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[music] -It was originally a riverboat stop in the 1840s.

In 1969, the state of Tennessee purchased the land from the Tennessee Valley Authority to create a state park.

Hello, I'm Julie Cooke.

On this edition of Tennessee is Talking, the topic is the Pickwick Landing State Park.

With over 1,400 acres of forested hills and hollows and its location on Pickwick Lake, this park offers fun for the whole family.

Let the conversation begin.

-We are rolling.

Confirm record.

Can we get a mic check?

Check, check.

Standby, camera two.

Take two.

Standby, announcer in three, two.

-West TN PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

-Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

Hello, I'm Julie Cooke.

The Pickwick Landing State Park offers a wide variety of activities fo.

from boating to birding.

Here to tell us more is Interpretive Ranger Rachel Boothe.

Thanks for joining us.

Many Tennessee state parks have implemented a honey project and pollinator program to encourage the success of pollinators around the area.

Would you start off telling us about that?

-Yes, at Pickwick Landing State Park, we have several areas that were traditionally mowed areas that we've replaced with native pollinator species, milkweed, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, lots of things, and that attracts a lot of our native pollinators.

We do have some honey hives and some active bees.

We're getting out of the more traditional honey bees and focusing a little bit more on the native bees because honey bees are not native to this country.

We're trying to focus our efforts within parks more now on those native bee species.

-Now, Pickwick Landing is in Counce, Tennessee, for those who don't know exactly.

What is that close to?

-It's relatively close to Savannah.

It's right close to the Mississippi state line.

You can actually be on our lake and have your boat where, depending on what corner you're in, you may be in Tennessee, Alabama, or Mississippi, if you're just in that sweet spot.

We're almost in that T, where Tennessee sits on top of Mississippi and Alabama.

-Lots of fishing, boating, skiing, and that sort of thing.

-We have fishing tournaments constantly during the summer, and we are actually the location where Bill Dance won his first ever fishing tournament.

Historical as far as fishing goes for that aspect.

-We talked about the pollinator program, and that's something I did not know about.

We think of it as boating, fishing, but what are some of the other features that people come for?

-Boating is what draws a lot of people in because we do have the lovely lake, but we also have a hiking trail.

We just have the one, but it's a very easy trail.

If you're new to hiking, it's a great place to start.

Not a lot of elevations or strange geographic patterns, so you can walk it fairly easily.

It's got some beautiful overlooks of the lake.

We also have a large aviary.

We house eight birds of prey.

We have hawks and American kestrel, a couple of different kinds of vultures, several different kinds of owls.

That's a big attraction.

People like to come and watch them be fed and.. why are these animals here at the park.

-You have nature areas too.

-We do, yes.

-Not just the water recreation.

-We've got the pollinator gardens that we talked about earlier.

We also have a butterfly garden that's got some little bench areas.

It's just a nice seating.

We have a dog park that's called Paw's Landing.

[laughter] Cute name.

-Of course.

-That area is just a place where you can take your dog off leash and let it roam, run, and have some free time.

Then we have, like you said, birding.

It's a big place for birding.

Then we have camping.

We've got a primitive campsite.

If you're looking really to connect with nature, we've got a primitive campground across the river from the park.

All of the campsites have beautiful riverfront views and it's very off the beaten path.

-A lot of camping there.

-Yes.

-I don't know, what about the other kind o.. Do you have-- -We do.

We have the-- -Because some people are not going to camp ..

Some really like the primitive, but like in between.

-The area across the lake, very primitive.

There's no water or electricity at the sites.

That is going to get updated at some time in the future.

We don't know the date just yet.

-Well, then it wouldn't .. -It wouldn't be primitive anymore.

It will have water and electricity, so it will be a little fancy.

Then our main campground, we have RV sites and electricity and water and all of those nice amenities.

That one as well is getting renovated pretty soon.

We've got some sites that have gotten not quite level over the years.

You've got tree roots and things growing and we.. some expansions and improvements.

-There's been a great effort by the state over the past few years.

I know Fall Creek Falls redid their lodge and up at Paris Landing redid.

The state is putting a lot more money these days into the parks and recreation areas.

-There's a huge-- After COVID, I think a lot of people started seeing that value in those outdoor spaces a little bit more because that's all the places they were allowed to go.

That helped parks out of all the terrible things from COVID.

We got one wind that people are really valuing these spaces.

We're starting to see more funds coming into the parks.

