The owner of Charlotte Apartment Complex has donated 2,000 Acres in Eastern Tennessee for Conservation
This is the track we all need to be on. It’s time to help save our planet people, we only have one! Today (3/9) TennGreen Land Conservancy (formerly the Tennessee Parks & Greenways Foundation) announced that philanthropist George Lindemann has donated 1,998 acres. This property, known as the Soak Creek Farm, is located in Rhea and Bledsoe Counties and abuts the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park (the “Cumberland Trail”). Through this generous donation, TennGreen Land Conservancy acquires nearly 2,000 acres of mosaic habitat, including forested streams, grassland, and open space, and upland wooded areas suitable for forest management.
The Soak Creek Farm has more than 16 miles of streams—including Dunlap Creek, Evans Branch, and Shingle Mill Branch—that flow to the Piney Creek watershed. This watershed includes significant recreational areas, such as Soak Creek, which was designated a State Scenic River in 2017, the first such designation since 2001. Piney Creek River is the most recent river to earn Tennessee’s State Scenic River designation. George Lindemann was instrumental in both the Piney and Soak Creek designations.
Conservation of land along creeks on the Soak Creek Farm is essential in order to protect water quality and habitat for fish, wildlife, and plant species. Mr. Lindemann and TennGreen Land Conservancy’s long-term goal is to establish the Soak Creek Farm as a research station, evaluating habitat management techniques and medicinal plants. TennGreen Land Conservancy will identify partners in higher education for research projects and potential management of the land. Before transferring the Soak Creek Farm to new ownership, TennGreen Land Conservancy will place a conservation easement on the property to ensure it remains undeveloped, other than a research station.
This generous, nearly 2,000-acre donation expands TennGreen Land Conservancy’s successful history of conservation in the region. Since 2001, TennGreen Land Conservancy and its partners have conserved more than 13,000 acres within ten miles of the Soak Creek Farm. In 2017, Mr. Lindemann donated a 1,034-parcel to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to establish the Soak Creek section of the Cumberland Trail. The region continues to be an area of focus for TennGreen Land Conservancy due to its significant conservation resources, such as its large forested tracts, rich biodiversity, and the ample recreational opportunities that the Cumberland Trail provides.
In 2020 I went to Gatlinburg and had a birthday trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. I love me some nature and National Parks. This past year (2020) I was supposed to travel to Yosemite, however, due to Covid-19, those plans were put on hold. Hopefully, in 2021 I can visit either Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, Sequoia National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park or the North Cascades. Those are just a few highlighted on my list! Here are some photos from my Yellowstone trip below.
