On Saturday, April 18th, 2009,Mack Prichard was honored as an individual with 2009 Yeatman Environmental Education Award and The Land Trust for Tennessee was honored as an organization for its outstanding service on the South Cumberland.
Mack Prichard
For the past 40 years, Mack Prichard traveled more than a million miles across Tennessee, shot over 20,000 photographs, and spoke to at least 2,500 audiences urging the need for conservation and spreading his love of nature. He served as Park Naturalist, State Archaeologist, and Natural Areas Administrator prior to being named Tennessee’s first state naturalist. Prichard is a founding member of 30 conservation organizations in the state, and has received numerous awards for his conservation leadership, including special recognition by the State Legislature and the Governor. He was awarded the Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award for 2002 by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. He graduated from Southwestern in Memphis with post-graduate study at Tulane, MTSU, and UT.
According to Dr. Yeatman, “Mack has done a wonderful job of spreading the good word about conservation in the state. He has made so many talks, led so many hikes. And he is very interesting! He has just given loads of publicity to the need for conservation, and I am delighted that he is being honored this year.”
Land Trust for Tennessee
In 1999, Jeanie Nelson, Governor Phil Bredesen and a group of interested citizens founded The Land Trust for Tennessee to “preserve the unique character of Tennessee's natural and historic landscapes and sites for future generations.” Nelson now serves as President and Executive Director of The Land Trust, which has protected over 41,000 acres in 37 different counties. Projects currently under way will protect an additional 9,000 acres.
The Land Trust's South Cumberland Project, initiated in 2001, is working with private landowners in the South Cumberland region of Tennessee to link protected landholdings into a mosaic of intact forestlands. The result will be the permanent conservation of functional landscapes to sustain the region’s economic, ecological, scenic, and cultural values. The South Cumberland region is believed to be one of the largest privately owned forested areas remaining in the eastern US; and, according to the State Wildlife Action Plan, most of the South Cumberland region is a very high priority for the protection of subterranean and terrestrial habitats.
The Land Trust, a nonprofit organization, works exclusively with willing landowners to find ways to protect the historic, cultural, scenic, and natural values of their land. The main tool for ensuring this preservation is called a conservation easement, and it is an alternative to just selling the land for development. A conservation easement allows a willing landowner to achieve three important goals: keep ownership of the land, protect the important values of the land through customized restrictions on future development, and obtain certain t advantages.