There's new parks being created.

It's a really exciting time.

There's a lot of growth in Tennessee State Parks right now.

-That's a question I was going to ask you.

You mentioned COVID and I know for a little bit, one of those first summers, that was the only thing recommended for people to do.

-Get outside.

-Get outside.

I guess you all were glad to see that.

-Yes.

It's a lot of spikes in some of the areas and a lot of parks that didn't .. a lot of foot traffic started seeing a lot more people hiking and boating and those types of things because outdoors, it was safe.

-I know here in Madison County, we've had some areas more equipped for the handicapped, for those in wheelchairs and for those with disabilities.

-All of Tennessee State Parks has started an initiative called Access 2030.

Basically, what they're trying to do is to provide more accessible options for people.

One of the things on the docket for the park, hopefully for this year, is we're going to get a accessible kayak launch.

Regardless of your-- -That's big.

-Yes, it's really exciting.

You'll have the ability to-- There's a chair that you can slide into your kayak and then launch yourself out.

If you were chair-bound or something of that nature, then it was a little bit difficult or even just knees, not what they used to be.

Mine are not what they used to be.

Those kinds of things, that's really exciting.

We've just recently gotten one of the trail wheelchairs that can be checked out.

We're trying to map right now, something we were working on this morning, exactly all of the locations that might be caution-recommended in that area to drive the off-road chairs, but that should be live.

-It might be a little rough so you'd want to war.. of course.

-It'll go through it, but it just depen..

They say, just go forward and just keep going.

I'm a little bit cautious.

That caution, if you slow down before you try to go over or under or something like that.

-Like a road sign.

-Yes.

We're trying to figure out some of those things to make it where it's completely accessible for all.

-There is an organization called Friends of the Park.

How does that work?

-We have a friends group that is very active at our park.

It's Friends of Pickwick Landing State Park.

They meet the third Thursday of every month and discuss any new members that want to join.

They do a lot of events to fundraise for us and they've helped us with our aviary.

We had to do a lot of updates and some things for some federal regulations this past year.

They really helped with the funding of that.

Then our park doesn't have a lot of walking trail space within the park.

If you're at one side and you want to go to the other, it's going to be something that you need to take a vehicle a lot of times or walk in the road.

For things like Junior Ranger Camp, you don't want to have 20 children walking in the street.

They've actually purchased us something called a people hauler.

We just got a second one very recently, last week.

Think of a very glamorous hayride without the hay.

It's just a big wagon.

It rides very smooth.

We were able to use that a lot with our kids camps this summer, load it down with children and we can take them to places of the park that we weren't able to in the years past.

-They probably loved that.

-They loved it.

-What kind of camps do you have in the summer?

-We did our regular junior ranger camp that was geared toward the first-time rangers and then we had one that was a little bit different this year that we called Returning Rangers.

If you've been to the other one and maybe you had seen that activity and you had made that craft and you had done that, then we offered something that was a lit.. We called it advanced level for the kids that were participating in years past.

Then we also have a partnership with Tennessee RiverLine and we do a one-day camp that's called River Rangers.

They come out and learn all about water.

We teach them water conservation, kayaking skills.

If it's water related and we can squeeze it in that chunk of time, we'll do it.

-Safety.

-Safety, that's a big one with the kayaking.

-You see a lot of difference, I'm sure, in the summer and cooler months.

What programs do you have after the fall starts?

-In the summer, we do a lot of kayaking and hike programs and those type things.

People want to be outside but then when it gets cold, like you said, the shift changes.

We're starting to transition into more of our indoor craft activities.

We have big ginormous craft weekend events where people can make holiday ornaments or some keepsakes and different things.

We try to use either reclaimed items, so it might be some scrap lumber from a project, or we have a lot of invasive plants around the park that.. for different things.

Privet, it's an invasive plant.

It's very flexible so we've used it for some Christmas wreaths and then it allows us to educate people on why this plant is not a desirable plant.

Then we also have several mimosa trees.

They've got the big beautiful pink flowers but they are an invasive plant as well.

We've cut some of those and then we use that to make the wood cookies, the tree cookies, and paint little ornaments or door hangers or different t..

It gives us that craft with a little bit of education all rolled into one.

-Do you have cabins too?

-We do.

-I'm guessing.

We've been to the lake or river, whatever, just in the winter, just to get away.

You still look at the water.

You can't go out there.

You don't want to.

You still have people renting cabins in the- -We do.

