On Oct. 29, leaders in Jackson marked a step toward restoring a 985-acre stretch beside the South Fork of the Forked Deer River. The Tennessee acquisition gives the West Tennessee River Basin Authority land it plans to restore and manage. Project partners say reconnecting the river with its floodplain could lower flood risks and improve water quality and habitat. The purchase is complete; the restoration plan and any public opening are still in the future.
The property sits along Jackson’s southern edge, south of U.S. Highway 70 and west of U.S. Highway 45. Local and state officials gathered at the Greater Jackson Chamber to mark the project’s progress, WBBJ reported. The station said leaders discussed flooding, water quality and protection of the Memphis Sands aquifer. Those are project goals, not results already measured on the property.
The land changed hands through a conservation partnership. The Jones Family Trust previously owned it. The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund bought the property in 2025, then sold it to Tennessee in 2026, according to the National Wildlife Federation, a project partner. With the purchase complete, the Basin Authority now has the land it plans to restore and manage.
That work is tied to a long history of changing the river. The South Fork was straightened and channelized in 1916 to drain low-lying floodplains around Jackson, the National Wildlife Federation says. Its account links the altered channel to flash flooding that can damage infrastructure and to sand filling low areas. The sources reviewed do not quantify a project-specific flood-risk reduction.
The basic idea is to give the river more room. The Basin Authority is developing a plan to reconnect the South Fork with its historic floodplain. Project partners say the approach is intended to slow water, reduce erosion and sediment pollution, and lower flood risk in nearby East Jackson and Bemis.
David Blackwood, executive director of the West Tennessee River Basin Authority, told WBBJ the project should reduce flood risk while making clear it cannot remove the possibility of flooding. That distinction matters: restoring a floodplain is meant to change how water moves through a landscape, not promise that communities beside a river will never flood.
The property also holds remnants of habitats once more widespread in West Tennessee. The National Wildlife Federation lists cypress swamps, cane brakes and bottomland hardwood forests among the features of the site. Those places are part of the reason the partners describe the acquisition as both a flood-management project and a conservation effort. The release discusses wildlife and water-quality aims, but it does not report new surveys or measured ecological changes at the property.
The ownership sequence brought several groups into different roles. The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund protected the land through the purchase; the state acquired it; and the Basin Authority is responsible for restoration planning and management. The National Wildlife Federation and Tennessee Wildlife Federation also support the conservation and restoration vision. Each group’s comments describe intended benefits.
Public access is planned as a later part of the process. The Basin Authority says it is developing a restoration plan and timeline with an eye toward opening the property and educating visitors about rivers and floodplains. The National Wildlife Federation release says residents will be invited into a stakeholder-led process on future access and community uses after the tributaries and waterways are redesigned. The National Wildlife Federation release provides no opening date or specific trail plan.
That order puts the river work first and leaves room for the public to help shape what follows. WBBJ’s event report described the acquisition as an initial step toward restoring wetlands and expanding outdoor recreation. Neither source says that residents can visit the new property now or that the restoration has already changed flood conditions.
For Jackson, the immediate result is a large stretch of land secured for a project that had been discussed by conservation and public agencies. The next milestones will be the Basin Authority’s plan, timeline and later public process. The 985 acres create the setting for those decisions; whether the work reduces flood risk, improves water quality or opens a new outdoor place will depend on what is built and how the community shapes its future use.
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