Viewed from space, the Oak Ridge Reservation is a nearly solid island of forest surrounded by human development. Satellite-image map of ORR land cover

We maintain that the Oak Ridge Reservation has substantial value for:

• Science and Technology
• Conservation
• Economy and Jobs
• Public Health and Safety
• Education
• Recreation
• Historical Significance

• read our statement of what we stand for and
• visit AFORR's internet links page for access to a wealth of information about the Oak Ridge Reservation.
• see a collection of maps of the ORR
  

• complete and mail our membership form, 
• read an online version of our latest newsletter
• join our online e-mail list, for periodic news and announcements
  
• plan to attend our next meeting, Tuesday, January 23, 2007, or another activity
• look at our AFORR activities and press coverage pages, including the AFORR constitution and bylaws 
• read about our leadership
• take action on our ever-growing list of hot items
• or e-mail us at aforr @ discoveret.org . 

Items that deserve our attention

• Walk on Solway Bend on Saturday, January 20, 2007. AFORR sponsored this midwinter hike as an opportunity to visit the Three Bend Scenic and Wildlife Management Area. We hope to have hikes like this on a regular basis. We met at 1:00 pm at the parking lot behind the Scarboro Facility at the corner of Bethel Valley Road and Scarboro Road (the road that leads to Clark Center Park). The hike was entirely on relatively level, paved or gravel surfaces. Contact Bill Johnston (482-7663) if you would like additional information.

• Three Bend Area -- AFORR has an exciting vision for the future. After months of hearing rumblings about developers' plans (quietly supported by city officials) to build high-priced lakefront residential developments on Solway Bend (the easternmost of the "three bends" that former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson dedicated "forever" to conservation in 1999) and in view of DOE's statements that the agency would consider proposals for management changes at the Three Bend Area only if the community came forth with a consensus proposal, in May 2006 AFORR convened a meeting of various groups with conservation-related interests in the area to share information and perspectives on this area's values and its future. As we reported in letters to our members and to various regional organizations, meeting participants affirmed the importance of (1) maintaining the entire Three Bend area (including Solway Bend) as public land and (2) conducting and making use of comprehensive planning for the ORR, considering all of the regional, national, and global values the area supports. AFORR and the other meeting participants concluded that residential development would be incompatible with the highly valued uses and potential uses of this resource.
  
  The AFORR Board has formulated our vision for the area (AFORR's vision for the Three Bends, updated December 2006, in PDF format) and is preparing to hold more public discussions. At our August 31, 2006, meeting, which was open to the community at large, we heard about ongoing research on the Three Bends and discussed a draft version of this vision.
  
  Meanwhile, after receiving this letter from AFORR [PDF] documenting the May 2006 meeting, the Oak Ridge Mayor and City Council replied with an official expression of the city's perception of entitlement to the land (the city's letter [PDF]). At the same July 24, 2006, meeting at which the letter was adopted, one of the official goals that Council established for the city manager in FY 2007 is to "Continue working to make progress on the transfer of the Solway Bend area to the City for additional high end housing and commercial development." The AFORR Board believes that this land belongs to the people of the United States (not to the city of Oak Ridge) and should be maintained for broader public benefit, and that our vision for this area actually offers more value for the local community and region, particularly over the long term, than a lakefront residential development would provide. We hope to have respectful and open discussion of these matters with city officials.
  
  
• DOE and the state finally closed the deal on the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement. In April 2005 DOE and the State of Tennessee finally completed arrangements to place over 3000 acres of land on the western end of the Oak Ridge Reservation into state management under a conservation easement as partial compensation for "natural resource damages" resulting from contamination of the Clinch River by federal government activities in Oak Ridge. (See the news story in The Oak Ridger.) The plan had been announced to great fanfare in December 2002, and AFORR was anxious to see it become reality. See our February 2003 newsletter for news of the original announcement and read Cathey Daniels' feature article about the tract, from the August 26, 2003, Oak Ridger.
  
  The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is expected to take the lead role in managing this land. TDEC held a public meeting in July 2003 to solicit comments plans for managing the area. Written comments were accepted, too. This was not a formal comment process, so there was no deadline for commenting. AFORR's written comments called for this land to be managed for conservation and passive recreation (including hiking, nature study, and hunting), with no motorized vehicles allowed in the area. It also is important to avoid ecological fragmentation. This forested tract provides valuable breeding habitat for songbirds that nest only in the forest interior well away from cleared areas and meadows. New roads and clearings that fragment the forest could diminish the land's value for these birds.
  

See our November 2003 newsletter for an update on the status of this area.
 
• TDEC proposes designating much of the ORR as a state natural area. The Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage (part of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) has requested that DOE allow designation of most of the Oak Ridge Reservation (20,000 acres) as a state natural area and collaborate with the State on significant natural resource initiatives. See a map and description of the area proposed for natural area designation.
   
