North Alabama Travel Destination - Walls of Jericho

From the North Alabama Sierra Club newsletter dated February/March 2004:

Nature Conservancy Purchases the Walls of Jericho

"Nearly 12 years ago, when the Alabama Forever Wild Land Acquisition
Constitutional Amendment was being debated on the floor of Alabama legislature,
advocates for the new law cited the need to purchase and protect the "Walls of
Jericho" in Jackson County, as one of the primary reasons for such a groundbreaking law. A decade later, the "Walls of Jericho" are now protected. Thanks to the Nature Conservancy, through a partnership with Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Forever Wild Program, more than 21,453 acres will beprotected in Alabama and Tennessee. The Alabama portion of theproperty was purchased by the Nature Conservancy of Alabama in December 2003. Forever Wild intends to purchase the 12,510 acres from the Nature Conservancy of Alabama at the March 2004 Board meeting. A subsequent public use and protection plan will then be developed. The Tennessee Chapter of the Nature Conservancy will hold its 8,943 acre portion, with hopes that Forest Legacy federal funding can be secured to implement a transfer to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Not only will the purchase of this area restore public access to the "Walls of Jericho, "it will protect the headwaters of the Paint Rock River, home to 100 species of fish and about 45 different mussel species. Five globally imperiled mussels and 12 globally rare mussels are also found in the Paint Rock and its tributaries. The Doris Duke Charitable Trust and the Lyndhurst Foundation have supported the Nature Conservancy's efforts to protect this important and precious watershed...An extra interesting tidbit on the Walls of Jericho: The Alabama acreage sold for $735/acre; the Tennessee for $530/acre---presumably because the timber was better on the Ala. side. Do the math; the total was $13.9M."