#protectedland

I stood in a crowd of brand new coworkers yesterday soaking in their knowledge of my new home. I wish I had my recorder, I thought to myself. Best places to eat. Great hikes. Tubing in rivers. And the greenways. I had mentioned my love of running and the Knoxville greenways came up more than once. So this morning I tried my hand at the closest one and was quite pleased with what I found. 

The chocolate animal was far more excited than I ever thought he would be. Cooped in a hotel room the past handful of days, he was eager to gallop. So we headed over to Turkey Creek, a consumer hotspot in Knoxville, and low and behold my coworkers were right:

a greenway did exist there! Smack dab in between a busy highway and the back of a shopping complex, the Turkey Creek Greenway spans for a couple of miles, and while you get some great views of the consumer hotspot, if you venture a little further, you find a sanctuary. I can only imagine what it looks like in the summer. 

According to the city's website, the greenway runs through the Turkey Creek wetland. Managed by the Tennessee Izaak Walton League, the wetland is the largest in Knox County. The league, which represents about eight counties in East Tennessee, "strives to use common sense conservation policies and methods to conserve, maintain, protect and restore soil, air, woods, water and wildlife," as their mission says. It was incredible to see this happening in a section of town seemingly unoccupied by wildlife. 

"Protected land" signs were visible every couple hundred feet. Bird feeders spanned the length of the greenway. And small signs of wildlife showed their face to me.