Conservation and Protection
The Friends of South Cumberland (FSC) are active participants in helping conserve and protect environmentally significant lands, both in and adjacent to the park.
When the FSC was established in 1993, South Cumberland State Park consisted of 11,000 acres. Through the dedicated efforts of the Friends, working with other environmentally like-minded organizations, parcels of environmentally significant land were acquired and re-sold to the State of Tennessee. Today, South Cumberland and Savage Gulf State Parks protect over 31,000 acres of pristine Tennessee wilderness. Many acres in both parks were added to the Tennessee State Parks system through the facilitative and/or direct efforts of the Friends of South Cumberland.
In the early 2000s, the FSC raised over $600,000 in donations and $2.5 million in grants with its "Saving Great Spaces" campaign to purchase critical holdings of land adjacent to the then-current park boundaries, protecting over 8,500 additional acres of pristine and environmentally significant lands. These acquisitions began a unique and productive relationship with the State of Tennessee that continues to this day.
Today, a major goal of the FSC is to protect the boundaries of the parks -- the bluffs, watersheds and viewsheds -- by acquiring or executing conservation easements on priority tracts of land. Working with our Conservation Partner organizations, the Friends advocate for acquiring or protecting these tracts until they can be re-purchased by the State of Tennessee, and added to South Cumberland or Savage Gulf State Park.
FSC partners not only with the State, but has also joined with Tennessee Parks and Greenways, the South Cumberland Wilderness Society, the Savage Gulf Preservation League, the Land Trust For Tennessee, the Open Space Institute, Tennessee Land Trust, The Conservation Fund, The Access Fund, the Southeast Climbers' Coalition, Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations, the University of the South, Monteagle Sunday School Assembly and the South Cumberland Community Fund, among others, to leverage our collective efforts, share ideas, and take action on high-priority land protection opportunities.
Denny Cove and the Dixson Tract
Efforts to protect and preserve the southern end of Fiery Gizzard Cove took a big step forward in 2016 when the Access Fund and Southeastern Climbers Coalition (SCC), with help from the Friends of South Cumberland and other like-minded organizations, purchased 685 acres in Denny Cove. At the end of 2016, the State of Tennessee purchased the tract from the SCC, and opened Denny Cove to the public in March of 2017.
Three Forks Lake
A significant addition to Savage Gulf State Park, with major implications for economic development, has been made in Beersheba Springs near Stone Door Natural Area. The property consists principally of the old Shady Valley Nursery — 700 acres of fields, woodlands, and a deep-water lake. The nursery entrance is on Highway 56, but its land extends more than two miles, all the way to the park boundary, and very close to the existing Stone Door parking area.
Lost Cove
The addition of Lost Cove, just south of Sewanee, added just over 4,000 acres of high-quality forest land and critical natural and cultural habitat to South Cumberland State Park, and has since been renamed Head of the Crow State Park.