Over the past five years, the Republican supermajority state legislature has preempted local governments from blocking fossil fuel projects (2022), boycotted banks that divest from fossil fuels (2022), preempted bans on gas stoves (2023), and increased felony charges for people protesting pipelines (2023).
The state also legally defines methane gas as “renewable energy” (2025) and shields oil and gas companies from climate lawsuits (signed into law as of last week).
But there is one environmental area that still seems to get bipartisan love: river conservation.
To quote WPLN environmental reporter Caroline Eggers: “Tennessee also has a history of conservation, and many residents remain passionate about the forests, grasslands, swamps and riverine systems — especially the Duck.”
Now, advocates for the health of the Duck River are celebrating their biggest legislative win to date.
WHAT TO KNOW
Doug Jones, founder of the Duck River Conservancy, looks over the waterway that runs through his property. Credit: Caroline Eggers / WPLN NewsThe legislation, which just passed, protect the entire Duck River and its tributaries from landfill construction.
Specifically, it creates a two-mile buffer around the river and the creeks and rivers that flow into it, across nine counties in Middle Tennessee.
This was a huge win for Doug Jones, who lives on a 150-acre farm in Hickman County, where his property borders about a mile of the Duck River.
This waterway is considered the most biodiverse river in North America, with roughly 150 fish species, 56 different mussels, 22 aquatic snails and resplendent critters like the “Linear Cobalt Crayfish.” Plus, it gives recreation opportunities for tens of thousands of anglers, paddlers and boaters, and it provides drinking water to 250,000 Tennesseans.
So even though Jones says he doesn’t consider himself a “tree-hugger,” he and other conservatives in the area care deeply about the Duck. “Everybody just wants what’s best for the river,” he said.
Caroline reports that the new law is partially a response to a 2022 landfill proposal near the Duck River in Maury County on land once owned by Monsanto, which created chemical weapons and buried waste there for decades. That proposal, now effectively defunct, sparked a lot of pushback.
The new protection “gives me a lot of hope, even though we’re separated in so many ways,” said Grace Stranch of the Harpeth Conservancy. “We can come together to protect our drinking water source.”
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Do you know about the Tennessee state park that spans eleven counties? Slowly, over decades, Tennessee has been building a linear trail to give hikers and backpackers access to a part of the Appalachians that isn’t the Smokies. Plus the local news for April 24, 2026 and the connection between stargazing and conservation.
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MORE TO KNOW
The legislative session has officially wrapped up. Check out Marianna Bacallao’s NashVillager from yesterday for a recap of some of the last-minute bills.
Here are a few more:
- State and local aid agencies, like affordable housing providers and public health clinics, will soon have to verify their beneficiaries’ legal status and report the number of people without legal status who may use their services. Tennessee Republicans have pushed for ways to track how many undocumented people there are in the state and how many may be using taxpayer-funded services. It’s part of a slate of legislationdesigned to bring Trump’s immigration policies to the state level.
- The legislature passed the Fair RX Act after a multi-million-dollar opposition campaign from pharmacy giant CVS. This bill aims to crack down on big health care companies that also work in different parts of the prescription drug industry. (CVS owns insurance giant Aetna, pharmacy benefit manager Caremark, and Minute Clinics.) But the fight isn’t over, according to WPLN’s Catherine Sweeney: The company has said that if Gov. Bill Lee signs the bill, it will file a federal lawsuit.
- Students enrolled in Tennessee’s pilot voucher program can soon opt out of taking the TCAP annual assessment. Instead, lawmakers will allow these students to take another nationally recognized test instead. But critics say that this hides the fact that vouchers are not working as well as expected, after state report showed that voucher recipients were underperforming compared to their public school peers.
- One thing that didn’t pass? A last-minute push to further expand Tennessee’s pilot school voucher program. The state did grow the number of “Education Freedom Scholarships” from 20,000 to 35,000, but some lawmakers also sought to grow another category of vouchers called “Education Savings Accounts.” ESAs are only open to lower-income families in Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby Counties. The bill would have raised the income cap to $240,000 and expanded to Knox County, but it failed in the state Senate.
FROM WNXP
This week, Marquis is giving us a preview of Flat Rock Fest. The free, volunteer-led festival in the Glencliff community of South Nashville brings together vendors, community organizations and a kids zone with an “instrument petting zoo.”
It will also feature live music from Melvin Macias and All-Star Band, the Kurdish Music Association, and Hannah Levy Band.
“We don’t have the community spaces that other parts of the city do, but we also have so many beautiful things about South Nashville that people don’t realize unless you live there,” said Lauren Sublett with Music City Muse, one of the organizers. “It was important to us that the businesses involved — from the food, vendors, organizations, to the music — all represent the diversity and beauty in South Nashville.”
What: Flat Rock Fest hosted by Glencliff Neighbors and Music City Muse
Where: Glencliff High School
When: Saturday from 12-5 p.m.Learn more
FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE
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