Tessentee Bottomland Preserve grows
The newly acquired land is currently used as pasture for beef cattle. Donated photo
An additional 43 acres has been added to the Tessentee Bottomland Preserve owned by Mainspring Conservation Trust in southern Macon County.
With the new land, the Preserve now totals 112 acres. It is open to the public and has grown since its establishment in 1999 through four separate land transactions. The new section was purchased from adjacent farmland owned by sisters Teresa Seay and Susie Seay Woleslagle.
The pasture includes 3,900 combined feet of Little Tennessee River and Tessentee Creek frontage. In 2015, Mainspring and the Seay family worked together to restore more than 2,000 feet of Tessentee Creek that lies between the property, including reconstructing the stream channel, and sloping, matting and replanting banks with native shrubs and tress.
“Our father and mother, Roger and Bobbie Seay, purchased the Tessentee tract in the early 1990s, when their beef cattle operation required more pastureland,” said Seay. “We both can remember him being particularly proud of the hay production from this beautiful piece of land.”
The land is currently leased to a farmer and home to a herd of beef cattle; Mainspring will continue that contract on a year-to-year basis.
