Voices (38)
Updated: Land-use debate in New Market highlights painful choices facing farmers and the public
Written by Ben Pounds
Katie Fleenor of Mattalyn Rogers Dressage rides training horse Asa at Dressage by the River 2023 at River Glen. Courtesy Mattalyn Rogers Dressage
Nonprofit’s plan to purchase equestrian property faced opposition but raised important future farmland issues
UPDATE: The Jefferson County Regional Planning Commission rejected the proposal for a KARM facility citing zoning restrictions. Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries may still bring the proposal to the Jefferson County Board of Zoning Appeals.
NEW MARKET — Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries plans to purchase River Glen, a storied equestrian facility in Jefferson County, to eventually help disadvantaged clients overcome substance-abuse issues and societal disparities.
The proposal has detractors, but proponents cast it as a way to also ensure the continued operation of an established working horse farm and long-term site of equestrian events, especially dressage. The horses could even provide therapy.
The New Market debate also raises questions about aging U.S. farmers and ultimate disposition of their agricultural lands.
President and Chief Executive Officer of KARM Danita McCartney said her group plans to purchase 185 acres. In addition to its show-worthy horse facilities, the property borders the Holston River and retains a significant amount of forest along the river and sharp ridge lines.
The property’s owner, Bill Graves, spoke highly of the potential new owners and said he was selling the land largely because he wanted to retire from running the business.
The Jefferson County Planning Commission planned to discuss the nonprofit’s plan for the site at a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 23 at the Courthouse at 202 W. Main St. in Dandridge.
- new market
- river glen
- river glen land use debate
- equestrian facilities in east tennessee
- horses and economy
- dressage in east tennessee
- karm
- knoxville area rescue ministries
- horse farm transition
- mattalyn rogers dressage
- knoxville dressage
- horse farms and environmental preservation
- mattalyn rogers horse trainer
- horse therapy east tennessee
- katie fleenor
- foothills land conservancy
- bill clabough
Photo courtesy of Third Act via The Revelator
As their twilight approaches, elders supercharge climate action on behalf of future generations
This story was originally published by The Revelator. Eduardo Garcia is a New York-based climate journalist. A native of Spain, he has written about climate solutions for Thomson Reuters, The New York Times, Treehugger and Slate. He is the author of Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste, an illustrated book about reducing personal carbon footprints.
Thousands of senior Americans took to the streets in March in 30 states to demand that the country’s major banks divest from fossil fuels.
This “rocking chair rebellion” — organized by Third Act, a fast-growing climate action group focused on older Americans — shows that Baby Boomers are becoming a new force in the climate movement.
Third Act cofounder Bill McKibben, who joined a Washington, D.C., protest, says it’s unfair to put all the weight of climate activism on the shoulders of young people. It’s time for older Americans to take a central role.
“Young people don’t have the structural power necessary to make changes,” McKibben tells The Revelator. “But old people do. There are 70 million Americans over the age of 60. Many of us vote, we’re politically engaged, and have a lot of financial resources. So if you want to press either the political system or the financial system, older people are a useful group to have.”
- environmental activism
- climate action
- climate change
- the revelator
- eduardo garcia
- climate activist
- bill mckibben
- third act
- how to fight climate change
- bank funding for fossil fuels
- divest from bank supporting fossil fuel
- rocking chair rebellion
- karl andrew pillemer
- cornell university
- elders climate action
- this is what we did
- climate pac
- baby boomer environmental activist
In the existential battle between Smokies swine and salamanders, the hogs have the upper hand
Written by Ben Pounds
Efforts to eradicate wild hogs, which have a damaging effect on salamanders and other communities in the Great Smokies, have been ongoing with mixed success for decades. National Archives
Researchers quantify the effects of feral hogs on Smokies salamander populations
GATLINBURG — A recent study investigating the relationship between Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s beloved salamanders and its hated hogs concluded that the rooting of feral pigs decreases the abundance and diversity of Smokies salamanders.
Alexander Funk of Eastern Kentucky University said the effects of feral hogs on salamanders from the family plethodontidae were mixed and varied depending on the season.
