Fiery Gizzard Trail may close

new owner

Wow.

I also didn't know South Cumberland State Park is going to a reservation system with fees effective Sept 7th:

friendsofscsra.org/

Here's a more detailed press release from the Friends of South Cumberland:

[http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/2/0/15206304/fierygizzardclosure.pdf]

South Cumberland’s Fiery Gizzard Trail Threatened, Key Campground to Close as Park Loses Access to Private Property"

The mid-point section of the popular Fiery Gizzard Trail in South Cumberland State Park will
soon close to hikers, thus cutting the 13-mile trek between Grundy Forest Trailhead and Foster
Falls. Interim Park Manager George Shinn has announced that the owner of property near
Raven Point, which the trail has crossed for decades, has asked for the removal of the park trail
from his property by Dec. 1. “The only practical solution,” Shinn, said, "is to reroute that section
of the trail into the cove. But the solution is not easy to accomplish and will significantly increase
the difficulty for hikers in the future.” Similar land issues have forced TDEC (Tennessee
Department of Environment and Conservation) to order the closing of Raven Point Campground
located along the Fiery Gizzard Trail, on Sept. 7.

On August 15, Nashville’s Channel 4 broke the story after learning of issues threatening the
popular trail. Ranger Shinn and Friends of South Cumberland (FSC) President Latham Davis
were interviewed about the trail that put South Cumberland in the national spotlight. Backpacker
Magazine voted the Fiery Gizzard Trail among the top 25 hiking trails in the U.S. and in 2014
ranked it 6th on the list of Best Fall Foliage Hikes in the nation. The trail is credited with drawing
visitors to South Cumberland and enhancing tourism and the local economy in one of
Tennessee’s most rural areas.

Shinn said, “Since the 70s the park has operated this trail in partnership with numerous private
owners, and we have worked hard to maintain strong relations. However, as land is sold or
passed on to heirs, these long-standing verbal agreements can change overnight.” He added,
“Because of safety and liability issues, the state can not operate without formal agreements. We
are hopeful that we can persuade those involved to agree to a partnership based on a
conservation easement or a memorandum of understanding that will allow the trail and
campground to remain open.” Shinn noted that purchasing the land is not always necessary.
“We just need agreements and committed partnerships in order to save forever the few miles of
trail that cross private property.”

“This is clearly an emergency,” said Mack Prichard, TN State Naturalist Emeritus, who has been
involved with the trail for decades. “To lose a trail like Fiery Gizzard and this key campground is
unthinkable.” Prichard said, “We need to mobilize whatever support we can to mitigate this. For
many years the Friends of South Cumberland members have done miracles and pulled rabbits
out of hats. We are going to need some miracles here again.”

FSC President Latham Davis said, “The Friends of South Cumberland have had many
successes in acquiring key tracts of land and conservation easements, most recently this
summer acquiring several hundred feet of bluff facing Stone Door in Savage Gulf Natural Area.
We have good relations with many landowners adjacent to the park, which makes this event on
the Fiery Gizzard Trail so puzzling and distressing.” Raven Point Farm is currently on the market
for more than double the appraised value of the land. The owner recently rejected an offer by
the FSC to purchase the land at its appraised value.

Mary Priestley, author of Fiery Gizzard: Voices from the Wilderness and past president of the
FSC said, “We learned that when a Friends group, Land Trust, or other nonprofit buys land, you
can’t set the precedent of paying more than the appraised value because going forward this will
cause other landowners to expect the same inflated prices. A major concern is that the tract
could be sold to a developer, ruining the pristine nature of the trail forever.” Priestley added, “At
this point, the Friends’ best hope is for a conservation buyer to come in and purchase Raven
Point Farm and establish easements on it. There are substantial tax incentives for doing this.
Easements would allow for the continued use of the original trail and give the park rangers the
access they need.”! !

The FSC is committed to raising awareness about this recent development at Fiery Gizzard and
to partnering with others to find solutions. Friends members and park rangers are working
together to organize volunteers to help build a re-routed section of the trail. To skirt private land,
the trail will have to plunge to the bottom of the gorge and back to the top, an 800-foot elevation
drop, which will substantially increase the difficulty of the trail. Anyone willing to volunteer in the
trail building effort may go to the FSC website for details. The FSC, one of the most active state
park friends groups in Tennessee, has helped raise millions of dollars to purchase thousands of
acres and protect miles of trail and viewshed. Since the Friends began, the park has increased
by 10,000 acres.!