David Ramsey
Unicoi, Tenn. Sporting-Goods Store Manager and Wildlife Photographer

Over the course of six years, Ramsey brokered relationships between local sportsmen, government officials, and conservation organizations in order to permanently protect the Rocky Fork watershed as a wildlife management area.

For 80 years, every landowner in the watershed granted free public access, and folks felt like the land was already theirs. When there were signs that the property might be sold to developers, it was easy to build support to secure public ownership and permanently protect those 10,000 acres. But making it happen was a different story.

My family on my father’s side goes back five generations in this community. I’m actually the first of the Ramsey men to be born in town, in a hospital. But my generation was taught that you had to get out of the mountains to make anything of yourself, so I didn’t develop a real appreciation for that land until I lived in different parts of the Southeast, and returned in my late 20s. Nowadays, I am the biggest advocate of taking pride in Appalachia’s heritage, including this valuable land containing 20 percent of Tennessee’s wild trout waters and a section of the Appalachian Trail.

At my request, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy voted unanimously to make Rocky Fork a priority project. The local chapters of Trout Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society, and the National Wild Turkey Federation also did unbelievable work. When I organized meetings with our congressman over breakfasts at the local steakhouse, those hunters and fishermen stood up and said, “That’s where I caught my first squirrel,” and talked about the importance of the black bear population to the rest of the ecosystem. They told their personal stories. We’re on track to reimburse the Conservation Fund—who went out on a limb to the tune of $20 million—for the last portion of their investment over the next year. I’m so proud of the way we found common ground between all these groups. Now people are using this rugged, pristine mountain land exactly the same way they always have.

—As told to Kristyn Brady