Woodland Trail in Shelby Forest

For the purchase and preservation of a 3-mile woodland trail in the forest.

In 1937, the Memphis Garden Club received the Founders Fund Award for planning and planting a three mile footpath, The Woodland Trail, through the Shelby Forest located along the Mississippi River in western Tennessee. The Memphis Garden Club was able to match the monies received from the Award to create the Woodland Trail and surround it with more than 3,000 plants to enhance the beauty of previously planted wildflowers, trees and shrubs. The footpath lives within a 13,467 acre protected park created by the National Park Service in 1933 through the advocacy of Edward J. Meeman, the conservation editor of Scripps-Howard Newspapers, who insisted that the crumbling forests of the region could prosper as they had in the past. Development began on establishing a wildlife reserve, replanting and reclaiming eroded land and building recreational facilities. At the time, this was the only reforestation project in America where an attempt was made to replant with native hardwoods rather than conifers. As a result of recreating the natural ecology of the area, wildlife abounded. The Shelby Forest has become a prime example of hardwood forest regeneration. The park was acquired by the state of Tennessee in 1944. In 1987, Friends of the Forest was organized to help maintain Memphis Garden Club’s Woodland Trail. While the MGC is no longer actively involved, the club provided seed money for landscaping the park’s Information Center. An alliance was formed between AmeriCorps, Park Rangers and the MGC Sprouts (daughters and granddaughters of club members) to further protect and conserve the natural beauty of the trail.