Tennessee Environmental Council

Tennessee Environmental Council was founded in 1970 as an umbrella organization that would tie together many different organizations with diverse, but common priorities into focused advocacy in the state legislature on behalf of Tennessee’s environment. Those groups were the League of Women Voters, the Junior League of Nashville, the Tennessee Lung Association, the Tennessee Conservation League, the Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs, and the Tennessee Botanical Gardens and Fine Arts Center (Cheekwood). We are just as enthusiastic today about taking care of the landscape we call home as we were upon our founding.

The Council has been successful in protecting the Great Smoky Mountains, cleaning up the Pigeon River, reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants, and preventing degradation of high quality streams in the globally significant Duck River Watershed. We have twice been awarded the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award.