of sequestered carbon.

Gafford says West Tennessee’s wetlands are valuable in another way. “In the Memphis, Shelby County, Fayette County, Tipton County area, the most important value of that swampy area is what percolates down and actually recharges our water supply. If you talk to any expert, they’ll tell you that Memphis has the best water in the world.”

Houston’s organization, Protect Our Aquifer, watches over that valuable resource. Memphis is built over an underground aquifer containing as much freshwater as one of the Great Lakes. “It is our sole source of drinking water in Memphis, Tennessee,” she says. “It’s also all the water that industry and farmers use, too. It is one of the purest sources of water in the country, and it just happens to be right below our feet, easily accessible. Because of the way it was formed, over millions of years back when this area was actually a shallow ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and through a series of deposits of gneiss, quartz sand, and then thick clay layers, it created what we now call the Mississippi embayment. The majority of the water that’s actually below Memphis in the Memphis sand aquifer fell as rain 2,000 years ago, and has been infiltrating and filtering slowly over time to bring us that pure drinking water. And it is all out of sight, out of mind.”

Fresh water enters the Memphis aquifer through creek beds such as this one, where the Memphis sands are close to the surface (Photo: Courtesy Protect Our Aquifer)

What Is a Wetland?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines wetlands as “areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year, or for varying periods of time during the year.”

That’s a broad definition that has been more or less enforced since the passage of 1972 Clean Water Act. Federal protections for wetlands were expanded during the Obama administration, and then rolled back during the Trump administration. Then, in May 2023, a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Sackett vs. EPA forced the agency to limit its jurisdiction to only wetlands that have “continuous surface connection to bodies that are Waters of the United States.”

“If you can get a boat on it, it’s a ‘Water of the United States,’” says Houston. “If you can’t, then that’s not a federal government issue. What changed was this whole definition of technically isolated wetlands, where they’re not directly next to a stream.”

The ruling removed approximately 63 percent of wetlands from federal protection, including most ephemeral wetlands. The rollback alarmed wetlands fans like Gafford. “The results of the EPA and the wetlands protection acts have been so effective, I don’t think that we need to do anything at all to loosen those restrictions,” he says. “Because of agriculture practices and building practices, we let the water get pretty bad, just from the runoff. It was deemed appropriate to put those protections in place, and I think we need to adhere to them because the results have been, in my mind, fantastic.”

The state of Tennessee has defined protected wetlands even more strictly than the federal government since the 1970s. “The Supreme Court justices actually noted that this should be a state-level regulation because states differ so much in their water resources and their landscapes,” says Houston.

After Sackett v. EPA, Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) introduced HB 1054, a bill which proposed to bring the state’s definition of a wetland in line with the new federal rules. According to a January, 2024 report by the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee, adoption of the bill would result in a 55 percent decrease in the amount of currently protected wetlands, or approximately 432.850 acres of the states’ 787,000 acres of wetlands.

Vaughan is a real estate broker and owner of Township Development Services, which offers site selection, land planning and management, and government relations services to developers. In February, he told a legislative committee, “It’s your property, but a third party is going to tell you if you can use it. And if you can’t use it, then you have to pay another party money for you to be able to use your property. That’s the origins of where this bill came from.”

Houston says, “The main argument was too much bureaucracy and red tape, and there is some validity to the concerns of the sponsor Chairman Vaughan. Sometimes, small wetlands that might have kind of sprung up require a permit, and it can add additional cost [to development] because with our wetlands regulations, you have to get a permit if you’re gonna damage them or remove them, and then you have to pay into a mitigation bank.”

The BlueOval Factor

Much of the wetland acreage which would lose protection under the bill is in West Tennessee. That includes Haywood County, where the new Ford BlueOval City is currently under construction. The $6 billion facility to produce electric vehicles and batteries is the largest single investment in Tennessee history. Houston calls the area “ground zero for this development pressure. … Haywood County is seeing tremendous growth. They’re getting permit application after permit application for these new developments. That is also the county that has the highest number of wetlands in the state. … Originally, the argument was, ‘These muddy tracts with some sprouts in them are being classified as wetlands, but they’re not and we need to get rid of them.’ Then it became more about the pressure for growth and the timeline that we’re on. Getting rid of these wetlands in big tracts, acres and acres at a time, would speed up the opportunity for development to occur right now, especially in West Tennessee.”

