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>>MORE Cumberlands deal receives praise and criticism. >>Read It TnHunting.Com - June 7, 2007
>>WHAT YOU'RE SAYING
"This is all 'publically hunted' land, if not public land per se, and has been for a century, so this hunting access part is not news."
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After most members of the Senate Finance Committee expressed their support for the North Cumberlands Conservation Plan, which is being pushed by Governor Phil Bredesen, Senator John Wilder (D - Somerville) withdrew an amendment that would have killed the plan by denying the $82 million needed for its funding.
The action came at a hearing on Gov. Bredesen's Fiscal Year 2007-08 budget, which calls for an $82 million bond issuance to fund the conservation plan. On Thursday, Sen. Wilder introduced the amendment to strip the $82 million from the budget. While he maintained that he still does not approve of the plan to purchase the property, he said that he was withdrawing the motion because he did not have the votes needed to push it through.
While the Finance Committee's approval of the conservation plan was not necessarily surprising, the overwhelming support shown in the committee was. Several members of the committee had expressed concern with the conservation plan, leading the Tennessee Wildlife Federation — which has steadfastly supported the plan — to issue a call to arms of sorts to Tennessee sportsmen on Thursday.
The North Cumberlands Conservation Plan is a complex deal that would involve three major players and nearly 140,000 acres. The players would include the State of Tennessee, which would make the biggest investment and benefit the most, as well as Lyme Timber Company and The Nature Conservancy.
While the state would invest $82 million, Lyme Timber would invest some $52 million and The Nature Conservancy around $14 million. While the state and Lyme Timber would divide the properties acquired in the deal, TNC's involvement would be primarily in the interest of seeing the land preserved from development.
The deal would involve the 70,000 acres of the Martha Sundquist Wildlife Management Area, which adjoins Royal Blue WMA in Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott counties, and two other property tracts — Brimstone (40,000 acres) and Emory River (25,000 acres) — that fall between Royal Blue WMA and Frozen Head State Natural Area near Wartburg, TN.
Lyme Timber will make the initial purchase of the entire property, after which it will sell around 7,000 acres to the state fee simple; in other words, the state would own all rights to the property. That property would adjoin, and double the size of, Frozen Head, and be managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation. Lyme would sell a conservation easement on 40,000 acres — including approximately 25,000 acres of the Brimstone tract and 15,000 acres of the Emory River tract — to the state. That easement would include all hunting and fishing, wildlife management and public access rights, and would be placed under the management of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Lyme would also sell the state the timber rights of the 70,000-acre Sundquist WMA through a 10-year leaseback agreement. Meanwhile, Lyme would retain around 25,000 acres of the property, and would retain timber ownership of the 40,000 acres sold to the state as part of a conservation easement. Mineral rights are not included on most of the properties involved in the purchase.
Currently, the Brimstone tract and the timber rights on the Sundquist tract are owned by Boston-based GMO Natural Resources and are managed by Fountain Forestry. Earlier this decade, the Tennessee Wildlife Federation orchestrated a deal between the state and GMO to purchase Sundquist WMA — then known as the Cumberland tract — from International Paper. If the current plan is successful, three WMAs will adjoin one another in the Cumberland Mountains region, which is home to Tennessee's elk reintroduction program.
The Finance Committee was likely the biggest obstacle faced by the land conservation plan; Wilder had been the plan's most outspoken critic. The plan will now be expected to see the General Assembly's approval. Assuming the purchase goes through, the state is expected to assume control of its property on January 1, 2008.
