WHITE COUNTY, Tenn. (WZTV) — The debate over a plot of land in White County is heating up.  The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency plans to cut down a portion of trees at a wilderness area, and some aren’t too happy about it.  A public meeting was held Monday night after the TWRA proposed a timber harvest of 230 acres, and possibly more in the future.

Tennessee Rep. Raul Sherrell says Tennesseans have been reaching out to him with concerns. “The hunters don’t want it cut,” Rep. Sherrell said. “The fishers, the people that fish don’t want it cut. The people that camp don’t want it cut. The people that hike the area don’t want it cut.”

According to the agency, “closed canopy old growth forests are biological deserts that lack good habitat for most wildlife.”  TWRA’s Aubrey Deck says doing this will restore natural ecosystems and create ground vegetation.  “By bringing back that ecosystem we certainly hope to positively impact those species that are in need,” Deck said.  The agency hopes quail in particular can benefit from a better habitat.

Reporter: “State Representative Paul Sherrell has been one of the people who have been outspoken about the upcoming work that’s going to be done on that land. What do you say in response to that?”  Aubrey Deck: “I would say a lot of criticism of the work that’s going to be done on the land, folks are just not familiar with the science behind what we are doing.”  But Rep. Sherrell says people who live in that area don’t want the change.

“We do however oppose the TWRA cutting 75 to 100 year old hardwood forests to create a quail habitat experiment that may or may not fail,” Sherrell tells FOX 17 News.  The major criticism revolves around hunting, but the agency says it expects no decline in game species. They say it will actually provide nutrition and cover for area animals.

https://fox17.com/news/local/twra-in-the-hot-seat-for-wanting-to-clear-hundreds-of-acres-of-land-in-middle-tennessee