Limestone quarry gets limited approval despite rare snail
Lee Barclay, supervisor of the Tennessee field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Cookeville, said that after about a year of discussions the agency recently approved a “very limited quarrying operation on less than 5 acres of land.”
Barclay said the limited digging would protect the painted snake coiled forest snail, a threatened species discovered in 1906 and found only in the Franklin County community of about 400 residents.
Barclay said the approved area “doesn’t have an endangered snail on it or close to it.”
The mollusk looks like a coiled snake and lives in crevices and under ledges of limestone. It has been on the threatened species list since 1978. Barclay said there are “probably thousands” of the snails on the limestone surrounding the five acres, some as close as several hundred feet from the approved mining area.
“They are not only on the face of the limestone but in cracks and crevices,” he said.
Any startup of mining will require additional state approval, said Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton. She said the department had not received any permit application for the project.
“I guess we’ll just wait and watch the dust fly,” said Don Jones, a Sherwood retiree who said he no longer opposes the limestone removal. “If it does give some people jobs, we need that because they are having some problems.”
Barclay said Dayton, Ohio-based Thieman Enterprises owner Ted Thieman, who last year paid $3.75 million for the more than 3,200 acres at the abandoned Gager mine, must still obtain federal permits to protect the snail before expanding the work. Barclay said the federal review of any expansion would likely take at least two years and could require that the mining company relocate some snails one by one.
Thieman’s attorney, Tommy Craig, previously said the planned mining operation and about 30 jobs would involve a total of up to 600 acres. Craig did not return a Wednesday telephone message seeking comment about the limited project that received approval.
Barclay said the company intends to sell limestone for use in scrubbers at coal-fired power plants.
Almost everyone in Sherwood who works has to commute, in some cases more than 25 miles, unless they have jobs at the post office or one of the small groceries on state Highway 56. The closest major employer is a mining operation about five miles away in Alabama.
Billy Lee Johnson, who lives adjacent to the mining site and has been a resident of the Crow Creek Valley more than 60 years, said federal approval of the startup was good news.
“It’s a need for jobs and the need to build the community back up to what it used to be,” he said.
When the Gager company quarried the limestone mine decades ago, Sherwood had about 1,700 residents, according to the 1930 census. The mine closed in 1949, leaving behind castle-like ruins.
John Lynch of Manchester, a former Sherwood resident who is president of the Crow Creek Heritage Preservation Society, said he no longer opposes the mining.
“I don’t see anything to be gained by opposing it at this point, I think the people of Sherwood, the majority, have expressed their desires. My concern has been for the natural beauty of the location.”
Lynch described the vine-covered, castle-like ruins of the former ming company’s buildings on Thieman’s property as an “architectural treasure. It truly is. There is nothing like it in the United States. I have high hopes it will not be destroyed.”
The Tennessee Preservation Trust included the ruins on its “Ten in Tennessee” list of threatened sites in 2002-2003.
Franklin County Mayor Monte Adams said the limited go-ahead was “good news for the citizens of Sherwood. They are anxious for this project to get going. Is this going to be a big gash in the side of the mountain? Yes. But it’s about employment opportunities for Sherwood, Tennessee. It has been a long time coming.”
Adams said Thieman and project planners have “made every effort to make sure they protect the integrity” of the snail habitat and overall environment.
Adams said that while the limited approval was Thieman’s biggest hurdle, “it’s going to be hard to move those little rascals one at a time.”
On The Net:
http//http://www.sherwoodtenn.com/gager/gager.htm.