SOCIAL Owl’s Hill Marshmallow Hike

BY BRENDA BATEY PHOTOS BY BRENDA BATEY

Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary’s Executive Director Susan Duvenhage and numerous volunteers welcomed guests for the Marshmallow Hike on a cold, crisp day.

Everyone broke up into several smaller groups and went strolling through the sanctuary’s winter woods and later enjoyed hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Children had a wonderful time roasting marshmallows in the fireplace in the rustic pavilion on the beautiful property.

Owl’s Hill’s mission is to provide a sanctuary for nature that inspires exploration and lifelong environmental conservation. The nature sanctuary now encompasses over 300-acres and is a protected home for more than 2,000 species of native flora and fauna that thrive in the hills, forests, creek, ponds and meadows.

Visitors of all ages love to explore the great outdoors, learn about native Tennessee wildlife and connect with nature.

Contributions to Owl’s Hill help the organization:

• Protect and restore fragile plant and wildlife habitats

• Share the wonderment of nature with thousands of school children, teachers, scouts, and families each year

• Maintain and improve the nature trails

• Provide low-cost field trip programming

• Fill the feeding stations around the visitor center

• Provide and maintain bluebird nest boxes as part of an ongoing national research program

• Offer year-round public programming for visitors of all ages

• Provide food and care for the non-releasable owls and other wildlife ambassadors

• Help eradicate invasive plant species

The history of Owl’s Hill began in 1959 when Huldah Cheek Sharp sold Cheekwood, her childhood home, to Nashville to become a public garden and fine arts center.

She and her husband, Walter Sharp, purchased a 140-acre farm and began constructing the scenic stone walls still on the property today. At the same time they were building their new home on the side of a hill overlooking their newly purchased land.

Shortly after completion, the Sharps were outside one night and could hear a Great Horned Owl calling from the ridge. They remarked that they must have built their home on the owl’s hill and began calling their property Owl’s Hill Farm.

Huldah Sharp placed restrictive covenants on the property and sold it to the University of Tennessee Nashville in 1972 to be used for research and to be maintained as a nature preserve. In 1983 UT Nashville conveyed the property to then Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art.

In 1988, Huldah Sharp’s dream of a nature sanctuary started down the long road to reality when Cheekwood hired a full time naturalist to oversee the creation of a wildlife habitat preserve, establish education programming, undertake conservation projects, correct erosion problems and make the 120-acre site available for research.

The new facility was christened Owl’s Hill Nature Center and the caretaker’s cottage, that had originally been a hay barn, was turned into a visitor center.

In 1991 a Boy Scout went to Owl’s Hill in search of an Eagle Service Project. His project became removing wire fencing from a scenic wooded area and the restoration had begun. Since then, more than 125 Eagle Service Projects have helped transform the neglected, overgrown cattle farm into a vibrant wildlife sanctuary.

In the spring of 2007, the board of trustees of Cheekwood voted to turn over all Owl’s Hill assets to a newly created nonprofit organization. Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary became a completely independent non-profit in 2007.

For more information about Owl’s Hill’s numerous programs, visit owlshill.org.