[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 187 (Monday, November 13, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1089-E1090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CONGRATULATING KEITH COLE OF THE WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY ON HIS 
                               RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 13, 2023

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Keith Cole, the 
executive director of the Wolf River Conservancy, who will be retiring 
December 15 after helping build fourteen miles of an eventual 26-mile 
corridor of trails

[[Page E1090]]

protecting the once-foul Wolf River that runs through the heart of 
Memphis before emptying into the Mississippi River. Keith, who took on 
the director's role twelve years ago, brought a business perspective 
and organizational and fundraising abilities to a loose confederation 
of conservationists organized in 1985 to oppose a gravel mine near the 
river. During his time as executive director of the Wolf River 
Conservancy, he helped raise $62 million to preserve land that is the 
watershed that produces the region's drinking water aquifer while 
earning the accreditation of the Land Trust Alliance and doubling the 
conservancy's staff. An ambassador to the private donor community, he 
also lobbied state legislators and others in Nashville, securing a $10 
million grant from the state of Tennessee. A native of Hayti, Missouri, 
Keith retired in 2009 after selling his business as a Blockbuster Video 
franchise owner in Knoxville, Little Rock and Jackson, Mississippi. He 
soon took up the challenge of righting the Conservancy, which was an 
organization mired in debt and uncertain of its mission. By the time he 
enters retirement for the second time, the Conservancy will have 
protected 20,000 acres of land in Shelby and Fayette counties in 
Tennessee and Benton and Marshall counties in Mississippi. As a 
practical matter, that means there is no development or sources of 
pollution that can flow into the Wolf River's 522,000-acre watershed. 
The improved water quality now attracts recreational boaters and 
sportsmen and has stimulated the tourist economy. In September, I was 
pleased to announce that the Department of Interior's Migratory Bird 
Conservation Commission approved a North American Wetlands Conservation 
Act (NAWCA) grant of $1,308,567 to the Conservancy to protect 1,536 
acres of wetlands and adjacent uplands along the Wolf River and its 
tributaries. The grant is expected to be matched by $2,095,142 in 
funding from partners including the Tennessee Wildlife Resources 
Agency, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the 
City of Memphis, Shelby County, the Tennessee Department of Environment 
and Conservation, and private landowners. I congratulate Keith on a job 
well done and join all in our community in thanking him for the 
environmental victories he and the Conservancy have achieved, benefits 
to our city and region that will be felt for decades and decades, if 
not a century or more. Job well done.

                          ____________________