January 2022: A Message from Our Director

Dear Wolf River Conservancy friend,

We are so excited about our continued progress in building out the Wolf River Greenway as part of our public/private partnership with the City of Memphis Parks and Neighborhoods Division and Shelby County. Currently, we have approximately 14 miles of the Wolf River Greenway open to the public with segments located at Mud Island, Epping Way, Kennedy Park and East Memphis. The Wolf River Greenway is now connected to both the Germantown Greenway and the Shelby Farms Greenline, with a stunning new bridge over the river. During 2021, we continued to see increased usage of all open segments as people walked, ran, biked and just enjoyed being outdoors.

The Wolf River Greenway is much more than a trail. The definition of a Greenway is a corridor of land, often containing trails, that is protected for environmental and recreational purposes.  As we have seen since the first segment opened in 2010, the Wolf River Greenway has positively impacted parks and land conservation in the City of Memphis.

In fact, it was the early vision of our founders and board members in the 1970's to create a greenway along the urban Wolf River to improve the environmental health of the river and the floodplain. Thus, the Wolf River Greenway is a physical manifestation of the Wolf River Conservancy’s overall conservation mission.

So far, nearly 40,000 pounds of trash and over 3,800 automobile tires have been removed by volunteers from the Wolf River floodplain within the Greenway corridor by volunteers; thousands of trees have been planted, acres of invasive plants have been removed, and numerous bird and bat boxes have been installed. Think of all the habitats improved and microplastics kept out of our river and our oceans! Furthermore, the Wolf River Greenway represents 853 acres of public land protected for recreation and wildlife alike. The conservation investment does not stop there: over 400 acres of private land that have been protected forever through our Greenway efforts. This brings the Greenway’s total protected landscape to 1,260 acres, which will continue to serve the public’s interest through aquifer recharge, flood retention, and wildlife habitat.

We now have approximately 14 miles of the Greenway open to the public. with more construction to begin this spring. We appreciate our community’s support for the Conservancy’s land conservation, environmental education, and recreational outreach efforts – all of which are served by the Wolf River Greenway!

Please visit wolfriver.org to learn more about our upcoming Wolf River Restoration Series events. Thanks for your continued support!

Keith Cole
Executive Director