The Jarvis Park project in Maryville, Tennessee is a source of particular pride for FLC and an example of deep partnership between our organization, a landowner, and a municipality.

In 2018, we partnered with Dr. Craig Jarvis to place over nine acres of the park into a conservation easement and then conveyed the tract to the City of Maryville the following year. In 2019, two adjacent tracts totaling over 37 acres were also placed into an easement and transferred to the City. Helping to finalize the project, FLC transferred a residential tract and provided a monetary donation for the purpose of expanding the park’s acreage (also in 2019).

The City of Maryville then built and opened Jarvis Park in 2021. The park’s preserved acreage joins at least 20 other conservation easements held by FLC within ten miles, totaling over 4,000 acres of protected land in the immediate area.

Dr. Jarvis is a Foothills Land Conservancy Board member. He’s also a visionary landowner who understands that greenspace available for public use can have an enormous impact within a community. Instead of being sold into residential or commercial development, this land is a public park located less than a mile and a half from downtown Maryville. It is one of the few remaining intact woodlands in the area and is bordered by open farm fields, homes and neighborhoods, and a rock quarry operation.

FLC is incredibly grateful for his leadership, vision, and commitment to our mission to protect, preserve, and enhance the land of the Southern Appalachian region – and promote it for the benefit of the public.

In addition to being directly connected to Jarvis Park, Craig also has another conservation easement with FLC in Monroe County protecting nearly 480 acres. A steep trek on the west side of the property provides a reward of dramatic views of Starr Mountain and beyond, along the western edge of Cherokee National Forest and into the adjacent valley. Its proximity makes the property important as contiguous buffer habitat for the Forest, and it offers water and food sources for a large variety of wildlife species.

These two properties are very different in purpose and use – and demonstrate equally the variety of benefits that land protection offers to the East Tennessee region.