October 30, 2020

Waldens Ridge Park - A Conservation Success Story

1 hour 4 minutes

This week we talked with Chad Wykle, Southeast Director for The Land Trust For Tennessee and Taft Sibley who serves as President of the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy and Project Manager for Waldens Ridge Park. We talk about how conservation groups, community leaders and volunteers are working hard to create a 200-acre Park on the flank of Signal Mountain Tennessee just minutes from downtown Chattanooga. Once complete, Walden Ridge Park will provide a range of mountain biking, bouldering and hiking opportunities.

It was during that strenuous hike up the side of Walden’s Ridge that a big idea was born – what if we conserved the area and made it available as a multi-use park for climbers, hikers, and mountain bikers?

Over the last few years, a diverse coalition of conservation partners and community leaders have rallied around this vision. Climbers, mountain bikers, land experts, and community leaders all began fundraising and planning to make the park happen. In June 2018, the Hamilton County Commission approved a resolution to accept and manage the proposed park upon its completion. NCCC then acquired additional parcels in July of 2018 to make the future park even larger.

Work continued and partners secured key grants from the state’s Recreational Trails Program Grant, Lyndhurst Foundation, Hydroflask, Riverview Foundation, and REI to get the project moving forward, and they selected IMBA Trail Solutions, a world-class trail building organization, to create a comprehensive plan for the property.

Now, the partners have started the trail building and construction phase. With a final fundraising push, the partners are aiming to open by Fall 2021.

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By Dawson Wheeler