The potential impacts of wetland development would go farther than just BlueOval City. “We know that there are connections to the aquifer in that area,” says Houston. “The wells that have been drilled for the [BlueOval] megasite are in the unconfined part, so they’re in the recharge zone of the aquifer. And we know that band of the recharge zone extends into half of Haywood County and pretty much all of Fayette County.”

A big unknown is exactly how much of a role wetlands play in recharging the aquifer. It was long thought that water seeped through the soil in a relatively uniform manner, but recent studies in North Mississippi suggest that most of the recharging occurs in relatively small areas where the Memphis Sands are near the surface. The science remains uncertain, but as the POA puts it in a report distributed to legislators, “It’s not necessarily the type or size of wetlands, but the location that determines how valuable it is to recharge.”

Pushback

Once the stakes of HB 1054 became clear, environmental advocates mobilized against it. “To me, wetland preservation represents one of our state’s most vulnerable natural ecosystems at this moment. Wetlands provide a safe haven for our country’s wildlife and serve as a crucial space for aquifer recharge. The preservation of our wetlands serves as a litmus test for the well-being of our environment,” says Memphis Community Against Pollution President KeShaun Pearson.

The bill’s proponents were also mobilized. Adam Friedman of Tennessee Lookout recently reported on Build Tennessee, a political action committee formed in July 2022 by 18 owners and partners in real estate and construction companies, including Keith Grant, a Collierville developer and the former president of the West Tennessee Home Builders Association. In less than two years of existence, the PAC became the fourth-largest spender on lobbying in Tennessee and donated to 90 lawmakers of both parties.

Protect Our Aquifer led the charge against the bill. “We don’t do a lot at the state level,” says Houston. “So we were planning on playing a supportive role in this. But since the majority of the wetlands were in West Tennessee, our mission is all about protecting the drinking water supply that happens to be underneath all of West Tennessee, and the majority of the House subcommittee members represented West Tennessee, we kind of got shoved into the forefront.”

The activists found allies on Capitol Hill. “I think it’s an abhorrent bill that is bad for our state,” says Rep. Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis). “It’s bad for our environment, and it is showing the influence of private corporations and entities and developers in our Tennessee legislature. It’s bad for democracy when elected leaders are literally carrying legislation for private companies and developers to the detriment of 7 million people’s environment. And as a person who cares deeply about environmental justice, I think this is a complete affront to the causes, the beliefs, the values that many of us share, Republicans and Democrats, people who are progressive and people who are conservative.”

Houston says they were open to revisiting Tennessee’s strict wetlands definitions. “Right now, any type of wetland is considered the same value. But in reality, there are some wetlands that are much higher quality. They’ve got no invasive species. They’re nice and healthy, and haven’t been trampled on by humans. A middle ground we want to find is, how do we categorize wetlands in the state based on low, moderate, and high values that could then determine how much mitigation credits are required, what really needs to be permitted, and what is okay with being removed.”

Houston says when the bill was first introduced in 2023, “it was put on hold because TDEC [Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation] promised that there would be stakeholder meetings to draft a good bill that everyone could agree upon that would create new categories for wetlands and address some of this red tape bureaucracy issue. Well, those stakeholder meetings never really happened in earnest last year.”

A Temporary Victory

Houston and the POA testified in front of both Senate and House committees who were considering the bill. “Our information was really well received,” she says. “No matter where you live in West Tennessee, you have a pretty high regard for our aquifer and the drinking water supply.

“In early March, when the Senate committee heard the bill, the senators on that committee said, ‘Trying to categorize wetlands and create all these new definitions is a really complex process. We’re not gonna get it right this first try. So let’s move this to summer study and actually have the stakeholder meetings.’ Commissioner David Sellers, on record, promised to have the stakeholder meetings. So they, 6 to 2, voted it to summer study. We were like, ‘Holy smokes! We won! It’s dead!’ But then Chairman Vaughan in the House kept pushing the bill despite it being dead on the Senate side, which you don’t really see that.”

Pearson says, “Kevin [Vaughan]’s only aim is to open up more land for development with fewer regulations, especially around BlueOval, and over any potential objections from community members in majority-Black Haywood County or other areas that could be exploited by developers, with building happening that does not take into account environmental justice. … We know environmental justice and racial justice oftentimes coexist and you cannot have one without the other.”

