Job Well Done TVA, Protect Our Open Spaces

The Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority voted in late November to adopt a policy to protect the public land TVA controls from development.   The banks of the reservoirs are mainly housing developments, mansions, and industry.  Continual sprawl at the outskirts of urban areas has lead to tremendous infrastructure and transportation problems, decline of inner cities, loss of agricultural land, and open space. 

With rapid population growth and the rich getting so much richer, all the good places are being sold to the highest bidder.  In the past 20 years, approximately 34 million acres of US open land, or an area the size of Illinois, has been lost to development.  Another 64 million acres are expected to be lost by 2020.  If the governments did not do something, all the land along the reservoirs would end up in the hands of wealthy mansion owners and big industry.

TVA obtained 1.3 million acres of Valley land through the right of eminent domain, which means the land is to be used for the common good of the people. The TVA has already relinquished control of 537,000 acres, and 470,000 acres are under water, leaving only 293,000 acres of dry land still under TVA control.

The federal government is starting to realize that it has to protect open spaces from development.  For instance, open space protection is a top priority of the US Forest Service, which issued a public comment notice for comments on open land protection in November.  If any land deserves protection the beautiful land along the shores of the Tennessee does. 

The TVA board has taken a stance to protect some land for wildlife corridors, reduce some water pollution, and leave some land for public use. We should be thankful that this board has taken interest in serving the public interest.

Links to Groups in Tennessee

Cherokee Forest Voices

www.discoveret.org/cfvoices/

Save Our Cumberland Mountains

www.socm.org

Cumberland Trail Conference

www.cumberlandtrail.org

Wolf River Conservancy

www.wolfriver.org

Tennessee Environmental Council

www.tectn.org

Sierra Club

www.tennessee.sierraclub.org

The Nature Conservancy

www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/tennessee

Eco-USA

http://www.eco-usa.net/orgs/tn.shtml

Blue Moon Cruises

www.bluemooncruises.org