Lagrange Point
Through a fruitful partnership, Wolf River Conservancy and TennGreen Land Conservancy protected two critical areas: Lagrange Point and Pleasant Farm. Acquired in October 2023, Lagrange Point connects directly to the Wolf River ecosystem and is critical to the recharging of the Memphis Sand Aquifer—the grand feature West Tennesseans rely on for their drinking water.
Lagrange Point was made possible through the concern and cooperation of the adjacent neighborhood’s developer, who worked directly with Wolf River Conservancy and TennGreen to protect these 121 acres. The developer could have expanded onto these floodplains and wetlands, but followed through on the conscious, critical effort not to.
As a result, a large swath of Shaws Creek, a major Wolf River tributary, is protected by Lagrange Point. The entirety of this property is in the 100-year floodplain, consists predominantly of wetlands, and is within the aquifer recharge zone for the Memphis Sand Aquifer, that sole drinking water source for Memphis and surrounding communities.
Here, bottomland hardwood forests dominate the landscape alongside pockets of sunny herbaceous wetlands that are invaluable to pollinator species. Hundreds of aquatic, amphibious, and land-based flora and fauna depend on the wetlands that weave through dense foliage.
Lagrange Point is in the top 1% of critical areas in need of conservation by Wolf River Conservancy and falls within the critical areas TennGreen strives to protect through our Strategic Land Conservation Plan (SLCP). Specifically, this property ranked 97th most important in the Wolf River watershed on Wolf River Conservancy’s own SLCP, meaning this property is in the 99th percentile for WRC’s conservation values.
The concentration of wetlands, threat to development, and adjacency to over 1,750 acres of public conservation lands (Wolf River WMA) were the primary reasons both TennGreen and WRC sought to protect Lagrange Point amid the adjacent neighborhood’s development.
TennGreen Land Conservancy and Wolf River Conservancy currently own Lagrange Point. Both the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency were critical partners in the completion of this acquisition.
Watch our full feature on protecting these Tennessee wetlands below:
“It is vitally important to protect spaces like this, not only for wildlife and creek and surface water quality, but for the drinking water in the aquifer below. What I really want to see is the continuing expansion of protection out from the Wolf River. Suburban development from East Memphis and Collierville, etc., is coming this way. So, we need to make sure that there is a solid buffer of aquifer recharge wetlands that is completely protected.”