--cold weather.

-Yes.

We've got a lot of birders that come in the win.. one of the sites for the Christmas bird counts where the Audubon comes and has volunteers come and do some Christmas bird counts.

We do have some people that come just for birding and then we have some people that just want to snuggle up by a fire and sit in the cabin and look out at the world around them, which is perfectly acceptable in my book as well.

We do have the cabins are rentable year-round.

The lodge will close around Christmas for about a week but the rest of the park is still accessible at all times.

-Now, do you all have a hotel type of lodge- -We do.

--or is it more like a gathering place?

-No, it's a traditional just hotel type lodge.

I want to think it's 116 rooms.

The way that particular lodge was built, every room faces the lake.

They have floor-to-ceiling windows in every room.

You have a little balcony and you can sit out and enjoy the lake any time of year.

Sunsets are really beautiful to watch from the balconies.

That's a really nice place.

-Are you scheduled for a redo on that or is your lodge in pretty good shape?

-It's pretty good shape.

It was just renovated during COVID.

It was time for it to be renovated anyway.

-So it's fairly new.

-Yes.

Everything had to shut down anyway so we did get a full ren.. at that point.

We had the restaurant area was redone and the conference rooms and all of the just guest rooms were redone at that point.

They're really nice.

-I'm interested to know how you got into your line of work as a ranger.

-My story is a little bit strange.

I definitely came in a little bit later in life.

I was a high school teacher.

I taught biology and advanced placement biology.

As odd as it sounds, I hated summers off.

That's really odd normally when you talk to a teacher, but you get so out of your routine.

When you go back in August and you spend time standing and talking for eight hours straight, then when you get home your feet are killing you, your knees are shot and you can't speak anymore.

I had tried to start finding these little summer things just to stay active.

-The summer camps.

-Just to keep myself from getting int.. is really hurtful [chuckles] to rut.

I had started following Pickwick on Facebook and I noticed that they were having some seasonal interpretive positions for people that were recent college graduates or currently in college.

I had just finished my master's degree so I thought, "Well, I'll probably be the oldest person applying," and I probably was.

I applied and I got hired on as a seasonal interpretive ranger at Big Hill Pond.

Loved it.

I got to kayak and lead hikes and help out .. for their rangers.

I went back to the classroom in the fall and it was still very rewarding, but it is a different experience talking to people in a concrete block room instead of being outside with trees and birds.

The more I started thinking about it, the more I thought, "I think I could have a bigger impact on people and really get people excited about the environment if I was in more of that."

-In the environment.

-Yes.

You can really get people to love some.. if they're seeing it firsthand.

-Especially families doing things together and then you have th.. Did you have younger children or older?

-I had older.

I was high school.

-High school teacher.

-I really still have a soft spot for high school because they don't get to do as many field trips as younger children, but they need it.

They definitely need it.

They're trying to figure out who they want to be in their life and getting those experiences and get them connected to a resource in their own neighborhood is just precious.

-You have a teacher's background.

-I do.

It fits with my role as that interpretive ranger because that's what I do.

I try to teach people about our natural resources, our cultural resources.

I try to make them love it so they'll become stewards and they'll want to protect it and they'll have some valued interest in this land.

-Did you have people that are outdoorsy.. but really an appreciation for the environment and for the things that go on in nature.

-Exactly.

-Pretty amazing now since we're so technically driven all the time.

Everything we do depends on technology.

-It's nice to disconnect and get back in that nature.

-Put that phone down.

[laughs] -Hard to do, but it's worth it.

-It is.

What about the guided tours?

I would think that would be one of the things that you would be especially good at.

-I do enjoy them.

We do guided hikes quite often.

We have several signature hikes that most parks participate in and then we just do weekend ones as we have some time on our schedule and then we do the guided aviary raptor feedings.

We try to do at least one every weekend so we can go through every bird and tell you about them and how they came to stay at Pickwick and their backstory.

Then we do a lot of guided pontoon tours.

For groups or people that are staying at the lodge if they contact us and we've got some openings, we'll take a group out and do a guided tour there.

-If you're going to reserve do you need to have a group of so many or say if I just had four or five friends or don't need to do that?

-We don't have space on a boat for more than eight so we've had some large groups where we have to do multiple runs of tours.

Then we've had some small just friends or church groups that contact us.

-Eight's a good number.

-Eight's a good number.

That's the safe zone for our boat capacity.

