The
City Council
Adopts the
Wolf River Greenway!!!
The City Council unanimously voted to adopt the Wolf River Greenway Master Plan!!!! This is truly exciting news not only for the WRC, but for all Memphians. Just imagine being able to walk, run, cycle, or skate along a forested trail following the Wolf River for 22-miles (in Memphis) from the Mississippi River Greenbelt trail to Houston Levee, without crossing a street. This wonderful dream will soon be a reality! Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. We are very grateful to all of you that supported us in this grand endeavor!!!
Wolf River Greenway
Master Plan
When
the
Wolf River Greenway is complete, it will connect with Shelby Farms, the
Germantown Greenway, and
with Shelby County's Newest 2,167-Acre Park, The Wolf River Wildlife Park in
Collierville (at Collierville-Arlington Road), a total of 36 miles, thanks to 15 years of our efforts.
Greenways provide a great resource for education, the environment and for recreation. For education, the greenway would provide outdoor classrooms, a great place for aquatic studies, and programs like the Water Education Team (WET) where students conduct water sampling each month to study environmental issues and biology.
For
the environment, the proposed Wolf River Greenway and trail system will
preserve a contiguous forested corridor along the Wolf River, protecting
the
floodway and floodplain from further urban encroachment, and provide
opportunities for storm water management, wetlands preservation, open
space preservation, and provides habitat for plants, animals and us!
The Greenway would also provide a cool, green corridor for exercise, hiking, birding, cycling, and skating in one of the unhealthiest cities in the United States.
The Wolf River Greenway Master Plan was developed by the
ETI Corporation.
The Wolf River Greenbelt
The goal of the Wolf River Conservancy is to establish a protected public greenway along the 90-mile Wolf River from its headwaters near Holly Springs, Mississippi, to its mouth at the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1995, the WRC got serious about conservation with the purchase of 4,000 acres of land along the Wolf River downstream of LaGrange, Tennessee, encompassing a large cypress-tupelo swamp called the Ghost River. Many private and government partners helped to make the Ghost River Campaign a success.
Now known as the
Ghost River State Natural Area and Wolf River Wildlife Management Area, this public land is jointly managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC), the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), and the WRC. Since the original purchase, an additional 2,200 acres have been added to the Ghost River State Natural Area by TDEC and the WRC.
We have continued to build on the success of the Ghost River Campaign by extending our protection efforts with the help of our members and government partners. Since our founding, we have protected 17,000 acres of the 42,000 acres along the Wolf River floodplain. Your contribution, an investment to protect the remaining acreage, allows us to:
- accept or acquire conservation easements from landowners along the Wolf River,
- buy land from willing sellers or accept land donations along the Wolf River.
Over the course of the last five years generous contributions have allowed us to secure another 2,400 acres of land along the Wolf River corridor. The impact we have made is shown below: Acreage $ Purchases $ Donations 468 7,552.00 625 215,325.00 248 209,354.00 668 196,400.00 427 84,733.00
2,000,000.00 2,436 713,364.00
2,000,000.00
Year
$ Easements
2001
67,832.00
2002
58,617.00
2003
2004
2,074,600.00
2005
Totals
2,201,049.00
All
contents copyright WRC, 1996-2006. Site maintained by
Sherry Weakley.
Comments? Email
education@wolfriver.org Problems with the site?
Email
wrc@wolfriver.org.