Remote Walls of Jericho has rare species, scenic wonders

01/07/04

THOMAS SPENCER
News staff writer
 

A legendary and scenic northeast Alabama wilderness known for its central rock and waterfall formation, the "Walls of Jericho," will be preserved and opened to the public thanks to a joint effort by The Nature Conservancy and Alabama's Forever Wild Program.

Pocked with caves and home to the rare Tennessee cave salamander, the protected tract contains the headwaters of the ecologically important Paint Rock River, which is home to 100 species of fish and 45 of mussels, more than a dozen of which them are rare or endangered. It's an important habitat for the cerulean warbler, which lives only there and in the Bankhead National Forest, and for other migratory songbirds.

At 21,453 acres, the wilderness is more than double the size of Oak Mountain State Park.

The Nature Conservancy bought the tract, which straddles the Alabama and Tennessee border, in late December for $13.9 million from the Stevenson Land Co.

The state of Alabama's public land acquisition program, Forever Wild, plans in late February or early March to buy the 12,510 acres that lie in Alabama. The first appraisal for that portion of the land was $9 million. The Nature Conservancy will hold the remaining 8,943 acres as Tennessee pursues federal Forestry Legacy money to make its purchase.

"This is the biggest deal we've ever done in Alabama," said Jeff Danter, Alabama director for The Nature Conservancy. "This is a wonderful opportunity for us to protect a large intact landscape. This place is really important for conservation, and the conservancy has been trying to find a way to protect this as long as we've known about it."

Davy Crockett lived for a time in Franklin County, Tenn., and is said to have hunted these mountains and canyons. Once part of Texas Oil baron Harry Lee Carter's 60,000-acre property, the Walls of Jericho was a popular camping spot open to the public until Carter died in 1977 and the land was divided and closed.

The Walls of Jericho is at the closed end of a half-mile long, narrow, wooded canyon, where the canyon walls form a natural rock amphitheater. In seasons of high water, a waterfall drops into the canyon and water gushes out of caves and cracks in the canyon walls. Much of the steep landscape has not been logged for 70 to 80 years.

"This is truly a unique place, spiritual almost. It's like walking into a giant cathedral - you just want to be quiet," said Scott Davis, The Nature Conservancy's Tennessee director.

The protected acreage links with other forests in the Jackson Mountains of the Southern Cumberland Plateau, including Alabama's Skyline Wildlife Management Area. Other nearby protected sites include the Carter Caves State Natural Area, Franklin State Forest, and The Nature Conservancy's David Carter Tract. Danter said the isolation and lack of development in the area is rare for the Eastern United States.

"The word is remote: incredibly remote. You are truly in a wilderness when you go back there, and it helps that it is spectacularly beautiful. It's really hard to believe that this place exists without being in a park it is just so spectacular," Danter said.

The Nature Conservancy is honoring through the end of January hunting contracts made with the previous owner. The Forever Wild Board is conducting a final appraisal on the land before making a purchase. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will manage the area. Hunting will continue but department Commissioner Barnett Lawley said opportunities for "birding, nature study, wildlife photography, hiking, horseback riding, backpacking and even caving" will be encouraged.

Conservationists have been trying to preserve the area since at least 1970. The current effort began taking shape more than a year ago. The Nature Conservancy, working from a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Trust and the Lyndhurst Foundation in Chattanooga, Tenn., put together the deal but needed the assurance that Forever Wild would buy the property if a deal could be struck.