Land Between the Lakes & TVA

[Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com]

Jeanetta Sturgeon jetta4trails@yahoo.com said:

> I am going to Louisville Ky this coming week-end and
> would like to check out the Land Between the Lakes area.
> Can someone give me directions, please?

Segue..

My local US congressman, Jim McGovern (D-Mass), is on the house
subcommittee that oversees the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA). This is the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure's
Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment--
http://www.house.gov/transportation/lo.html

For those who might not know, the TVA owns and has heretofore
run the 170,000 acre Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
in southwestern Kentucky.  TVA owns many thousands of acres of open
land in Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Georgia, Mississippi, and
Alabama that since the 1930s has become both official and unofficial
recreation land that is much used by horsemen.

Evidently as a minor subplot to the whole move to deregulate the
power industry, the TVA is being forced to divest itself of all holdings
not directly related to electric power production.  (Actually, I believe
the ruling honcho of TVA *wanted* to divest and pulled a fast one
that has lots of people furious at him for breaking up the TVA contrary
to the wishes of the people it serves.  But anyway...)

My congressman says that this divestment is pretty much a "done deal"
that cannot be reversed.

Land Between the Lakes (LbtL) is supposed to be given to the National
Forest Service the first year TVA does not receive at least 6 million
dollars
in appropriations to run LbtL.   Indeed, last year, TVA acquired funding to
continue to run Land Between the Lakes only as part of a last-minute
extraordinary appropriations bill.  It is highly questionable whether TVA
will be funded to run LbtL after this year and it will therefore end up in
the Forest Service's inventory.  Absent any modifying legislation, this
huge recreation area will be subject to the Forest Service's legal mandate
and regulations.

But what about all the rest of the thousands of acres of de facto
recreation
land that the TVA owns?

Does anybody know what provisions are being made for this land?  What
will happen to the organized parks?   And most particularly, what will
happen to the land that is "just land"--land that people use for recreation
including trail riding but which has no official status as a "park" and
thus
might not be offerred to the respective states for additions to the state
park
systems?

Completely to my surprise, this Yankee now has strong ties to Tennessee:
all of my family now lives in Norris.  I plan to vacation there with my
horse
at least a month each year, and may even end up relocating.  I am keen
to keep track of what happens to the TVA land, and to offer what influence
I can bring to bear on my own congressman to support legislation that
would create recreation "strings" on any land that TVA divests to
ensure that it would not, for example, be sold for development.

So, if anybody knows anything or can let me know what I can do
to help...

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com
Masschusetts, USA



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