As this legislative session winds down towards an expected late April adjournment, Pearson says he is wary. “It is not likely that this legislation will move forward this session. However, due to [Governor Bill Lee’s school] voucher bill also being sought to be passed by this General Assembly, it may become a bargaining chip for Kevin Vaughan and the Republicans to use to try and get it passed for his vote on the voucher bill. The reason I say that is, a number of Republicans have come out vehemently against the governor’s bill, and they’re operating on a very thin majority when it comes to the passage of that legislation, which is the governor’s signature legislation for this General Assembly. That’s why we must continue to pay attention and be engaged in this process because anything is still possible. I have seen how racism and white supremacy and capitalistic exploitation works here, and if you trust the process too much, then you will likely be duped by it because they don’t care too much about the process here.”

During the final week of committee meetings, HB 1054 was not reconsidered, much to the relief of activists like Houston. “Officially, the wetlands 2024 legislative session saga is over, and there will be a summer study this year to dig into the details and try to refine what our wetland protection laws can look like,” she says. “It’s good news. There’s still work to do, but there is good news.”

In the interest of transparency, we note that the Memphis Flyer is owned by Contemporary Media, Inc., whose board chairman, Ward Archer Jr., also founded Protect Our Aquifer. This reporting was conducted independently and relies on multiple sources.

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News News Blog

Wolf River Conservancy Receives $1 Million NAWCA Grant

(Credit: Wolf River Conservancy)

The Wolf River Conservancy recently announced that it received a $1 million grant. According to Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, this grant is “part of a larger, $95 million effort to conserve and restore more than 300,000 acres of important habitats across North America.”

Funding for this grant was made possible by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We’ve protected nearly 19,000 acres of land, and we do that in a variety of ways. … conservation easements, where the owner retains ownership, but they are restricted as to what they can do on the property,” says Ryan Hall, director of land conservation for the Wolf River Conservancy. “Also fee simple purchases. A lot of that ends up being public land that is protected forever. Our mission is to preserve and enhance the Wolf River and its watershed. Our land conservation, land protection actions are really what drives that.”

“We’re building out the Wolf River Greenway throughout the city of Memphis. We’re about halfway done, about 14 miles completed out of 26. We’re trying to activate that greenway,” Hall adds.

Hall describes the greenway as a “paved path through the city of Memphis along the Wolf River.”

“Also, at least once a month we do river trips down different sections of the river, so you get to experience different sections of the Wolf from the state of Mississippi and all the way to Downtown Memphis.”

In reference to the Wolf River Conservancy, Steve Cohen, Tennessee District 9 Congressman, stated, “The work they do is transformative, and this NAWCA grant underscores our government’s commitment to organizations that are committed to ensuring the viability of our ecosystems and environment for the future.”

According to the Wolf River Conservancy, “NAWCA is the only federal grant program that is dedicated to the conservation of wetland habitats for migratory birds.”

“It’s money set aside for the purpose of protecting wetlands and adjacent uplands, primarily for migratory bird species,” Hall adds.

“Think of waterfowl that go up and down the Mississippi Flyway. You can also think of anything else that migrates like hummingbirds which go from the Yucatan Peninsula all the way up through the United States into Canada.”

NAWCA funding affects the United States, Canada, and Mexico. While Hall explains that the funding is very robust, it can be quite difficult to obtain one of these grants.

“We went through a pretty rigorous grant application,” Hall explains. “You have to secure a pretty healthy level of match money and we were able to do that with some conservation easements that we protected here recently in Shelby County. We also got some large match partners; for instance the State of Tennessee is a match partner in our grant for $100,000. A couple of years went into the background of putting this all together.”

This is the second time that the Wolf River Conservancy has received this grant, with the first time being in the late ’90s when it received $1 million to protect the Ghost River section of the Wolf. Hall says they are hoping to apply for the end of next year (2023.)

Hall says that the conservancy has recently closed on a property in Piperton, Tennessee.

“It’s beautiful wetlands that recharge the Memphis Sand Aquifer, and it’s going to actually be added into the Wolf River Wildlife Management area, so it’s actually going to become public land,” says Hall.

“That’s the beauty of this NAWCA grant. Not in every case, but in many cases you get to grow protected land, you know that the public can have access to, but also serves wildlife purposes, aquifer recharge purposes, and wetland preservation purposes. That’s the step that we are in now; administering funds to protect lands,” he adds.

The next property on their list is closer to Confluence Park, which is north of Downtown, Hall adds. 

For Shelby County specifically, Hall says that there is going to be more protected land.

