Nashville's Highland Rim Forest Alliance to conserve it
A named federal boundary, published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Potentially the World's Largest Urban Forest
In careful terms: one of the largest urban forests within the limits of any major U.S. city, population 500,000 and up.
The four urban forests most often called the world's largest total 46,671 acres combined. That is less than half of this one.
Why it matters
The forest is not scenery at the edge of town. It is working infrastructure on the high ground above it, and it does its work quietly, every time it rains.
165billion gallons
The forest receives about 165 billion gallons of rainfall a year and releases it slowly.
SECAS Blueprint Permeable Surface Indicator 2023
0″forest runoff
vs
0.94″developed runoff
On a 2-inch rain event, forested land produces near-zero runoff. Medium-density development on the same terrain produces 0.94 inches.
2026 Policy Brief
53–56%forested
Nashville is 53 to 56 percent forested by canopy, and most of the mature, connected woodland stands on the western and northern rim.
2023 Metro urban tree canopy assessment
560+landslides, May 2010
After the May 2010 storm, USGS mapped more than 560 landslides across Nashville, most of them within the forest. That storm is not a prediction. It is the kind of event a resilient city plans for, and standing forest on steep ground is part of the plan.
illustration of slope risk, not a prediction
The forest at scale
About 7,500 acres of the priority forest are protected today, anchored by four public parks. The other 89,000 acres are held together by geography, private stewardship, and time.
~7,500acres protected today across four anchor parks
Boundary: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast Conservation Blueprint. Drawn from the published federal geometry.
This is already working
The pattern repeats: a piece of the forest comes under threat, Nashvillians organize, and the land ends up protected. Two proofs.
2013–2015
TennGreen Land Conservancy bought the nearly 4-acre waterfall parcel in 2013 with its Emergency Land Fund; Metro Parks took ownership in 2015. The waterfall is the headwaters of Richland Creek and sits above dozens of acres of mature forest.
The parcel is in a residential neighborhood. If you visit, be respectful of the people who live beside it.
Photograph pending permission
Photo: J. Paul Moore / courtesy TennGreen Land Conservancy
October 2025
Metro Council approved a grant application (RS2025-1556) to add about 308 acres to Beaman Park, on the Cheatham County line, with The Conservation Fund holding the land until it transfers to Metro. Funding is being assembled from state, Metro, and private sources.
The next 12,000 acres
The live vehicle is Davidson County's Ecological Conservation Strategy, the planning designation that would give the forest protected status and real policy tools.
Conservation works with development, not against it. This is a case for a strong plan, not a case against anyone.
An alliance of 29 partner organizations
Swan Conservation TrustFriends of West Meade HillsRegenerative Community Ecology ConsultingCato NeighborsCumberland River CompactClimate NashvilleSouthern Conservation PartnersTennessee Environmental CouncilNashville Tree Conservation CorpsTennGreen Land ConservancyThe Nature Conservancy (TN)Nashville Tree FoundationSierra Club Middle Tennessee ChapterTennessee Women in GreenTrust for Public LandFriends of Whites CreekFriends of Beaman ParkTennessee Interfaith Power & LightHarpeth ConservancyRadnor to RiverNashville Chapter of the TN Ornithological SocietyBells Bend Conservation CorridorForest Hills PathwayCivic Design CenterWhites Creek Historical SocietyChestnut GroupNashville Parks FoundationCitizens' Climate LobbyWild Ones