Then we talked about the little people hauler that we've used for Junior Ranger but we're wanting to adapt a history tour so you'll load up in that and then we'll take you to some of the historical spots around the park and give you-- -We mentioned it used to be a stop along the way for the boat.

-For the boats.

-Is there a good amount of that type of his.. to the park but what stood before?

-Yes.

We had the TVA village and that was in a lot of the ar.. That particular spot was the people that were helping build the dam.

They had structures and houses and lots of things so there's a lot of old roads where you can see it once it's pointed out to you like, "Yes, I can see that was a road."

A lot of that structure in history that pertains to the creation of the dam.

While they were here, we also had a Civilian Conservation Corps that was part of FDR's New Deal program that was building the park structures.

There's still a lot of-- A lot of the rock water fountains are all things that they built and then we have a bridge that's still standing.

It's been reinforced but it's still there that they built.

Some of our pavilions they built.

They're all spaced a little bit out so that's why we're thinking those people haulers would be a good so you can pop on and off and take people around and really show them that rich history.

-I guess we don't see behind the scenes of how you all are planning and trying to think of new things, new attractions all the time.

-That's one of the interesting aspects of my job, is we're always trying to reach new people and get new people involved.

It can't just be hikes because that's not going to reach anybody or everybody.

It's not going to just be pontoon tours.

It's not going to be just crafts.

We have to have this really varied program schedule to attract a little bit of everybody.

Every one more person that we can buy in and get them on our friends group or just active in our park volunteering, that makes our park a little bit better.

-What are volunteers used for?

What areas do you need volunteers?

-Tons.

[chuckles] We're always looking for volunteers.

We have a massive privet problem, that invasive species that we were talking about.

A lot of our days-- We actually have one this weekend, I believe, that is a privet pool.

They'll go and they'll cut large amounts of privet and then-- -I don't know what that is.

I'll have to ask you.

[laughs] I thought maybe that would come up and [?].

I don't know what that is.

-Chinese privet, it was a hedge that was planted a.. back in the day.

It does grow real nice as a hedge bush, but it also spreads and its seeds can lay dormant in the ground for 10 years.

Even though you've cut what you see, it's still underneath there.

It's still going to pop back up, but it goes around the edge of a forest or the edge of the woods there.

Anywhere that you have this edge, which is a lot of park space, then it has this tendency to grow up.

It becomes so thick and just dominates any native species.

Keeping it cut, trimmed, and thinned is a big effort.

Once it gets out of control, it's a little bit overwhelming.

-Hard to keep down.

-We're trying to attack it through zones right now so cut in this area and just really watch this area and hopefully we can see some improvements with it.

-It's not like you could go out and spray it and it would kill things.

-No.

It will kill tha.. -There'll always be something popping back up.

--there's always all those seeds and everything back under.

-I've just never heard that.

-We do a lot of the privet pools.

We have a few connections that are local people that are in the Tennessee Naturalist Program or have finished the Tennessee Naturalist Program.

They came and helped us with field trips and just been extra bodies to direct kids to bathrooms or next stops or that kind of thing.

I've had some high school children that did some job shadowing and then decided to come back and do volunteer work.

We've got a lot of native flowerbeds that we weed and things like that, that need a lot of help all the time.

-A lot of housekeeping out in the woods.

-If you're interested in volunteering, you just contact us and I promise we will find something that caters to that person's needs.

-I know the Tennessee-- We're just about out of time, but I know you had a background as a teacher, but if you have any students who may want to even get into this type of work, what is your suggestion?

-We do offer some job shadowing for high school students.

We had a few last year and they went really well.

I think they're very interested in working with parks maybe in the future.

There's also the seasonal interpretive ranger position, like the one that I've got my foot in the door with.

That is for students that have over so many college credits.

They apply for this position.

There's usually housing provided and you could be put at any park in the state.

-Like an internship?

-It's an internship.

-Can they go do that and get college cr.. -They can get money.

They get paid for it.

-They get the money just as kids.

-College kids like that too.

If they're in with the AmeriCorps, they can get some scholarship reimbursement type fees, but fee waiver.

For the others, they get a nice paycheck.

It's pretty good compensation.

-That is good.

Thanks so much for being with us today.

-You're very welcome.

Thank you very much.

-I'm afraid our time is up for this edition of Tennes.. We want to thank Ranger Boothe for stopping by and telling us about Pickwick Landing State Park.

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