Welcome to the Wolf River Conservancy’s Media Center!

Media Contact Information

Contact Ken Kimble for all media questions at ken.kimble@wolfriver.org or 901-452-6500 x305.

The Wolf River Conservancy

The Wolf River Conservancy is a network of thousands of volunteers, registered members, area businesses, and donors all committed to improving the quality of life in the Mid-South by protecting and enhancing the Wolf River and its environs.  For over 25 years, this had been accomplished through numerous land acquisitions, service projects, fundraisers, outreach education and recreational programs. 

The immediate future of the Wolf River Conservancy is focused on the continued protection and enhancement of natural habitats and the development of the Wolf River Greenway, a 22-mile proposed pathway that will meander along the banks of the Wolf River from the Mississippi River to the eastern edge of Shelby County.  Long-term, the Wolf River Conservancy will continue to serve the Mid-South community as a non-profit land trust, protecing and advocating for a natural Wolf River and helping regional property owners preserve their land for future generations.

Mission

The Mission of the Wolf River Conservancy is to conserve and enhance the Wolf River corridor and watershed as a sustainable natural resource

Essential Functions

    Land Protection

    The Wolf River Conservancy is chartered as a 501(c)3, non-profit land trust.  It seeks to preserve property and green spaces by working with individual and corporate property owners to negotiate land protection agreements (easements), accept donations of land and/or purchase land to protect natural habitats in perpetuity. 

    Outdoor Recreation and Outreach

    The Wolf River Conservancy hosts guided canoe and kayak trips on various rivers and lakes, guided hikes and nature walks, bird watching, cycling events, races and special events. This also includes helping schools and civic clubs organize service projects such as river clean-ups and Eagle Scout service projects for members of the Boy Scouts of America.   Members and supporters of the Wolf River Conservancy tend to be active in outdoor recreation.  

    Education

   The Wolf River Conservancy provides programs for children and adults designed to enhance their knowledge of Wolf River values and its natural history. These include classroom programs and field trips for K-12 schools, summer programs for urban youth, an annual lecture series, stream strolls for families, and more.   

    Wolf River Greenway

     Developing a greenway trail that will follow the length of the Wolf River from the Mississippi River at Mud Island in Memphis all the way to eastern Shelby County, connecting all of the communities it travels through.  This will help further establish one of the largest systems of greenways and blueways in the United States.  The Wolf River Conservancy is leading a partnership between The Hyde Family Foundations, the City of Memphis, and the Wolf River Conservancy,  which includes design planning, land acquisition and fundraising.  

The Wolf River

The Wolf River floodplain, carving a green passage through 90 miles of forests, fields, and communities in northern Mississippi and west Tennessee, is the Mid-South's greatest natural resource. The upper reaches are lush wetlands of unmatched natural beauty and its lower stretches contain refuges of undisturbed forest in the heart of Memphis. Few large cities can boast of such a scenic and relatively unspoiled river in their midst. The wild upper Wolf is popular with paddlers, fishermen, and many others seeking recreational opportunities and the solace of wilderness, while also providing outstanding wildlife habitat and recharging our public drinking water aquifer. The urban section of the river retains great beauty and potential for recreation, restoration, urban renewal and sustainable development. The creation and protection of a continuous Greenway from the Wolf's subtly majestic beginnings in the Holly Springs National Forest to the Mississippi River is a primary goal of the Wolf River Conservancy.

The Wolf River is an alluvial stream in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, approximately 90 miles long, whose confluence with the Mississippi River was the site of various Chickasaw, French, Spanish and American communities and forts that eventually became Memphis, Tennessee. The Wolf River rises in the Holly Springs National Forest at Baker's Pond in Benton County, Mississippi, north of Ashland, and flows northwest into Tennessee, draining a large portion of Memphis and northern and eastern Shelby County, Tennessee, before entering the Mississippi River near the northern end of Mud Island, north of downtown Memphis.

The Wolf River floodplain and watershed serves the Mid-South area in numerous ways, for example:

Aquifer Recharge: The Memphis metropolitan area and other Mid-South communities utilize an underground aquifer as their public drinking water supply.  One of the primary recharge areas for this aquifer is the upper Wolf River watershed, where the aquifer sands are close to the surface.  The wetlands of the Wolf River and its tributaries hold and store water so that it can percolate into the sands of the aquifer and replenish the supply of available water.

Water Quality:  Wolf River wetlands also serve as natural filters to cleanse polluted waters before they reach the aquifer.

Flood and Erosion Control:  During heavy rains, the Wolf’s floodplain and wetlands temporarily store flood waters, slowing them down and allowing sediments to settle, thereby lessening the impact of floods and also providing protection from future droughts.  Where wetlands have been destroyed or degraded, for example along the urban Wolf River, this water storage capacity is lost and river velocity and flood height both increase during storms.

Wildlife Habitat:  The floodplain of the Wolf River, especially the extensive wetlands of the upper Wolf, is rich habitat for wildlife of many kinds, including several species considered threatened or endangered in the state of Tennessee.  Bald Eagles were sighted along the river near LaGrange in 2007, after an absence of 100 years, and are now frequently seen by paddlers in the area.  For more information on Wolf River Natural History, please use this link.

Education:  The Wolf River and its watershed provides an excellent educational resource for individuals, families, and educators.  Its rich history, aesthetic beauty, and environmental values lend themselves to almost any field of study.  For more information on Wolf River educational opportunities, please use this link.

Recreation:  The Wolf River has long been popular with paddlers.  The Wolf River Greenway and other trails along the river are also frequented by walkers, runners, cyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, birders, and others.   For the Wolf River Conservancy recreation information, please use this link.

Economy:  The talented, educated employees that companies want to attract to the Mid-South consider quality of life to be very important.  The Mid-south's quality of life, and therefore its economic future, is greatly enhanced by the presence of beautiful natural areas, a healthy environment, and excellent recreational opportunities.

 For more information on the Wolf River, please see our Resources pages by using this link.