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December 20, 2007
American Hiking Society Action Alert!
Save Cumberland Trail State Park
Action Alert
Cumberland Trail Threatened by Unregulated Rock Harvesting!
This is YOUR Cumberland Trail State Park!
The Soddy Gorge segment of Cumberland Trail State Park is being hauled off a dump truck load at a time! This is an area where volunteers from all across the U.S. have spent thousands of hours to construct the Cumberland Trail! Not only is the trail being destroyed, but the gorge that this park is supposed to protect is being devastated. Furthermore, these “rock miners” can just leave, since there are no laws forcing them to reclaim and restore the land. The State of Tennessee took this issue to court but the judge ruled in favor of the mineral rights owner. The case is under appeal.
Cumberland Trail State Park Before Rock Harvesting
Cumberland Trail State Park After Rock Harvesting
A Damaged Section of Cumberland Trail State Park
Heavy Equipment in the Park
Road Built Over the Cumberland Trail
What Can You Do?
First, please read the information below to familiarize yourself with this issue. Afterwards we urge you to contact your State Representatives and ask them to amend the mining laws so this type of operation can be regulated. This is a problem not only on public land, but it can happen on private lands too. Now is the time to stand up and ask the people representing you to stop the wholesale destruction of the Cumberland Plateau! Tell everyone you know and get the word out!
Background
In the last decade, the Cumberland Trail Conference (CTC) has raised $1.7 million, provided more than half of the funds to purchase three watersheds (Rock, Possum, and Soddy Creek Gorges) in Hamilton County, and organized 150,000 volunteer hours to design, build, and maintain the Cumberland Trail. This trail is the central feature of the Cumberland Trail State Park. A long distance hiking trail stretching through 11 Cumberland Plateau counties. The Cumberland Trail is also part of the Great Eastern Trail; a long distance trail system stretching from Alabama to New York.
A large fraction of the volunteer hours was invested in the three watersheds and by December 2006, 35 miles of continuous trail was available for hiking and other outdoor recreational pursuits. Regrettably, these 35 miles did not remain open for more than a month. The state closed a section of the trail to public use because of the public safety concern caused by surface rock removal on park property. The holder of the mineral rights, LaHiere-Hill, claimed surface rocks are a mineral.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) filed a suit in the Hamilton County Chancery Court to stop the rock removal. The court opinion and order was issued on April 4, 2007. The order did not stop the rock removal on State Park land but provided limited protection for the trail. Since April of 2007, the rock removal operation has changed. Surface rock removal is now taking place deep within the gorge about 75 feet from the creek. A road goes to the bottom of the gorge and cuts across the trail, and several thousand tons of rock have been removed forever changing the character of the gorge.
Please take action today
Tennessee citizens are needed to help protect your Cumberland Trail State Park from unregulated rock harvesting. Please take a moment to call your State Senator and State Representative.
Find Your Tennessee State Senator
Find Your Tennessee House Representative
Once you have identified who your State Senator and House Representatives are, please call them and express your concerns about how rock harvesting is impacting the Cumberland Trail and the surrounding State Park. Timing is important, so we ask you to take action before January 8, 2008! Here are some points to emphasize;
- Ask your representatives to take action to regulate rock harvesting here in Tennessee.
- Specifically, your representatives can introduce or support legislation to limit the environmental impact these mining operations have.
- Ask your representatives to regulate the mining of limestone, sandstone, and dimension stone by amending the provisions of the “Tennessee Mineral Surface Mining Law of 1972." This will require those harvesting rock to reclaim the land after their mining operations are complete.
- The Cumberland Trail State Park was paid for by taxpayer dollars. This public asset is being destroyed and needs to be protected so future generations can experience the beauty of the Cumberland Plateau.
Thank you for taking the time to take action to protect your Cumberland Trail.
Conservation | By Jeffrey Hunter | 02:11 PM
Comments
I'm outraged. An article was published in the Tennessean newspaper this morning about this situation. I can't believe the state can't stop this.
Posted by: Fred Ray at January 16, 2008 12:50 PM