“The wetlands, particularly in Fayette County, Tennessee, and even further upstream in Benton County, Mississippi, and one of our target properties to protect is in Benton County. So those wetlands have a really close relationship with the Memphis Sand Aquifer.”

Hall explains that the rain filters through wetlands, and in about a week or less recharges the drinking water, “ensuring safe, clean, drinking water that all Memphians like.”

“That’s the biggest impact, even if you never leave your house.”

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News News Blog

T.O. Fuller State Park Receives 144-Acre Gift

Tennessee State Parks officials today announced the addition of 144 acres to T.O. Fuller State Park, a donation to the park by philanthropists Hugh and Margaret Jones Fraser and the Carrington Jones family of Memphis.

“We are fortunate to have such wonderful conservationists as Hugh and Margaret Jones Fraser and the Carrington Jones family, and we want to thank them for this generous gift to our state parks,” Jim Bryson, deputy commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), said. “T.O. Fuller State Park holds a special place in the history of our parks and is the only state park in Memphis. This will be a great addition.”      

Carrington Jones and his son, William Carrington Jones, who died in 2018, owned, farmed, and developed land near the park. Margaret Jones Fraser and her brother, Mason Jones, visited the park as children and developed a love of the outdoors. The family wants to give back to the community and is donating various parcels of land. The donation is a chance to expand and protect a community asset while providing educational and recreational opportunities.

Non-profit partners The Land Trust for Tennessee and Wolf River Conservancy assisted in the process.

“In the summer of 2018, Hugh asked me to help think through how we might fit these land puzzle pieces together with conservation for the community as the goal,” Liz McLaurin, president and CEO of The Land Trust for Tennessee, said. “Projects like this are all about timing, the right combination of people, partners, and a common vision. Three years later, it is so heartening to see it all coming together — goal achieved.”

“Wolf River Conservancy is proud to have worked with such good people on an important project for Memphis and the state parks system,” Ryan Hall, director of Land Conservation for the Wolf River Conservancy, said. 

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We Recommend We Recommend

This Weekend’s Laurelwood 15K Raises Funds for Local Organizations

CREDIT: BBBSMS

Run the 901 Race Series hosts Laurelwood 15K, its third of four races this year, this Sunday to benefit local organizations Church Health, Wolf River Conservancy, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mid-South (BBBSMS).

BBBSMS has served more than 16,000 young boys and girls, or “littles,” in the Memphis community since 1968, matching them up with “bigs,” or mentors, to serve as positive role models by spending quality time with them at least twice a month.

BBBSMS has nearly reached its $1,000 goal for race day, but Susan George, the program’s executive director, says she hopes they surpass the goal so they can better serve children who have not yet been matched with mentors.

BBBSMS

Youngest volunteer, Ian

“This funding allows us to recruit additional mentors for the kids who we have waiting,” she says. “We currently have 130 kids on our waitlist, and 92 percent of those kids are boys.”

George says it’s important for these children to have mentors to look up to, as most of them are struggling with parents’ incarceration, divorce, or death.

“A lot of the kids have challenges that they don’t know how to work through, and mentors, with the support of our program, are able to help them work through those things,” she says. “That way they can realize their potential and move on to bigger and better things for themselves.”

Anyone who is interested in becoming involved in the race or as a mentor, intern, or volunteer for the program may reach out by visiting msmentor.org or calling 323-5440.

Laurelwood 15K, Laurelwood Shopping Center, 422 S. Grove Park, Sunday, February 16th, 7 a.m., $20-$55.

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News News Blog

Groups Seek Funds for Afrofuturistic Garden, Food Forest, Boat Dock

CREDIT: Wolf River Conservancy

Google Maps

Site of South Memphis Future and Funk Community Art Garden

Two groups are looking to transform a vacant South Memphis lot into an Afrofuturistic-themed community garden, and are asking for donations to do so.

Using the online fund-raising platform, ioby, the Center for Transforming Communities and the United Housing Inc. are hoping to raise a little over $8,000 to create the South Memphis Future and Funk Community Art Garden.

The project is planned for a vacant lot on McMilan Street in South Memphis’ Lauderdale subdivision. Designed by Tobacco Brown, a community art garden specialist, the garden “will honor the meaning of home in South Memphis and will reimagine what the future of South Memphis as home will mean using art, photographs, and nature.”

