Christmas Gift Will Protect Views of Smokies

More than 700 acres bordering Great Smoky Mountains National Park will remain natural and undeveloped thanks to a Christmas gift from the land’s owners.

Lamar Alexander, Tennessee’s Republican senator-elect and a former governor, and several of his neighbors are giving away millions of dollars in development rights to preserve the forested tract.

“We have been acquiring this land for 25 years in order to protect this scenic view of the Smokies and to create a buffer zone to protect the park,” Alexander said. “We hope others will want to do the same.”

The gift, announced Sunday, is the largest private donation of its kind, both in size and value, in Tennessee, said Randy Brown, executive director of the Foothills Land Conservancy.

The conservation easement covers 769 acres between Foothills Parkway and the park’s southwestern edge, about 30 miles south of Knoxville. It will provide a development buffer as much as two miles wide along two miles of the park’s 70-mile Tennessee border.

The Smokies range over a half-million acres in Tennessee and North Carolina. It is the country’s most visited national park, with nearly 10 million visitors a year.

The property will continue to be owned by Alexander and his associates, but the right to subdivide it will be transferred to the Foothills Land Conservancy and the Conservation Fund.

Others in the deal include Sandy Beall, founder of the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain.

The Foothills Land Conservancy, which is devoted to preserving the rural character of eastern Tennessee, has protected 13,350 acres since its founding in 1985.