Earth Day 2022 Spring Clean-Up Activities Kick Off Early in the Tennessee Valley
Keeping the rivers and reservoirs of the Tennessee Valley is a mission of many grassroot organizations. Each spring, volunteers take to the shorelines and waterways to remove trash that would otherwise continue its journey downriver to the sea.
The winter lake pool months of March and April make it easier for volunteers to walk the banks to collect trash and large items that the summer pool and winter rain events deposit along the shorelines.
To take advantage optimal lake pool conditions, “spring cleaning” season has officially begun in the Tennessee Valley. In late March, the Cherokee Lake Users Group, Norris Lake Project, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, and other groups have volunteered thousands of hours to serve on the waterways of the Tennessee Valley.
Of course, the quiet hero of the Tennessee River is TVA. Charged with a mission in 1933 to be good stewards of the lands and waters entrusted to them, TVA has been a tireless partner with grassroots organizations such as the above listed projects across the Valley. Without their generous support, the capacity of these groups would be lessened.
While Earth Day is an annual national event, the work of these grassroot organizations is done year-round. What is most compelling is the story of the individuals who donate their time to serve locally. On an event morning when the volunteers gather, the resulting teams represents a wide range of interests and ages. Some are conservationists; some are sportsmen; some are homeowners living in the watershed; some are business owners, and many are students seeking service hours. What is common to the group is an interest in serving to protect our valuable waterways.
At the end of a day, the camaraderie that is built among these diverse participants is a powerful reminder of the impact of shared experiences in building bridges to understanding.
In honor of Earth Day 2022, “invest” in a local group to volunteer with year-round.
Get Plugged In- EV Charging Stations
We get lots of questions about “plugging in.” In the years of yore, plugging in meant angler friendly hotels that offered plug-ins for battery charging. Today, electric car drivers don’t want to be limited in exploring all that this region has to offer.
Luckily EV charging stations are available metro areas in the region, and the network continues to develop in rural areas in spite of flat sales of electric vehicles in 2020 compared to sales in 2018. (Statista 1/2022) The Tennessee River Valley is home to car manufacturers such as VW which is invested in EV vehicles.
In early 2021, TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) announced a partnership with Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to bring a statewide network of EV fast charge stations to the state. By summer of 2021, TVA had taken a further step by committing to switch their fleet of vehicles by 2030 to electric.
Having a committed network of partners to increase the number of fast charging stations has continued to grow. EHC (Electric Highway Coalition) has created a network of partners serving twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia, allowing for drivers to enjoy long distance vehicle travel. As a partner member of EHC, TVA has set an aggressive goal of increasing the number of EVs in the Tennessee Valley to 200,000 by 2028. The net goal is to reduce carbon emission and to increase the use of locally produced electricity.
In late December 2021, the network grew even larger when the National Electric Highway Coalition was announced.
Many of the visitors to the Tennessee River Valley travel by vehicle from the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions. The current footprint of the charging stations serves this group well. To find local stations, on your route, click here
The Value of Land
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”― Aldo Leopold
Land is a resource that has cultural, economic, and aesthetic value. Here in the Tennessee River Valley, all three of the values have been fought for, exploited, and protected.
Indigenous people fought for their ancestral lands against invading white settlers. Early pioneers valued the land for the crops that could be grown and sold; the wood that could be used to build and heat their homes. Speculators exploited the land for mineral extraction, clear timbering, and commercial development. Later, industrialization exploited rivers for transport of goods and river access. Cities ignored sprawling development with little regard for green spaces and pressure on natural resources.
As early as 1911, the pressures of development led to the Weeks Act, which sought to protect the headwaters of rivers and watersheds in the eastern United States through the purchase of private land by the federal government. This ACT became one of the most importance conservation efforts in the 20th Century to mitigate the damage done by misuse of land. In a twenty year period beginning in 1917, the states in the Tennessee River Valley benefited from the development of significant national forests such as Nantahala, Pisgah, and Unaka (NC), William Bankhead (AL), Chattahoochee (GA), Cumberland/ Boone (KY), and Cherokee (TN.) Today, these lands protect important habitats and waterways. While sometimes fragmented and smaller then western properties, these public lands serve large populations of people who benefit from the protection of watersheds that supply clean drinking water.
Today, these forests are a blueprint for stewarding public resources for the good of all. From the work of the CCC reforesting barren lands beginning in 1933 to the modern day TVA’s active role in managing public property have improved lands across the Tennessee River Basin that were so severely damaged, that the Soil Erosion Service Division, Office of the Interior’s Hugh Bennett noted that erosion had changed former arable land to simply clay and subsoil. (Clark, Greening of the South 1984) The practice of reforestation continually renews the soil which in turn reduces the risk of run-off and increases carbon uptake, with a hopeful outcome for climate change.
A visit to these national lands today are living demonstrations of the impact of public policy and education to provide open green spaces prized for recreation and ecological and stewardship values.
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