• At last, a planning process! On August 29, 2001, DOE announced the initiation of a comprehensive planning process for the Oak Ridge Reservation. Stakeholders, including AFORR, will have an important role. AFORR was represented on a focus group that met from the fall of 2001 until the fall of 2002. Read news about the announcement and the schedule of focus group meetings.
  In anticipation of the announcement, we compiled a summary of AFORR's concepts for an ORR land use planning process. DOE has not adopted all of our concepts. Although we were cautiously optimistic about the process that was announced, we wrote to DOE to express some serious concerns about the initial efforts. Our November 6, 2001, meeting focused on this process.
   
• Pine Ridge denuded and decapitated! In July 2001 Oak Ridgers and area residents were surprised and upset to see clear-cutting and extensive land-clearing on what once was a beautiful wooded ridge overlooking the heart of the city. Our horror was compounded when a heavy rainstorm resulted in massive mudslides from the slopes of the ridge, depositing mud and debris on surrounding streets and business properties. The developer had cleared 100 acres of steeply sloping land without installing stormwater and sediment control structures or obtaining the required environmental permits from the State of Tennessee Department of Enviroment and Conservation. He had not yet obtained city approval for his development plan, but claimed to have all necessary city permits to continue with plans to flatten out the top of Pine Ridge (removing up to 70 feet of rock and soil, to be deposited in adjacent valleys) in order to build industrial buildings on the resulting plateau.
  This land was at one time part of the federal Oak Ridge Reservation. It was transferred to the city for economic development in about 1968, as part of the parcel that became the Union Valley Industrial Park. This history and the city's role in this disaster (the city sold the land to this developer and has not acted to prevent the unfolding environmental nightmare) make it doubtful that the city would be an effective steward of natural resources present on any other Reservation lands that might be transferred for economic development.
  A citizen petition drive collected over 1400 signatures urging the City Council to reverse the sale of the 70 acres on Pine Ridge and to turn the land into a public park, but the city has decided to let the development continue. For more information about the Pine Ridge situation, click here.
   
• $54 an acre?!?! Click here for the appalling story of DOE's cut-rate sale of the Boeing floodplain strip.
   
• AFORR and allies ask DOE to stop making piecemeal land transfers.   On Wednesday, January 17, 2001, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center wrote to Leah Dever, Manager of DOE Oak Ridge Operations, on behalf of AFORR and the Tennessee Conservation League, asking DOE to "refrain from making individual land use decisions that would effectively dispose of separate, discrete parcels of the Oak Ridge Reservation prior to completing a comprehensive environmental impact statement."   For details, read SELC's press release and the local press coverage of this initiative and some of the initial reaction to it.

  On January 30 DOE announced its decision to transfer the Boeing floodplain strip, but said they would defer action on ED-3. On February 7, the agency said it would prepare an EIS on ORR land use, then cancelled plans for a formal announcement. The following day DOE announced that Leah Dever was being sent to DOE headquarters for a special 90-day assignment. She returned in June, and the planning process began at the end of August. See news reports for details on these developments.

• DOE public meeting on Oak Ridge Reservation land use planning.   AFORR has repeatedly asked DOE ORO to conduct comprehensive land use planning and to involve the public in the process.  ORO held a long-awaited public meeting on this subject on Tuesday, January 30, 2001. Judging from the loud applause when people spoke in support of conservation and the ORR, our members and other supporters of protecting the Reservation were in the majority of the nearly 300 people who attended.  This meeting was supposed to start a planning process, but we didn't learn whether DOE would agree to our request to prepare an EIS on ORR land use.  DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Leah Dever delivered good news and bad news at the meeting.   The good news was that DOE is deferring the ED-3 proposal while taking a broader look at ORR land use.  The bad news was that she would sign a FONSI (finding of no significant impact) to allow the Boeing floodplain strip to be sold to developers.
  Read newspaper accounts and other reports about the meeting and subsequent events.
   
• City of Oak Ridge has plans for DOE lands The Oak Ridge City Council held a public hearing on a proposal to apply local land-use plans and zoning to much of the Oak Ridge Reservation at its March 5, 2001 meeting. The Council voted to postpone action indefinitely (see newspaper story).

  Meanwhile, the City's initiative to gain additional monetary compensation for DOE-related impacts seems to be turning into just another attempt to get DOE land. In a story ("Conflict of interest concerns group seeking city aid") published April 3, 2001, The Oak Ridger reports that the law firm the city is hiring for this initiative "specifically plans to look for ways to move DOE-owned property into 'private or at least taxable hands.'"

