Water collects among trees at the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank — a wetland restored from its days as farmland — near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tenn.  Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout

Bill’s supporters call it a win for private property; opponents say it’s a loss for all Tennesseans

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

NASHVILLE — A bill slashing regulations for an estimated 80 percent of Tennessee’s non-federally protected wetlands headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk this week after receiving approval from the General Assembly.

The bill’s West Tennessee Republican sponsors — Rep. Kevin Vaughan and Sen. Brent Taylor — said the legislation removes onerous and seemingly subjective mitigation requirements for landowners and developers. 

Environmental advocates and scientists said the legislation paves the way for the destruction of Tennessee’s natural resources.

The bill passed 71-21 with one abstention in the House, and 25-6 in the Senate.

Since the 1970s, wetland regulations in Tennessee have required developers and landowners to seek permission from the state before draining or altering wetlands. The swampy areas can host diverse species, soak up rain water and filter it as it seeps into groundwater tables, recharging aquifers. Alterations to wetlands required developers to pay for mitigation — efforts to preserve or restore other wetlands nearby. 

What can YOU, and those around you, do to make your lifestyle more sustainable?

Today is a good opportunity to make a resolution or a promise to yourself and those around you to adopt a new habit or practice that will reduce your environmental impacts. Perhaps, you have already taken such a step a while ago and you may now scale it up or add something else to it?

EarthSolidarity!™ is focusing on individual and small-group initiatives that facilitate practical, local, down-to-Earth actions that can readily be replicated by many and thus add up to significant improvements in the community, the bioregion and — through equivalent locally and regionally tuned initiatives — contribute to our national and even global environmental health.

You may have found that it’s not so difficult, and perhaps you discovered some ways of making it easier or more successful than you thought possible at first. If so, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Encourage those next to you to adopt the same or similar action. We are looking for leaders like you that are willing to help organize or just advise small environmental action groups at the neighborhood level or within local businesses and organizations.

University of Tennessee leads the way in this year’s local Earth Day observances

KNOXVILLE — It’s once again time to celebrate Earth Day — Earth Week, really — and as it has in past years, Hellbender Press has a few suggestions for some fun ways for families to celebrate the planet we call home on April 22 and beyond.

The theme of this year’s Earth Day, which is its 55th observance, is Our Power, Our Planet.

If you have items you’d like to add to the list, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This list will be updated.

STEAM Earth Day event

— 6-7 p.m., Tuesday, April 22, Carter Branch Library, 9036 Asheville Highway, Knoxville. Register here.

The University of Tennessee Office of Sustainability Earth Week

— The sustainability office has an entire month devoted to Earth Day.

— 3 p.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday April 22, UT Gardens, 2514 Jacob Drive: Join a cleanup of Third Creek.

— 11 a.m.-2 p.m. April 22, 21^st Mortgage Plaza, UT Earth Day Festival will feature fun games, food and drinks.

Babies and Blooms Earth Day Festival 

— 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April 26, INCubator, 100 Cherokee Blvd., Chattanooga 

ONEIDA — Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will host an official naturalization ceremony on Thursday, April 24. One hundred and fifty individuals will take the oath of citizenship. 

The event is open to the public, and community members are encouraged to attend and witness meaningful milestones. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at Bandy  Creek Visitor Center, with the Honorable Thomas W. Phillips presiding. Local Boy Scout Troop and Crew 333 will conduct the presentation of colors. 

“National Park Week is a celebration of America’s national heritage. And national parks  preserve this great nation’s stories and natural and cultural wonders,” said Superintendent Niki  Stephanie Nicholas. “Welcoming new citizens in such a special place is suitable to their  inspirational journeys, qualities and characters.” 

Naturalization is the official process through which a foreign citizen or national becomes a United States citizen after meeting the requirements set by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act. This process culminates in a formal court proceeding where individuals take the Oath of Allegiance, receive their Certificate of Naturalization and are officially welcomed as U.S. citizens, marking the beginning of their new chapters in the American community. 

This official step unites new citizens through a shared commitment to the nation’s values, opening doors to new opportunities and a brighter future. Welcome them into the fabric of our nation.

Campers are seen enjoying a morning at Elkmont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Elkmont is one of the Smokies campgrounds still open. National Park Service

National parks advocate and former Smokies official warns of funding shortfalls as closures continue, concerns persist, and people resist

KNOXVILLE — Funding for national parks has never amounted to much, and the federal government will cut even more if people don’t speak out in defense of the country’s natural and ecological crown jewels.

That was the message from Phil Francis, chairman of the Coalition to Protect American National Parks and former acting superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He spoke to an audience at Knoxville’s Schulz Bräu Brewing Company hosted by Discover Life in America. Francis said that due to rising concerns his organization grew from 500 members to over 4,000 during the Trump administration. The coalition, he said, includes many people like himself who used to work for the park system, including the former superintendent of Acadia National Park.

Francis advocated that others should lobby government officials to continue to support the parks.

“If you don’t speak up, it makes it a lot more difficult,” he told the audience. 

Paul Stoddard, a principal at environmental consulting firm EnSafe, unlocks the gate to the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank in Shelby County. EnSafe planted more than 50,000 trees to restore portions of this 250-acre wetland, creating credits for developers to purchase to offset destruction of wetlands elsewhere.  Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout

Interests of all stripes push to preserve state wetlands protections against pro-developer pressure

This story is part of the series Down the Drain from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting collaborative based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. 

LEWISBURG — Fourth-generation Middle Tennessee cattle farmer Cole Liggett lined up with scientists and environmental advocates in March to urge Tennessee lawmakers not to gut the state’s historically strong protections for wetlands.

Wetlands protection has been good business for Liggett. In addition to raising cattle, he’s a manager at Headwaters Reserve, a firm that developers pay to preserve and restore wetlands and streams so they can destroy them elsewhere, called mitigation banking. If lawmakers follow through on a plan to deregulate an estimated 80 percent of the state’s isolated wetlands, that will upend the industry in Tennessee and drive up prices for developers still required to pay for mitigation, Liggett testified.

Liggett works in a growing industry that operates more than 2,500 mitigation banks nationwide, earning an estimated $3.5 billion in revenue in 2019, according to a 2023 study funded by the Ecological Restoration Business Association. 

The industry is built on demand spurred by the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act, which requires developers to offset their damage to wetlands by building or restoring wetlands nearby.

But recent federal actions to shrink the scope of that law are pushing states to choose how strictly they will regulate wetlands. The consequences of those decisions not only threaten further degradation of land, water and wildlife, but also the fortunes of an industry that has made a big business out of conservation.