ROBBINS | The eastern U.S.’s fifth-largest National Park Service unit hopes to grow a little larger by acquiring nearly 700 acres of land adjacent to its current boundary.
The Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area is seeking to purchase some 687 acres of property in the Big Woods area — also known as Hurricane Ridge — near Honey Creek. Park superintendent Niki S. Nicholas explained to Scott County Commission Monday evening that the property is located within the legislative boundaries of the Big South Fork NRRA, but is still privately owned, having never been purchased by the federal government.
Nicholas said the property’s owner placed it under a conservation easement that does not allow construction to take place on the property. It is currently owned by nonprofits that include the Nature Conservancy and TennGreen, she said. Those organizations are willing to sell the property to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior at the county-assessed rate, which, according to property records, is about $2.1 million.
That money is provided by off-shore drilling taxes, which goes into a federal fund and is distributed competitively among the various national parks. To bolster the Big South Fork’s bid to secure funding to purchase the Big Woods property, Nicholas is seeking a letter of support from Scott County Commission, which the Community Development Committee approved unanimously at Monday’s meeting.
The acreage in question was formerly part of the Bowater holdings in Scott County and was planted in pine forests. Those forests were decimated by the Southern pine beetle infestation in 1999 and 2000, leaving much of the property devoid of mature forest growth. Quick-growth pine forests have since redeveloped on much of the property, which is situated on either side of Hurricane Ridge Road off Old Mount Helen Road along the Scott-Fentress county line.
The property is located near equestrian facilities in the Honey Creek area, and Nicholas told County Commissioners that unauthorized trails have been built across the property. If the Big South Fork is able to acquire the property, she said, it will be managed to include official trails.