Generally, across seasons and especially in the summer, the hogs’ foraging seemed to hurt salamander abundance and diversity. Funk is a student under Eastern Kentucky University’s Director for the Division of Natural Areas Stephen Richter but had help from Benjamin Fitzpatrick of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The study involved Funk going out late at night on Balsam Mountain in the spring, summer and fall of 2022.
The Mingus music mill: Tracing a mountain family’s history from slavery to stardom
Written by Ben Pounds
Charles Mingus, the descendant of slaves from the Smokies, is shown chomping a cigar and playing bass at the U.S. Bicentennial celebration in Lower Manhattan, July 4, 1976. 
Tom Marcello
Smokies African American studies trace a great musician with roots in Oconaluftee
GATLINBURG — Black history, let alone jazz history, isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when most people think about the Smokies.
But famed jazz musician Charles Mingus Jr.’s family has roots in what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
At the recent virtual Discover Life in America Colloquium, previously reported on by Hellbender Press, Appalachian Highlands Science Education Coordinator Antoine Fletcher was the sole presenter on social sciences. He went into the Mingus family history and Black history in the Southern Appalachian region.
Fletcher said the Mingus story derives from the African American Experiences in the Smokies Project, which he described as “a project that is focusing on the untold stories of African Americans in the park and the Southern Appalachian region.”
“There’s a huge story to tell,” he said of his research. “There are stories of the human vestiges that we have from 900-plus years.”
April 23 is new deadline of web survey: Advance Knox to hold ‘Priorities Week’ March 27 – April 6
Written by Wolf Naegeli
If you care about growth and transportation in Knox County, attend one of these meetings to share your ideas and express your opinions.
This article was updated on March 27 with first impressions from the March 27 meeting.
KNOXVILLE — Based on previous public input and data analysis, the Advance Knox project team has developed a list of proposed transportation projects that will accompany a future land use plan.
Advance Knox is an effort to define a vision and create a plan that will guide growth, land use, transportation, economic prosperity and quality of life in Knox County for years to come.
This is the first time the County has created an integrated land use and transportation plan, that is billed as having “the potential to be transformative.”
“Bringing land use and transportation components together is what will set this plan up for success,” said Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. “Our teams are eager to hear community feedback and move toward adopting a final plan.”
Will this plan result in the transformation that you hope for?
Now is the time for you to check that it meets your needs, expectations and wishes. Or, to argue for better solutions by participating in this process.
Priorities Week is the third and final round of Advance Knox community outreach!
![Sandra Goss, Executive Director, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning]()
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning Executive Director Sandra Goss is nearing retirement after decades of tending to the environmental issues facing East Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau.At cusp of retirement, Sandra Goss reflects on what she and others have saved
This is the latest installment of an occasional series, Hellbent, profiling citizens who work to preserve and improve the Southern Appalachian environment.
OAK RIDGE — I can see the view of Lilly Bluff Overlook at Obed Wild and Scenic River in my mind. The trees are bare save some evergreens. The stream I love to splash around in during warmer times is flowing between the slopes.
I can see the cliff face in the distance. It would be a great place to interview Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP) Executive Director Sandra Goss; after all she and her organization helped preserve the area. It’s also near the places she grew up. She cited the experiences as inspiring her conservation ethic.
Earlier this winter, the Christmas tree in Oak Ridge’s Jackson Square was on its side due to icy gusts and I’ve called off meeting with Goss in person at Panera to avoid torturing her or me with the elements. We could hike, but not stand around.
I’ve seen her at TCWP Christmas parties in Oak Ridge and on hikes though, so just like Lilly Bluff, I can imagine her silver-white hair, smile and glasses as I speak to her by phone. I hear her accent, more Southern Appalachian than the Yankee-ish Oak Ridge accent I speak, nodding to her origin in Crossville.
Goss is retiring Aug. 31, and she’s looking back on her work and forward to the break.
The Tennessee Valley Chapter of The Wild Ones is accepting registrations for the spring workshop and symposium at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga University Center, set for March 17 and 18.
The nature journaling workshop is Friday afternoon, March 17, and will be conducted by Jannise Ray, author of “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.”
The symposium takes place on March 18. Speakers include:
- A keynote address by Thomas Ranier, landscape architect and author of Planting in a Post-Wild World.His talk is titled “The Residential Garden in a Post-Pandemic World.”