Organizers say one goal of the garden is to engage the community and encourage the activation of other vacant properties in the city. The garden will be a “gateway to begin the discussion about creative ways to activate vacant lots and land while celebrating the culture of South Memphis and the future of the community,” the fund-raising page reads.

A community build day is scheduled for Saturday, October 5th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the site of the future garden. Volunteers will have the opportunity to work with Brown, the garden specialist, to plant flowers and build seating for the space.

Organizers are hoping to reach the fund-raising goal of $8,327 before Monday, October 7th ahead of the unveiling celebration on October 12th. The groups will host an activation celebration that day for the community to come and learn about the garden.

The celebration will feature writers Sheree Thomas and Troy Wiggins as speakers, an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, as well as poetry, dance and musical performances. The event will also provide information on fair housing in the city, programs that promote renter’s rights and home ownership, and the importance of home ownership in building wealth, equity, and stability for families.

Through its New Century of Soul Challenge, the city of Memphis has promised to match donations for this project up to $10,000. To donate go here.

ioby

Future site of the Uptown Community Food Forest


• A few miles north of the South Memphis garden site, another group is looking to transform an existing Uptown community garden into a food forest, a garden that mimics forest growth with edible plants. This strategy for growing food leads to better light exposure, simpler maintenance, and an overall better, more bio-diverse yield.

Unlike most community gardens, organizers say the Uptown Community Food Forest will utilize nearly all of the land where it sits to maximize the amount and variety of crops. The project’s organizers say the food forest will provide the community with access to naturally grown food, including seasonal and native produce that they might not otherwise have access to.

The hope is to raise the $8,675 needed for the project by the end of November. To donate to this project go here. The city is also slated to match funds for this project.

Wolf River Conservancy

Rendering of proposed boat dock

• Several miles away from the site of the future food forest, the Wolf River Conservancy is raising funds to give a Raleigh community better access to the Wolf River.


The Conservancy is looking to construct a boat dock near the recently constructed Epping Way section of the Wolf River Greenway trail. The boat dock will provide expanded access to the 20-acre lake there. In Raleigh, there is currently no safe way to access the water to teach and enjoy paddle sports, according to the Conservancy.

The hope is that the new boat dock will help the group better engage youth and adults in environmental education and recreation activities.

The Wolf River Conservancy has already secured $55,000 for the project, but is looking to raise an addition $20,635 by Friday, October 4th. The city has agreed to provide the difference if the goal isn’t met. To donate to this project, go here.

To learn about more projects in the city like these, visit the ioby site.

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Opinion Viewpoint

The Wolf River Conservancy Preserves Our Water, Wildlife, and Woods

CREDIT: Wolf River Conservancy

Wolf River Conservancy is a 501(c)3 nationally accredited land trust tasked to preserve and enhance the Wolf River and its watershed as a sustainable natural resource. Since its founding in 1985, the Wolf River Conservancy has helped to protect more than 16,500 acres of land, including the beautiful Ghost River State Natural Area. From our very first efforts in 1985 as a volunteer group that successfully opposed a new gravel mine along the Wolf River to our most recent land acquisition, the Conservancy has been focused on protecting lands for the benefit of the public. 

Wolf River Conservancy

Wolf River in Autumn

You may be wondering how protecting land along the Wolf River benefits you, the public? The answer in short is threefold: water, wildlife, and woods.

To expand upon the trifecta, let’s review maybe the most important reason for protecting land in the Mid-South: water. Along the Wolf River, wetlands are the lifeblood of the watershed. Not only do they provide habitat for many critters and rare plants, but they also help purify our water. Wetlands hold onto water that allows pollutants to fall out before flowing into the Wolf or tributary streams. Effectively, wetlands act as a natural first line of defense for water quality. In east Shelby and all of Fayette County, Wolf River wetlands also recharge the Memphis Sand Aquifer. The aquifer is very close to the surface of the earth in Fayette County, and Wolf River wetlands are very low-lying. Thus (thanks to research done by University of Memphis), we know that Wolf River wetlands recharge the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Our very first project (the 1985 gravel mine we stopped) had aquifer recharge implications. The Wolf River Conservancy has been helping to protect land and the Memphis Sand Aquifer since 1985.

