Additional information on all TCWP activities may be obtained from TCWP Executive Director Sandra K. Goss at Sandra@sandrakgoss.com or at (865) 583-3967.
TCWP’s Guidelines for Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic
In an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19, TCWP will be conducting its activities following CDC guidelines.
- We ask that you not participate if you are sick or were recently exposed to someone who is.
- We ask that unvaccinated participants practice social distancing, maintain at least 6 feet of separation between themselves and other unvaccinated participants.
- We ask that unvaccinated participants continue to wear a mask especially when social distancing is not possible.
- We will organize activities into group of 20 or fewer.
- We recommend that you bring hand sanitizer or other ways to wash your hands.
- We recommend that everyone bring their own water, lunch, snacks, and sunscreen.
- We recommend caravanning for unvaccinated participants, rather than carpooling.
- Keep in mind that restrooms may be unavailable at activity locations.
- Activities are subject to change or cancellation as we monitor and react to local, state, and federal data and guidelines.
Thank you for your patience while we work through ways to serve our community.
TCWP and Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation are organizing another scenic paddle trip to promote and help maintain the Three Bends and Pellissippi Blueway on Melton Lake. We plan to paddle out from the cove and enjoy tranquil inlets, birds and other wildlife, early fall wildflowers, and the fabulous scenery the Three Bends area has to offer. We’ll visit a portion of Solway Bend and Freels Bend. Along the way we’ll do our part in cleaning up the shoreline by picking up and hauling back manageable trash we encounter.
Participants should meet at 9 a.m. at the gravel parking area by the lake just past the turnoff to Clark Center Park off Pumphouse Rd. Those needing a kayak or canoe can rent one from Adventure Outdoors (Adventureoutdoors.com); we will provide assistance in transporting boats to the put-in place.
Please bring a life jacket and wear it whenever you’re in the boat! Be prepared for sun, and bring a lunch and water. For additional information contact Tim Bigelow, 865-607-6781 or Bigelowt2@mindspring.com.
TCWP will hold its 2021 Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 23, at Cove Lake State Park Pavilion 3 in Caryville with Bob Fulcher, manager of the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail State Park, as our keynote speaker. The meeting will include a business meeting to elect TCWP officers and board members for 2022, lunch, and a birthday cake to celebrate the 55th anniversary of TCWP’s founding. After lunch Bob, who is also a folklorist and musician, will play a few tunes. He invites any meeting attendee who plays an instrument to join in!
Registration is $17 per person and begin at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and bagels; meeting will kick off at 10:0 0 a.m. Lunch will be pork barbecue sandwich, slaw and pickle or Falafel wrap with cucumber salad.
COVID-19 precautions will be encouraged. Please dress appropriately for the weather.
RSVP below
This year’s hike in the Norris Municipal Watershed will explore the history of the Watershed at the time TVA purchased the property, in 1933. We’ll begin the hike on Clear Creek Trail and travel up to Lower White Pine Trail, then up Upper White Pine to Hi Point Trail. We’ll make a side trip up to High Point, the highest point in the area. A short hike down Hi Point will take us to Freeway Trail and then to Ridgecrest Trail. It is all downhill from this point, and we’ll join Hi Point Trail again for a short distance to the pump house.
The hike will cover about 3.8 miles with a couple of hills and is rated easy to moderate (see Norris Watershed Trail map at: http://www.cityofnorris.com/id336.html). Along the way we’ll see some old home sites, the original and still extant city spring, old water weirs put in by TVA, the site of a CCC camp, and more.
Participants will meet at 9 a.m. the Norris City Water Treatment Plant (pump house), located on Lower Clear Creek Road. (Turn right heading toward Norris Dam on US 441, turn right at the Rice Grist Mill, and go to the blue tower just up from the creek ford.) Those who would like to carpool or caravan from Oak Ridge can meet in the Gold’s Gym/Books-a-Million parking lot in Oak Ridge (at the end close to S. Illinois Avenue, near Salsarita’s) at 8:15 a.m.. Wear sturdy shoes or boots, and bring water and snacks or a lunch. For more information, contact Joe Feeman at 865-457-8191 or jcfeeman@comcast.net.
The Oak Ridge Cedar Barren will again be the site of exotic invasive plant removal as we conduct our fall cleanup, our third and final cleanup of the year. Located next to Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, the Barren is a joint project of the City of Oak Ridge, State Natural Areas Division, and TCWP. The area is one of just a few cedar barrens in East Tennessee, and is subject to invasion by bushy lespedeza, leatherleaf viburnum, privet, autumn olive, mimosa, Nepal grass, multiflora rose, and woody plants that threaten the system’s prairie grasses. Our efforts help to eliminate invasives and other shade-producing plants that prevent the prairie grasses from getting needed sunlight.
Volunteers should meet in the Jefferson Middle School Parking lot at 9 a.m., with sturdy shoes, loppers, gloves, and water. For more information, contact Tim Bigelow at 865-607-6781 or Bigelowt2@mindspring.com.
