Home Resorts and Lodging
Camping
Guides
Boat
Sales and Storage
Sporting
Goods, Bait and Tackle
Restaurants
Kentucky Lake
Maps
Hunting Stories and
Information
Fishing Report
Fishing
Stories
and Information
Other
Stories and Information
Tennessee
Fishing Records
Weather
Lake Levels
Land
Between
the Lakes
Sportsmen's
Calendar
Seasons and regulations
Links
Advertising
Contact
Us
|
This page
brought to you by:
TWRA RECEIVES ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION AWARD
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has received the honor of being
the recipient of Arbor Day Foundation’s 2014 Forest Lands Leadership Award
for its bottomland hardwood forest restoration program in West Tennessee.
The award is given annually to an individual or organization from across
the nation whose outstanding work provides leadership in advancing
sustainable forestry efforts on public forest land. The criteria for
receiving this prestigious award are demonstrating initiative and
leadership in sustainable forest programs, being a model for others to
emulate, addressing a high need area, and having sustainable program
building and development.
The TWRA and other 2014 award winners in several categories will be
honored by colleagues, supporters, and friends at the Arbor Day Awards
Ceremony on April 26 at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center in Nebraska
City, Neb. Scheduled to be present to receive the award for TWRA are Brant
Miller (Wildlife Forestry Program Manager), Damon Hollis (West Tennessee
Wetlands Forester), and Jason Maxedon (Area Manager over Ernest Rice, Sr.,
Moss Island, and several other WMAs and refuges).
Approximately three million trees have been planted on a total of 6,800
acres of former row crop land since 2000, the year that Jason Maxedon was
hired to develop and oversee TWRA’s bottomland hardwood restoration
program. Damon Hollis took over in 2011, when Maxedon transferred to the
area manager position. In addition to Hollis, the team includes the
program’s longtime Wildlife Technician Sam Turner, Wildlife Forester
Justin Hallett, and Wildlife Technician Josh Emerson.
Working with TWRA Region I personnel, the East Tennessee State Nursery and
the University of Tennessee Tree Improvement Program, TWRA’s West
Tennessee foresters annually restore 500-1,000 acres of bottomland
hardwoods on TWRA-owned lands, with a greater than 80 percent seedling
survival rate. In addition to several oak species, many other supplemental
tree and shrub species are planted, as well, to promote a more natural
forest composition. This has been accomplished with the help of generous
grants from the Arbor Day Foundation, which have been approved for TWRA
afforestation projects every year since 2010. These new forests will
provide optimum habitat and mast, in an area where it is critically
needed, ensuring sustainable management of various wildlife species for
the benefit of Tennessee citizens and visitors.
TWRA’s goal is to connect the fragmented forests of West Tennessee into an
uninterrupted travel corridor through which wildlife can fly, walk, and
crawl freely. At a time when wildlife habitat is being lost to increasing
urbanization, the TWRA is making strides in achieving this goal through
its bottomland hardwood restoration program.
|
|
