Jim Brown, executive director of the Tennessee River Gorge Trust, left, and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander talk on the upper deck of the Blue Moon riverboat on Saturday. Alexander joined several others for a short jaunt up the Tennessee River to observe preservation projects in the gorge.Sen. Lamar Alexander took in the Tennessee River Gorge on Saturday behind the wheel of the Blue Moon, a 70-foot Chattanooga charter boat.
As Alexander looked out over the river, the captain pointed out an osprey nest on a river day marker — the waterway equivalent of a highway mile-marker post.
For Alexander, a Tennessee Republican long a supporter of conservation, it was a way to bring added attention to the accomplishments of the Tennessee River Gorge Trust.
The trust has worked for 31 years to conserve the ridges and views of the 27,000-acre Tennessee River Gorge in Hamilton and Marion counties.
In that time, the Trust has come to own land or land easements on 17,000 of those acres.