  The Oak Ridge Regional Planning Commission worked for several months on a proposed land use and zoning plan for the "West End" of the city. The "West End" is almost entirely federally owned. Included are most of the Roane County portion of the Oak Ridge Reservation north of Bethel Valley Road -- the K-25 Site, ED-1, ED-3, the Boeing property, and the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site are in this area (see reference map). The Planning Commission proposed land use designations (such as industrial, residential, and open space) and specific zones (such as Industrial-2 and Residential-1-A) for all lands in this area. This proposal was made because the Planning Commission assumes that this land will soon move into private hands -- and that all of it will be available for development. It is unusual to try to apply local zoning to federal land, since the federal government is not subject to state and local planning and zoning jurisdiction. DOE did not participate in preliminary discussions of this proposal, although the agency was invited.

  Some AFORR members attended Planning Commission subcommittee meetings about this scheme. Our members pointed out some of the values of ORR land and questioned the legitimacy of the effort to assert local zoning authority for public lands that are not subject to this authority, are not for sale (as far as we know!), and about which the local planners had little information (other than topography and road/utility infrastructure). AFORR opposes the sale or lease of any additional ORR land for private development. We are concerned that the City's zoning plan is part of a strategy to force the release of additional land for development. Instead of letting prospective developers get away with this trick, AFORR continues to seek a federally directed land planning process in which the interests of all stakeholders are represented and in which the environmental conditions and values of Reservation lands are fully considered.

• An Interstate-class highway across the ORR?!?! A few years ago, the Tennessee Department of Transportation proposed routing its proposed I-40/75 Knoxville bypass through Bethel Valley -- right through the heart of the ORR -- not to mention Oak Ridge National Laboratory. DOE gave TDOT a long list of reasons why this was a bad idea. Later, TDOT came back with several candidate routes, including a "blue route" configuration that would slash across the western part of the Reservation. Again, DOE provided a list of reasons why this area should be avoided, and TDOT revised the "blue route" alternative to completely avoid Oak Ridge and the federal reservation (for details, see the TDOT conceptual map or a citizen group's detailed map of the alternative routes for the bypass). TDOT and its contractors conducted more detailed investigations of the alternative route corridors and issued an environmental impact statement for the bypass.

  In the spring of 2001, state legislators from our region were suggesting that the blue route should cross the Oak Ridge Reservation after all -- to reduce impacts to rural Roane County residents and to enhance the development value of land in and near west Oak Ridge.  Subsequently, the "orange route", which would not affect the ORR, was selected for this project, but plans might change again before the road is actually built.
  

• Three Bend Area announcement. (At last!) Finally in January 2001 -- more than 18 months after the announcement that DOE was creating the 3000-acre Three Bend Scenic and Wildlife Management Refuge Area on the ORR -- the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) signed an agreement with DOE/ORO.  Our understanding is that the agreement is for five years with expectation of continuation -- but who knows what might happen with the new administration.  The area is to be managed under a wildlife management plan provided by TWRA.  TWRA has more authority in this area than it does over other ORR areas under the previously existing arrangement between DOE and TWRA for the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area. 

  Read our updated information sheet about the Three Bend initiative, and read DOE's June 1999 press release announcing the Three Bend Scenic and Wildlife Management Refuge Area.

  Thank DOE for establishing the Three Bend Area and say that you want the arrangement made permanent, as promised by former Secretary Bill Richardson. We continue to hear rumblings that local development interests expect DOE to release all or part of this area for residential development after the current TWRA agreement expires.

• Parcel ED-3. In February 2000 DOE released a draft environmental assessment on the proposed leasing (for development) of Parcel ED-3. Following a lot of public comment, DOE completely revised the EA and published it for public comment in the fall.   AFORR urged our public officials to withdraw the proposal.  On January 30, 2001, DOE ORO Manager Leah Dever announced that this proposal was being "put on pause" while DOE puts it "in context with its vision" for the ORR.  This is only a temporary reprieve -- we know that the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) is exerting tremendous political pressure on DOE to give CROET control of this land for development. For a while, CROET was even marketing the area for development, although they did not control it.

AFORR's April 11, 2000 meeting was about the original proposal to lease ED-3. We compiled a short list of concerns about that original proposal and sent a comment letter to DOE. In November we sent a letter and comments on the final EA. Also see AFORR's announcement of the 9/29/99 meeting about this proposal and DOE's map (warning: large file) of the affected area. 


