A plan to raze 2,000 acres of hardwood trees on state-owned land in White County may harm numerous protected species in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act, a legal notice delivered to state wildlife officials and the Bridgestone company alleges.
The Jan. 10 letter from an attorney representing Marvin Bullock, the president of the Sparta/White County Chamber of Commerce, puts on notice state officials, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Tennessee Wildlife Federation and Bridgestone Americas and its Japan-based global headquarters of an intent to sue within 60 days if the plan is not halted.
Bullock is pursuing legal action against the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency plan for the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area as a private citizen.
“The TWRA has betrayed the people of White County and the people of Tennessee,” Bullock said in a phone interview Thursday. “I also believe Bridgestone has just turned around and put their hands over their eyes and said ‘if that’s what TWRA wants to do’ They should be stepping in and enforcing what they put in writing for this land.”
The land in question lies within 16,000 acres bequeathed to the state as a gift by the tire company on the condition it remain wilderness. The state resources agency plans include razing 2,000 acres on the wilderness area to create grassland habitat for the Northern bobwhite quail, a game bird whose populations have plummeted in recent years.