Wolf River Conservancy is certainly not alone in protecting land, the aquifer, and surface water. While the Conservancy is effective at wetlands conservation for aquifer recharge, two amazing groups are positively affecting the amount of water we withdraw from the aquifer. The outstanding work that Protect Our Aquifer and the Sierra Club have done for years is vital for prevention of aquifer contamination and advocating for smart use of the aquifer. These groups helped advocate for University of Memphis to obtain a million dollars per year of research money to study aquifer recharge in the city of Memphis. Most recently, we all tag-teamed with Berclair and Nutbush neighbors to stop a proposed landfill and sand and gravel mine in wetlands and the floodplain of the Wolf River.

Other positive side effects of land conservation are the sustainable recreational and educational opportunities it creates. Through land conservation, bottomland hardwood forests (woods) will thrive unthreatened from development or mining. This habitat type greatly affects wildlife populations, and its conservation creates a more resilient Wolf River corridor. The resulting conserved landscape creates thousands of acres of high-quality habitat and diverse wildlife for recreation and endless opportunities for education.

Wolf River Conservancy and many other organizations are bolstering outdoor environmental education by partnering with schools and utilizing protected lands as a location to teach. The protected wildlife and habitat provide hands-on experiences for students to see and touch what they read about in textbooks. The Conservancy’s volunteer river guides also teach and expose kids and adults to paddling in a serene natural setting.

In addition to conserving land, Wolf River Conservancy is partnering with the city of Memphis and Shelby County to build the Wolf River Greenway. The Greenway is a paved trail following the meanders of the Wolf River from Mud Island to Germantown. The Wolf River Greenway, once completed, will link together protected lands as an 850-acre linear park — an area larger than Central Park in New York. The public will gain access to more parts of the city via nonmotorized recreation for picnics, education, paddling, mountain biking, and more. Sensitive wetlands and habitats have been protected via the Wolf River Greenway project, which is funded half from private donations and half from government.

The founding members had a vision of the Wolf River as a future Greenway and wildlife corridor through the city of Memphis, and we are fortunate to be able to enact the vision. We invite the public to our next Greenway Grand Opening on Saturday, April 27, at 9 a.m. at 2630 Epping Way in the Raleigh neighborhood.

Keith Cole is executive director of the Wolf River Conservancy.

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Cover Feature News

Wolf Tracks

The Huntington Hills apartment complex in Raleigh looks like any other slightly distressed complex in the city’s inventory of aging, blighted apartment communities. Some of the multi-family buildings in the gated complex are occupied, with bright red flowers sprouting around the walkways and cars parked out front. But other buildings on the site are boarded-up, mini-ghost towns without a single car parked outside.

Out of the back windows of one of the boarded two-story buildings, residents (if the building had any) would have sweeping views of the serene Wolf River, surrounded by thick patches of woods.

In a few years, those residents would have back-door access to the future Wolf River Greenway (WRG), a 36-mile walking and cycling trail that will follow the path of the Wolf River from Collierville to Mud Island. The Wolf River Conservancy (WRC) broke ground on a 20-mile Memphis stretch of the trail in late September, and they plan to have the entire path constructed by 2019.

Deborah Newlin, a Sabal Financial Group asset manager, represents the California-based bank that owns Huntington Hills, which is only 51 percent occupied and went into foreclosure earlier this year. They’re starting renovations on the units’ interior now, and the exterior will be revitalized in 2016. Thanks to the greenway plans, Newlin sees potential for the property and the surrounding Raleigh community.

“Asthetically, [the greenway] will add beautification, and it will add a better sense that this is a safe place to come to,” Newlin said.

Huntington Hills is just one stop on the WRG, which will be the only continuous trail leading from one end of the county to the other. Since the greenway will follow the path of the Wolf, much of it will run through uninhabited areas — wetlands, thick woods, and other natural gems hiding in the city’s urban core. Other portions will traverse impoverished communities, providing a new transportation route for low-income residents without cars. And it will provide connections to the Shelby Farms Greenline and other bike lanes.

The Greenway Today

“We believe we’re building a corridor of opportunity,” said Keith Cole, executive director of the WRC. “It’s more than just a 12-foot-wide paved hiking and biking path. As we go through these diverse neighborhoods — downtown, Midtown, Raleigh, Frayser, East Memphis — we can just imagine increasing the connectivity of those neighborhoods.”

The 20-mile or so city stretch of paved path will add a western connection to the existing 2.6-mile stretch of the WRG, which runs from Walnut Grove to Shady Grove along the southern bank of the Wolf and was completed in 2010. In 2012, it was extended eastward to connect with the Germantown Greenway running adjacent to Humphreys Boulevard.

and after (below).

