Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center last month released a new framework for its future, shifting its conservation efforts to native landscapes in the Southeast and ultimately planning to present those restored ecosystems as learning landscapes for an emerging generation of environmental stewards.
A seven-month engagement and planning process led to the new vision, which is expected to be realized across the site’s 300 acres over the next decade.
That site, once the farm of Chattanooga attorney John Chambliss and his wife, Margaret, has for many decades been a drive-through arboretum and nature center.
In 1952, though, when the name “Reflection Riding” first was mentioned in local newspapers, the long-term use of the property was not a given.
Chambliss, referred to in one article as an “attorney, inventor, tourist development man and ‘philosopher of fun’,” was sure of one thing. The area needed more attractions.