- Janisse Ray, Author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, will give a talk titled “Why the Climate Needs Trees and Why Every Tree Counts.”
- Kristen Wickert, Social Media Educator, and Plant Pathologist, will speak on “Fungi and their Relationship with Plants.”
- Leslie Edwards, the author of The Natural Communities of Georgia, speaking on the Fascinating Communities of NE Georgia and SE Tennessee: From Sandstone Cliffs to Cedar Glades.
- Adam Bigelow, owner, and operator of Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions, speaking on “Native Plants for the Vegetable Garden.”
The Wild Ones will hold their Native Plant Sale and Expo at the First Horizon Pavilion on March 25. Ten regional native plant nurseries will participate, along with several local and regional exhibitors and vendors. Food will be available from food trucks.
The Wild Ones is a national organization focused on native plants and natural landscaping. The Tennessee Valley Chapter is organized in Southeast Tennessee.
— Ray Zimmerman
From the archives: One year later, a look back at a prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Written by Thomas Fraser
(From February 2022): Menacing military buildup on Ukraine borders and Orwellian denials could snuff peaceful scientific cooperation
OAK RIDGE — I went to Russia in 2000 on one of the most extraordinary trips of my life. It was a long time ago, and a generation has passed, but I was left with many enduring and positive impressions of the country and its people.
The newspaper I worked for, The Daily Times in Maryville, paid for my trip to Moscow, then to Siberia, (and back again, to my surprise) to cover a contingent of Blount County politicos/bureaucrats and Oak Ridge DOE types visiting a far eastern Russian town, Zheleznogorsk, that had long been home to both nuclear and chemical weapons processing facilities.
The goal, under the flag of Sister Cities, was ultimately geared toward introducing alternative commerce and industry to this forgotten town so the potentially catastrophic expertise would not be exported abroad. The temptation was surely there. These were people with advanced degrees who now lived in a place where a lot of people had never eaten in a restaurant.
Maryville College professor’s podcast highlights how the present is weirder than the past
Written by Robert Norris
“Historical research brings all kinds of insight into who we are in the present day as a species.”
MARYVILLE — Ever wonder how human society and culture blossomed into what it is today?
In his new podcast, “You Are a Weirdo,” historian and Maryville College professor Doug Sofer aims to help people learn just how far we’ve come as a species by embracing how the “strangeness” of the present day would be considered even more vastly weird by the historical standards of the past.
“Real history is a process of interpretation — of understanding the past based on evidence” Sofer said. “Good history is equally immersive; it gets you out of your skin.”
So far, Sofer has immersed his audience in interpreting and understanding topics ranging from why tea is considered a distinctly British beverage, despite being grown in Asia, to why jokes have a short shelf life depending on the decade they are told.
Regardless of each episode’s topic, Sofer finds history to be “the study of human possibilities.” Sofer wants people to learn “that real, legit historical research brings all kinds of insight into who we are in the present day as a species.”
Government Accountability Office: TVA lagging in climate change adjustments
Written by Adam Goldstein
TVA service area and power generation assets. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) | GAO-23-105375
GAO report concludes TVA is flat-footed on climate-change risks to infrastructure
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.
WASHINGTON — Extreme weather patterns have sparked several improvements to the climate resiliency of Tennessee Valley Authority electrical infrastructure over the past two decades.
A report from a government watchdog, however, found the huge utility still has work to do in mitigating climate hazards to the regional power grid. (Bitter cold around Christmas led TVA to implement rolling blackouts).
“TVA has taken several steps to manage climate-related risks,” the Jan. 30 report from the Government Accountability Office said. “However, TVA has not conducted an inventory of assets and operations vulnerable to climate change, or developed a resilience plan that identifies and prioritizes resilience measures to address specific risks.”
One issue: The Southeast has experienced a period of accelerated warming since the 1960s. Among cities in the region, 61 percent are experiencing worsening heat waves, a percentage greater than anywhere else in the country, according to the GAO.
The report came in response to a five-part joint request for information on the climate resiliency of U.S. infrastructure, from U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper of Delaware. The two Democrats sent their request to the GAO on May 13, 2019.