Although the Germantown Greenway is maintained by the city of Germantown, it follows the path of the Wolf, and the WRC considers it part of their continuous WRG system. Germantown is currently planning to extend its greenway 2.5 more miles to Cameron Brown Park, making it only a mile away from a connection with a planned segment in Collierville.

Between April 13th, 2014 and April 13th of this year, the city counted more than 187,000 cyclists and pedestrians on the WRG.

“Our counts grew by 100 percent when we connected the greenway with Germantown,” says Bob Wenner of the Wolf River Conservancy. “So what happens when we connect with the Shelby Farms Greenline or with bike lanes in other parts of the city? The potential is there for it to come to a million users a year on the Wolf River Greenway.”

The Master Plan

The proposed WRG will begin at the head of the existing greenway near Walnut Grove. From there, it will run northwest along the border of Shelby Farms Park and continue northwest to Kennedy Park, a 260-acre city park in Raleigh with nine baseball fields and two soccer fields.

Kennedy Park is where the WRC held its late September groundbreaking event.

“Kennedy Park is a beautiful park. It’s one of the largest in the city, and it represents the heart of this project,” Cole told those gathered in the park that morning.

From there, the greenway will follow the path of the river to Epping Way, a 66-acre abandoned Raleigh country club that’s now an overgrown natural area with wooded areas and a lake. The trail moves southwest and connects with Rodney Baber Park, an underused 77-acre city park with seven softball fields and one baseball diamond.

“In the ’70s and ’80s, [Rodney Baber] was a really busy place. A lot of people played softball there,” said Mike Flowers, administrator of planning and development for the city’s Division of Parks and Neighborhoods. “But into the ’90s, the park started experiencing a lot of car break-ins at night. Play dwindled to the point that it’s not really used now.”

The May 2011 flood destroyed the sports lighting, concession buildings, and restrooms at Rodney Baber; they were under five to seven feet of water. Flowers said the city is seeking grant funds from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Disaster Resilience Competition to make those repairs.

West of Rodney Baber, the greenway moves through North Memphis, adding a connection to the Chelsea Greenline, and then over to the northern tip of downtown. The WRC controls 80 acres of land on the north end of Mud Island, and they’re proposing a new park at the greenway’s end at the Mississippi River.

“There’s all this land and incredible views of the Mississippi River, so we thought ‘Why don’t we call it something besides Mud Island?’ It’s the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi Rivers, and we kind of like the name Confluence Park,” said Bob Wenner, WRC greenway coordinator. “It’s one of those Kodak spots. It’s a great place to watch the ships come up and down the Mississippi.”

The WRG has a price tag of about $40 million. So far private foundations have committed $22 million, including a $5 million challenge grant from Hyde Family Foundations.

“One of our big priorities is connecting people through green assets, streetscapes, and transit,” said Lauren Taylor, the program director for Livable Communities at the Hyde Family Foundation. “I think this is so exciting, the sheer fact that it’s going through so many different neighborhoods from downtown to Frayser to Raleigh to Shelby Farms Park. There are so many sections that will be close to schools and churches.”

Some funding will come from the city, which has already committed $7.5 million over the next five years. The WRC has acquired another $1.6 million from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. They’ve raised $568,000 in individual donations. Cole said the WRC will go public with a capital fund-raising campaign in mid-2016 when they “start turning dirt.”

Epping Way

Just up James Road from Huntington Hills, tucked away on a dead-end road between two large apartment complexes, are two crumbling pillars flanking a padlocked gate. Once you step over the low gate, you’re led into a massive natural area.

There are worn, paved streets, but they’re closed to traffic, and nature has begun to reclaim them. A short walk along the pavement leads you to the foundation of an old building. Some of the vintage tile from the rooms that were once inside the long-gone structure remains. Ornate tiles with a floral pattern outline an area that may have been an old swimming pool.

Epping Way: before (above) and after (below).

There are overgrown tennis courts and a massive lake, where those in-the-know about hidden Memphis fishing holes come to get away from hustle and bustle of the city. The sounds of nearby traffic along James Road are completely blocked by the rustling whisper of blowing leaves and bird songs. The Wolf River runs nearby, just on the other side of the lake.

