Displaying items by tag: cumberland mountain quail
Land donation protects Obed-area wildlands on eastern fringes of Cumberland Plateau
Hikers walk along Ramsey Creek during a dry time. Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning has assembled land to be turned over to the National Park Service to expand public lands at the Obed Wild and Scenic River. Chuck Estes/Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning
There’s more room to roam in the Cumberlands thanks to Oak Ridge-based citizens group
WARTBURG — As East Tennesseans and tourists alike enjoy summer fun on the wild Obed River, enthusiasts are growing its amount of federally protected land.
Part of the U.S. National Park Service system, the Obed Wild and Scenic River in Cumberland and Morgan Counties on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau offers swimming, hiking, picnicking, kayaking, fishing and climbing at the federally protected park. It currently includes about 45 miles along streams like the Obed and Emory Rivers.
Residents of Oak Ridge, a little less than an hour’s drive away, created Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP) and lobbied to create the federally protected area in 1976. Now, the same group, through fundraising and land swaps with anonymous private individuals, has gained 30 acres on which it plans to build a trail connected to the federal land.
- obed national wild and scenic river
- tennessee citizens for wilderness planning
- tennessee land preservation
- cumberland mountain quail
- cumberland plateau
- cumberland hiking
- new hiking trails in east tennessee
- hiking in tennessee
- recreation
- fishing
- kayaking
- climbing
- ramsey creek
- national park service
- hellbender
- citizen action
Part IV: Clear-cut controversy. Thoughts and prayers
Library of Congress
Citizens and scientists weigh in on controversial TWRA logging plan
For months, Tennessee Lookout has bird-dogged a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency proposal to clear at least 1,000 acres of hardwood forest in the Bridgestone Centennial Wildlife Reserve in White County to create habitat for dwindling bobwhite quail.
Hellbender Press has published most of the stories, with much appreciation to Tennessee Lookout. Most recently, the online news outlet reported that legal hurdles had been cleared to allow TWRA to proceed, at least for now, with its game-bird reintroduction plans at the expense of acres of approximately 65-year-old hardwood forest.
Though it was not Hellbender’s original reporting, on our end the social media response to the articles has been thoughtful and reasoned — with, of course, occasional disagreements among commenters. With permission from the posters, I’ve compiled an edited and abridged recitation of some comments, which were too good to languish in the social media ether.