TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Jan 25, 2022

A private citizen has notified state wildlife officials of his intent to sue within 60 days should a plan to raze 2,000 acres of hardwoods on state-owned land in White County proceed, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The land sits on 16,000 acres that was gifted to the state by Bridgestone Americas. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) plans to raze the land and use it to create grassland habitat for the Northern bobwhite quail. In the Jan. 10 notice, Marvin Bullock, president of the Sparta/White County Chamber of Commerce, and his attorney, Austin Warehime of Nashville’s Ortale Kelley Law Firm, claim the plan may harm numerous protected species in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The plan has upset locals, environmental groups and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, who are critical of TWRA’s lack of transparency and its plan to keep all profits from the sale of the timber. TWRA is the only state agency allowed to keep proceeds from the sale of the state’s natural resources.