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OAK RIDGE — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public input on the scope of its environmental review of TRISO-X LLC’s proposed nuclear fuel fabrication facility to be built in Oak Ridge (as reported by Hellbender Press already last April in the context of the decade-long struggle to prevent environmental damages from a proposed power line that would also have degraded the recreational experience of the North Boundary Greenway).
Comments are due Feb. 14. TRISO-X has proposed the facility for the Horizon Center on the western side of Oak Ridge. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Energy LLC, has applied for a license to construct and operate the facility to manufacture high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for advanced reactors. Along with a safety and technical review, the NRC staff will develop an environmental impact statement to analyze the proposed facility’s potential impacts.
See the TRISO-X review, as well as non-sensitive parts of the license application, on the NRC website. A notice of intent to develop an environmental impact statement was published Dec. 16 in the Federal Register.
Related article: Oak Ridge environmentalists successfully lobbied to reroute intrusive power lines
Oak Ridge environmentalists successfully lobbied to reroute intrusive power lines
Written by Ben Pounds
This map shows several of the various options that were proposed over the years for a new power line to the Horizon Center. Options numbered 1 here would have severely impacted the North Boundary Greenway. Options 1 and 2 also would have diminished the ecologic values of the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement. The now authorized option 5 will tap into the existing 161 kilovolt TVA power line at a new substation to be built on the south-east side of Oak Ridge Turnpike (TN-95). City of Oak Ridge Electric Department
Conversations, letters, alliances and action prompted electrifying win for East Tennessee citizens
OAK RIDGE — After a grassroots citizen effort highlighted the fact new electric lines would mar habitat and popular hiking trails, the city plans to put them elsewhere.
The move came after objections raised by East Tennessee environmental groups, previously reported by Hellbender Press, to protect the land along the North Boundary Greenway, a wide gravel path used by hikers and cyclists. The new route goes down Novus Drive’s median, starting south of State Route 95.
Contractors aren’t done building the Novus Drive route, but city staff made the new route clear in December when asking for funding. Oak Ridge City manager Mark Watson stated the new lines and substation need to be ready for the proposed TRISO-X nuclear fuel facility by December 2024.
Obsolescence meets absurdity in parking-garage design debates
Written by Kevin J. Krizek and John Hersey
The Pryor Brown Transfer Company and garage is shown in 1936 on West Church Avenue in downtown Knoxville. Established in 1929, it is reputedly the first full-service parking garage in the U.S., and now faces demolition after years of neglect and disuse. Thompson Photograph Collection, McClung Historical Collection
Wasted space or community asset? As urban space dwindles, debate gears up over utility of parking garages
This story was originally published by The Conversation. Kevin J. Krizek is professor of environmental design at University of Colorado Boulder. John Hersey is a teaching assistant professor of environmental design at University of Colorado Boulder.
For the past century, the public and private sectors appear to have agreed on one thing: the more parking, the better.
As a result, cities were built up in ways that devoted valuable space to storing cars, did little to accommodate people who don’t own cars and forced developers to build expensive parking structures that increased the cost of living.
Two assumptions undergird urban parking policy: Without convenient parking, car owners would be reluctant to patronize businesses; and absent a dedicated parking spot for their vehicle, they’d be less likely to rent and buy homes. Because parcels of urban land are usually small and pricey, developers will build multistory garages. And so today, a glut of these bulky concrete boxes clutter America’s densely populated cities.
We have been studying urban development and parking for decades. The car’s grip over city planning has been difficult to dislodge, despite a host of costs to the environment and to the quality of life for many city dwellers.
KNOXVILLE — The East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists once again will partner with the League of Women Voters Knoxville/Knox County to hold the annual legislative forum of the Knox County delegation.
The date is Saturday, Jan. 28, from 9-10:30 a.m. at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St., in downtown Knoxville. Jesse Mayshark, an ETSPJ board member and co-founder of Compass Knox, will serve as moderator.
Hellbender Press readers are encouraged to submit possible environment-related questions for the legislators to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Coffee and breakfast bagels and pastries will be available at 8:30 a.m. and are free while they last. The event is open to the public, and the wearing of masks is optional.
— East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists