Over the last 20 years, we’ve helped add over 17,500 acres to Cherokee National Forest, including key sections of popular hiking trails, critical wildlife habitat and a portion of the historic Trail of Tears. And that number continues to grow. By working in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), The Nature Conservancy and partners such as Volkswagen — and by leveraging funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) — we continue to secure additional forestland for future generations.

Recreation and Trails

Did you know only about 94 miles of the Appalachian Trail runs through Tennessee? A small portion of that trail runs through Cherokee National Forest thanks to a 2016 effort by The Conservation Fund, USFS and the Appalachian Trails Conservancy to relocate the trail and provide hikers a safe crossing at U.S. Highway 321. Other portions of the trail run through Great Smoky Mountains National Park — the country’s most visited national park — which the Cherokee National Forest sandwiches with a southern forest portion and northern forest portion. Between park visitors and the three million people who hike the Appalachian Trail annually, this area and the forest are a haven for outdoor recreation and tourism.

There are also trails within Cherokee National Forest with historical and cultural significance. The Cherokee people were the original stewards of this landscape. But when European settlers pushed into their ancestral homeland, disease and exploitation caused the Cherokee population to go from roughly 200,000 to 25,000. In the 1830s, after the Indian Removal Act took effect, what Cherokee remained were forced to relocate to new territory in Oklahoma. An estimated 4,000 people died on the path of that journey west, now known as the Trail of Tears.

In 2014, we helped conserve a property adjacent to Cherokee National Forest that contains a portion of the Unicoi Turnpike Trail, which the Cherokee people once used as a trade route, and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail — a 4,900-mile land-and-water trail that traces portions of the Trail of Tears route through nine states.

Habitat and Biodiversity

One of our keystone projects in Tennessee, the 10,000-acre Rocky Fork property was once one of the largest unprotected tracts of land in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The protection of this landscape — located within Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and adjacent to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina — created a vast un-fragmented haven for rare wildlife species such as peregrine falcons, eastern hellbenders and Yonahlossee salamanders. Through our efforts, some of this land went to the USFS for the Cherokee National Forest and some became part of the new Rocky Fork State Park, both of which are excellent destinations for outdoor recreation.

About 1.5 miles of the Appalachian Trail crosses through the Rocky Fork property, and 16 miles of pristine streams harbor exceptional populations of native brook trout. Rocky Fork also boasts habitat for game animals such as bears, turkey, deer and grouse. The protection of this biodiversity hot spot is a critical victory in our larger fight against habitat loss and climate change.

Cherokee National Forest also includes part of the Conasauga River, an ecosystem teeming with aquatic wildlife, including 12 federally endangered species and 76 native fish species. When The Conservation Fund learned that 300 acres along the Conasauga — including a half-mile of river frontage — were listed for sale, we quickly helped USFS secure them as part of the national forest’s Ocoee Bear Reserve.

Partnerships

These critical additions to Cherokee National Forest would not have been possible without the dedication of our partners at USFS or strategic funding from the LWCF. The LWCF, annually approved by the U.S. Congress, uses offshore drilling royalties paid to the federal government, not taxpayer dollars, to conserve key land and water resources such as these.

In 2021, we partnered with Volkswagen to protect 1,500 acres within Cherokee National Forest near the company’s Chattanooga plant. The sites protected through this partnership include ecologically important waterways such as the French Broad River, Little Toqua Creek and the Conasagua River.

Other partners at the Cherokee National Forest include The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee, the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Imperiled Bat Conservation Fund.