Proposed by: The Knoxville Garden Club, Zone IX

Legacy Parks Foundation, founded in 2005 by East Tennesseans, serves as an intermediary between private landowners and public parks. Collaborating with local and state agencies, Legacy Parks’ mission is to secure funding for land acquisition, park improvements and recreation programs; accept gifts of land; provide for and maintain greenway and conservation easements; and advocate for parks and outdoor recreation. These aims, as well as goals to preserve ridges and views, protect the health of and access to waterways, and create recreational opportunities for the underserved, have sparked efforts towards completion of a 1,000-acre Urban Wilderness Corridor along Knoxville’s downtown waterfront. This corridor encompasses ten parks, over forty miles of recreational trails, four civil war sites, historic settlement sites, diverse ecological features and recreational amenities, and Tennessee’s newest state park - Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. Legacy Parks has championed connections of existing parks by providing easily-navigated hiking and biking trails and promoting events and opportunities designed to encourage East Tennesseans to “get out and play.” The Knoxville Garden Club is a proud partner of Legacy Parks, using a GCA Partners for Plants grant to map, document and clear a part of the corridor named for KGC member and 1995 GCA Amy Angell Collier Montague Medalist, Natalie Haslam. This garden will encourage the protection of abundant native wildflowers and plant material. Carol Evans, the indefatigable Executive Director of Legacy Parks since its inception in 2005, has cast a vision that will help us all “leave East Tennessee better than we found it.”