LMC creates conservation connections
Lookout Mountain Conservancy has announced a $2.5 million fundraising drive to preserve a 90-acre site at Lookout Mountain, Ga. Robyn Carlton, LMC Chief Executive Officer, said the Charles Howell and Harry Lawrence properties on Lula Lake Road can be a valuable resource for wildlife and the local communities. The properties extend west within reach of Scenic Highway. The Howell and Lawrence homes will not be part of the natural area, but will be within it, surrounded by protected forest. Buyers are being sought for the homesites.
Sale of the homes will reduce the total amount the Conservancy needs to raise. A primary goal of this project is to make it part of the route of a trail that will eventually stretch from the River Walk in Chattanooga, up Lookout Mountain to Covenant College. The project is part of a larger opportunity the Conservancy has to preserve a corridor that will connect the Lawrence-Howell land to the Lula Lake Land Trust, Cloudland Canyon and beyond.
The 90-acre swath of wooded mountainside is thick with tree sized wild azaleas and laurel. It will be designated a public urban wilderness area, close to two cities and within the city limits of a third, a place in which families and individuals can safely walk trails and experience the essential connection to nature that is so often lost in contemporary life. Several creeks and deep ravines on the land will provide an opportunity for children to grow up with the outdoors, to learn through exploring, investigating aquatic life among moss-covered rocks, identifying warblers and tanagers. Please contact the LMC office at 423.424.3882 for more information or to schedule a tour of the project.