One of the top backpacking trails in the country just got added protection with a $4 million Tennessee commitment to expand the Fiery Gizzard Trail and natural area by 2,900 acres.
Fiery Gizzard is a recreation and conservation area adjacent to South Cumberland State Park in Grundy and Marion counties, but it has been threatened by development in recent years.
On Thursday, Gov. Phil Bredesen and Jim Fyke, commissioner of the state’s Department of Environment and Conservation, announced a partnership Thursday with the Land Trust for Tennessee and the Conservation Fund, supported by the Friends of South Cumberland.
“This opportunity won’t come along again,” Fyke said in a prepared statement.
Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the department, said the partners will match the state’s $4 million with another $2.1 million in private fundraising and $2 million from the expected sale of part of the property to a “conservation buyer.”
For years, the Fiery Gizzard Trail has been managed by South Cumberland State Park, though most of the trail and area around it historically have been privately owned by timber companies now divesting themselves of the land.
As developers began to buy the land for homes and resorts, conservation-minded Tennesseans have worried that the fragile ecosystem of the Cumberland Plateau would suffer.
Jean Nelson, president and executive director of the Land Trust for Tennessee, called the acquisition “a great, huge deal.”
She said some of the property now to be protected was announced in 2008 to be under tentative contract with a developer.
“Fortunately, the transaction was not completed and there was another opportunity to protect this critical property. This will likely be the last opportunity for Tennesseans and the communities of the South Cumberland region to protect this amazing resource,” she said.
Nelson said the trust, which with the Friends of South Cumberland is committed to raising $2.1 million, already has received support from across the country on the project.
She said once an additional $767,000 is raised, an anonymous donor who has offered a challenge grant will provide a gift a $333,000, “ultimately matching 50 cents for every additional dollar contributed.”
Calabrese-Benton said the majority of the state’s funding comes from the State Lands Acquisition Fund.
This year Bredesen proposed and the General Assembly approved re-establishing the fund using a portion of the real estate transfer tax.
The state’s commitment also includes federal funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and a portion of a federal grant, she said.
“The area has been a priority for conservation as the land becomes available,” she said. In all, the state, with the federal help, has invested $6.2 million since 2003 to protect 4,559 acres.
With the newest acquisition, 9,779 contiguous acres at Fiery Gizzard will be preserved, she said.
Contact Pam Sohn at psohn@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6346.
Pam Sohn has been reporting or editing Chattanooga news for 25 years. A Walden’s Ridge native, she began her journalism career with a 10-year stint at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. She came to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 1999 after working at the Chattanooga Times for 14 years. She has been a city editor, Sunday editor, wire editor, projects team leader and assistant lifestyle editor. As a reporter, she also has covered the police, ...
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