Conservation groups are celebrating the acquisition of 985 acres of land along the south fork of the Forked Deer River in West Tennessee to help restore the area’s natural landscape.
For more than a century, low-lying floodplains near Jackson have been drained to accommodate railways, highways and row-crop farming, exposing residents to flash floods and disrupting wildlife habitats.
Kendall McCarter, chief development officer for the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, hopes to see the return of towering oak and hickory trees and aquatic species, like mussels, to help filter the river…