This is Epping Way. Its history is a bit of a mystery, but it’s believed to be the site of an old country club and the historic home of Berry Boswell Brooks, a big-game hunter whose exotic kills — lions, hippos, and other wildlife — were displayed in the Pink Palace Museum in the 1950s.
The WRC acquired the 66-acre site (and 55 additional acres surrounding it), and the planned WRG will run through it. Cole and Wenner are hoping to eventually turn the area into Epping Way Nature Center and possibly even move the WRC headquarters to the site from their office building in Midtown.

“Our primary goal is to get the trail in, but [Epping Way] could become an environmental center, maybe like the Lichterman Nature Center. But it would be more of an outdoor classroom,” Wenner said. “You’ve got a river, a lake, and a wetland there. Maybe we could train adults and children in using canoes on the lake, and once they’re comfortable, we could move them to the river.”

The Design

The WRC plans to build the greenway in short segments, and a one-mile segment through Kennedy Park is slated for development first.

“It will be controlled chaos for awhile. It will be all over the place, but eventually, it will all come together,” said Chuck Flink, a senior advisor at Alta Planning+Design, which is working on the greenway design.

Flink has worked on greenway projects across the country, including the Grand Canyon Greenway and the Northwest Arkansas Razorback Regional Greenway, a 36-mile trail near the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Flink says the WRG will be a paved trail, so it will be accessible to cyclists, walkers, runners, wheelchairs, and baby strollers.

“We’ll have lots of boardwalks and bridges. I like to refer to it as changing the plane, so you’ll get above the tree-line or above the surrounding ground in places. That gives people different things to experience [along the trail],” Flink said.

Connecting Memphis

Clark Butcher, owner of Victory Bicycle Studio on Broad, said the greenway will provide a safer east-west connection to get cyclists and pedestrians across the city. Right now, Butcher said cyclists have to use a variety of protected and unprotected bike lanes and trails, some of which require cyclists to share the road with vehicles.

“There’s a huge false sense of security when it comes to bike lanes,” Butcher said. “But what the WRC is doing is providing a dedicated and protected lane. You’re off-road, and it’s not wide enough for a car.”

Cole and Wenner are hoping the greenway will appeal not just to cyclists who would use the trail for recreation, but also to lower-income Memphians who may not have access to a car.

“This will also become a low- to moderate-income transportation corridor, and there will be linkages with MATA bus lines,” Wenner said. “Somebody may bike to a certain point and then ride the bus the last mile to work or school.”

“The route will go through a lot of underserved neighborhoods,” adds Cort Percer, the Mid-South Greenways coordinator. “These are areas that are underserved in terms of access to green space, healthy food, transportation, recreation, and exercise opportunities. The greenway will be a path around the barriers — I-40, high-traffic roads — that have created this access problem.”

Alta Planning+Design’s study on the economic and health benefits of the WRG found that of the 100,000 residents living within a 10-minute walk of the proposed greenway, 2,500 were without access to a car, and 5,000 were below the poverty line.

The WRC is hoping to positively impact the health of the city by giving people better access to walking and biking trails.

In Memphis, 35 percent of the population is obese, and the diabetes rate is 50 percent higher than the national average. According to the Alta Planning+Design survey, the Memphis region will gain 1.19 million miles of walk trips and 1.25 million miles of bike trips once the greenway is complete. The survey found that the overall economic impact of the greenway will equal $14 million in combined health, transportation, environmental, and economic benefits.

But it isn’t just about connecting Memphians to walking trails and alternative transit. The greenway is also being designed to bring residents, who may not even know how to access the Wolf today, closer to the river. Better boat access to the Wolf is part of the master trail plan.

“We already have a very active recreational outreach program with 50-plus volunteer river guys who take people up and down the Wolf every year,” Cole said. “We could envision similar activities along the greenway, engaging neighborhoods and schools.”

At the end of the day, the WRC, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is a land trust charged with conserving and enhancing the Wolf River by protecting the lands that surround it from future development. Cole and Wenner believe that building the WRG is the ultimate way to conserve and protect the river for years to come.

“We have this river, this asset, floating through our city,” Wenner said. “This is what we do to make it better. This is how we connect people to the river.”

Upcoming Open House Public Meetings on the Wolf River Greenway; all run from 5-8 p.m.: Oct. 20th – The Office @ Uptown (594 N. Second); Oct. 21st – Hollywood Community Center (1560 N. Hollywood); Oct. 22nd – Ed Rice Community Center (2907 N. Watkins); Oct. 27th – Raleigh Community Center (3678 Powers); Oct. 28th – Bert Ferguson Community Center (8505 Trinity)