4 minute read
“WOW Moments” of Tennessee State Parks
I just kept thinking, “WOW!” as I weaved my way from the interstate to Natchez Trace State Park’s Pin Oak Lodge, I was in awe. The drive was a never-ending sea of beauty, and each turn revealed adventure invitations—for horseback riding, canoeing, hiking, and more. As the sun filtered down through the trees, I found my body and my mind relaxing, and I was able to breathe.
Without paying much attention to the details, I had signed up for a retreat with a few law school classmates and was escaping the city for the weekend. After the retreat, I returned to Nashville fully restored and basking in the afterglow of a weekend of journaling, good food, and connecting with friends while surrounded by all the glories of nature.
Now, over 16 years later, I am the General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). I witness daily the tireless efforts our 1,400 state park employees put into helping millions of visitors a year have their own “WOW Moments” in our 56 Tennessee State Parks.
Jim Bryson, the Deputy Commissioner for TDEC’s Parks and Conservation Bureau, developed the term “WOW Moment” in 2019 to describe those vistas, experiences, and encounters that transform our guests. Guests can create lasting memories while visiting over 217,000 acres of state park property. WOW Moment is not just a term. It embodies the state parks’ strategic business plan because that’s the business of Tennessee State Parks—offering multiple “WOW Moments” to every park guest. We want “WOW Moments” to be accessible for all. Tennessee State Parks are free, with no entrance fees and there is a park within an hour’s drive of every Tennessean. We also continue to improve our offerings for guests with physical challenges.
In April, the legislature included $30 million to eliminate deferred maintenance and improve accessibility at state parks into Tennessee’s fiscal year 2021–22 budget. State parks provide a high return on investment for our state. The results of a recent study found that all those “WOW Moments” are lifting more than just the spirits of park guests. Local economies benefit, too: the study found a $1.84 billion positive statewide impact from state parks each year.
However, 2020 was rough. Like private sector businesses, Tennessee State Parks encountered a host of hurdles. March tornados twisted miles of trails and hundreds of acres of timber. Just as the park system was recovering, the pandemic hit. Record crowds flooded in to recreate safely outdoors, and parks scrambled
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Be the first person to email the correct answer to Jill.Presley@nashvillebar.org, and your name—along with the correct answer—will appear in the next issue.
APR/MAY GOLDEN OLDIES
Congratulations to Mark Lenihan of Sims|Funk for correctly identifying the individuals in last issue’s photo! From left to right: Katie Atkins, Caroline Sapp, and Joshua Thomas.
Request from the Memorial Committee
The NBA holds two memorial services each year to commemorate and celebrate the lives of Nashville attorneys and judges who have passed away during the preceding year. These services are official proceedings of our Chancery Court and are organized by the Memorial Committee, a subcommittee of the NBA’s Historical Committee. In order to ensure that each deceased attorney or judge is memorialized, the members of the Memorial Committee (1) identify attorneys who were law partners, co-workers, or close personal friends with the late attorney or judge; and (2) request those attorneys to form a committee to prepare and present to the Chancery Court at the Memorial Service an appropriate memorial resolution with respect to the life of the deceased attorney or judge.
The Memorial Committee is occasionally faced with a situation in which it is unable to identify or locate a person who knew the deceased well enough during his or her lifetime to prepare such a resolution. Sometimes, the deceased attorney may have been of such advanced age that his or her contemporaries have predeceased him or her. Other times, the attorney may have not been in private practice or did not have a practice that allowed significant interaction with judges or other Nashville attorneys. In these situations, the Memorial Committee is unfortunately unable to celebrate the life of the deceased attorney by the presentation of a resolution at the Memorial Service.
With this in mind, if you feel that you or another Nashville attorney that you know falls within such a category, it would be of immense help to the Memorial Committee if you would provide it with professional and personal information about you or the other attorney, so that the information is available to the committee upon the individual’s passing. Please send this information to Vicki at the NBA office, who will retain the information until it is needed. Additionally, please feel free to reach out to the Memorial Committee chair, Keith Turner, should you have any further questions about the Committee or the Memorial Services. n