• Boeing Tract Shoreline. In November 2000, DOE published a draft environmental assessment about a proposal to transfer 182 acres of Clinch River floodplain lands in the Campbell Bend area (west of the K-25 Site) to the owner of the adjacent inland property. The inland parcel (called Segment O) used to be part of the Oak Ridge Reservation, but was sold to the Boeing Company in the late 1980s for a missile project that was later cancelled.  Boeing arranged to sell this tract to a developer that is planning a major residential/commercial/industrial development, but the sale was "on hold" pending DOE's decision on the shoreline tract.  DOE announced that it intended to convey the floodplain strip to the developer in order to avoid a "situation which would result in an uneconomic encumbrance or devalued use of the Boeing parcel."  On February 1, 2001, Ms. Dever signed a "finding of no significant impact" (FONSI) on the proposal to sell the floodplain strip for development, clearing the way for the land to be sold in spite of numerous environmental concerns raised by AFORR and others.  On February 6, DOE sold the floodplain strip to the developer for the bargain-basement price of $54 an acre -- 5 miles of lake frontage for less than 40 cents a foot! Allegedly this was the appraised fair market value, but Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Frank Munger has discovered that no one can produce documentation of the appraisal. This is appalling, but unfortunately we think it is just one case among many where DOE has placed private interests ahead of the public interest and has ignored environmental concerns in its management of Oak Ridge Reservation land.  Furthermore, it contributes to the piecemeal dismantlement of the ORR and the Oak Ridge Environmental Research Park.

The floodplain strip was part of the National Environmental Research Park.  It includes 69 acres of wetlands and supports several state-listed threatened and endangered plant species. The Tennessee Valley Authority had formally asked DOE to convey the floodplain tract back to TVA in order to protect the valuable riparian zone.  The EA described transfer to TVA as an alternative to its proposed action, but DOE did not invite TVA to participate in the EA preparation. 

The prospective developers told DOE that they would leave the floodplain strip "virtually undeveloped," but that they might want to clear some vegetation and erect buildings, docks, walking trails, and a marina.  These developments could have significant impacts, but in fact there would be few restrictions on floodplain development once the developer owns the land, and DOE did not get any assurance that the developers will not change their plans after they get control of the land.  (TVA could limit construction of docks, marinas, and other shore structures, and it could place restrictions on other construction that could affect flood control.  TVA has only limited authority to restrict vegetation removal and similar activities on privately owned land.)  TVA informed the developer and DOE that the agency would make any shoreline construction permits conditional on certain restrictions on development, but the developer is likely to pressure TVA to relax these conditions -- as many lakeshore landowners do.  It is clear that the proposed development will not happen without the floodplain -- otherwise the sale of the upland property would not have been on hold pending the floodplain transfer.  Also, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce rallied business interests to urge DOE to give the developer control over the floodplain, demonstrating to us that the floodplain was considered a critical part of the proposed development.  The EA was not prepared by DOE or an independent contractor to DOE, but by a contractor working for the prospective developer.  DOE's only public meeting on the EA was held during the day on Tuesday, November 14, 2000, at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, which urged its members to attend to support the proposed development.

AFORR submitted extensive comments on the draft EA.  We also commented on the draft floodplain/wetland statement of findings for this proposal published in the Federal Register on December 4, 2000.  The statement of findings said "some minor, short-term impacts could occur due to limited, proposed construction on the Floodplain Strip and potential development on the adjacent Boeing Property" but that "based on the limited planned improvements in the Floodplain Strip ... under any alternative evaluated, DOE does not believe there would be any hazards to the public or property from flooding, nor would the activities jeopardize the wetlands' survival, quality, and natural beneficial values."  This analysis suffers from the same fundamental errors as the draft EA -- DOE took the developers at their word. The final EA had few changes from the draft, and it paid only brief lip service to comments from AFORR, TVA, and others.

Additional information on the Boeing site, floodplain, and development proposal.
 

• ORNL Land and Facilities Plan AFORR submitted comments on this draft document, which addresses current and future land use on that portion of the ORR that is in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory area of responsibility.
   
• Knoxville News Sentinel outdoor editor Bob Hodge pokes a satirical pen at DOE's management of the ORR.   Read the column, "Oak Ridge's space project: Selling WMA land" from the January 21, 2001 News Sentinel.
   
• Executive Order on Protection of Migratory Birds. One of President Clinton's acts in his final days in office was the issuance of an Executive Order that defines the responsibilities of federal government agencies to help the United States meet its international treaty obligations for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. This Executive Order is related to one of the principal values of the Oak Ridge Reservation, which provides important nesting habitat for a number of migratory birds (such as the wood thrush) that are protected under the treaty and are considered "species of concern."
   
• Frank Munger supports protection for the ORR. The Knoxville News-Sentinel's veteran reporter for the DOE/Oak Ridge beat published an editorial stating his personal support for maintaining the Oak Ridge Reservation for environmental research. Read "A precious resource could be lost forever," published November 15, 2000.
   
• DOE Land Transfer Initiatives.Two announcements by DOE in 2000 suggested that the agency is accelerating the pace of selling DOE land. Read all about it. Meanwhile, DOE's current strategic plan does not mention the role of National Environmental Research Parks in DOE's science mission.   We think this makes these lands more vulnerable to being sold. More about the DOE strategic plan.