Tennessee: Help ’em save the Hill tract’s ancient forest!

Last Saturday I took a hike through an old growth forest. No, I wasn’t
among the towering redwoods of California’s north coast. I was right
here in Nashville, nine miles from downtown, on 322 acres called the
Hill tract lying between the cars hurtling past on Highways 100 and 70
and surrounded by condo complexes, big boxes, strip malls and all the
other impermanent structures of modern life. “Five years ago we
learned of a developer planning multifamily for one piece on Highway
100 across from Warner Parks,” Bass says. “That parcel has on it the
largest cave in Davidson County, which has great educational value.”
The Friends realized that if this parcel fell to development, the
others surrounding it would soon follow. So they raised the money and
bought it, and subsequently acquired the other properties surrounding
the Hill “T.” Two years ago Hill representatives approached the
Friends to offer their tract for sale. A timber appraisal for the land
by Memphis forester Jeffrey Cooper “really caught our attention,” Bass
says. Cooper’s appraisal states “most of the forested acres are
growing trees that exceed 200 years of age. …I’ve been working as a
forester for over 30 years and in the Southeast it is unusual to find
forests in this condition, even on national forests, wildlife refuges
and national parks.

Given the residential location of this property,
it is even more impressive.” The property was appraised for $17
million. But last June the Hill family, which owns it along with many
other acres of Nashville real estate, agreed to discount the tab to
$13.25 million for the Friends group. Last week, the price tag dropped
still further, to $10.8 million, of which the Friends have raised, in
contributions and pledges, about $8.6 million. Those pledges include
$1 million from Metro and $1.6 million from the state’s Tennessee
Heritage Conservation Trust Fund. But the clock is ticking. The
condition for this lower rate is that by the end of January the
Friends must commit to closing. “We don’t have to have all the money
in hand by then,” Bass explains. “But we have to know where the
dollars are coming from to have the confidence necessary to borrow
funds to bridge the gap to close the deal.” Over the next
month-and-a-half, Bass and Friends will be picking every pocket they
can find. If the tract is bought and paid for, the Friends will turn
it over to Metro Parks and Recreation, adding it to the already
considerable breadth of Warner Parks — 2,684 acres, one of the largest
municipal parks in the nation.
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=64879

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