Sam Blair on three decades of park volunteerism

“In the early 2000s, you could not go 100 feet on the Old Forest trails before having to crawl through a blockage. It was that overgrown with brush.”

Sam Blair remembers an Old Forest that was far less welcoming than it is today. An attorney and avid runner, Sam is president of the volunteer organization Park Friends, which has provided volunteer work and funding for Overton Park since the 1980s. He’s also been a tireless volunteer for over 30 years, with a special gift for trail maintenance.

Prior to the Conservancy assuming management of Overton Park, City crews were stretched thin, with the same employees responsible for clearing city streets and park trails. Rogue trails were being cut through the southern part of the forest so that runners would have a place to go, which endangered the forest’s fragile ecosystem and made it easy to get lost. With the City’s permission, Sam and his fellow Park Friends members stepped in to get the Old Forest trails back in shape, clearing fallen trees and brush that were blocking the established paths, particularly in the southeast corner of the forest between the East Parkway picnic area and the golf clubhouse.

Along with friends John Houseal and Mike Cooley, Sam formed a volunteer trail crew dubbed HBC Trailworks, and they continued their efforts to keep trail edges clear. Sam remembers Mike, who passed away in 2016, as the one always tasked with moving almost impossibly heavy pieces of trees off the trails.

In 2012, Park Friends and the Rhodes College track team, coached by Robert Shankman, teamed up to fund and implement a major renovation of the limestone trail that rings the Old Forest. The work involves making periodic adjustments to things like the slope of the trail, with Sam and his fellow volunteers studying how stormwater moves through the forest. “We followed the water all the way upstream until we found a double culvert that had been blocked with dirt,” he explains. Cleaning out the culvert is just step one; it’s connected to a brick-lined ditch that also requires regular cleaning to prevent it from sending water onto the limestone trail at such a large volume that the flat part of the trail washes out. “We’re learning not to fight the water, but to guide it. Limestone maintains itself very well if you can direct water across it effectively.”

Today, Overton Park is a popular destination for runners, and its trail system is an important part of the Old Forest management plan established by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Overton Park Conservancy.

Park Friends provides much more than trail maintenance. The Overton Park 10K trail race, which was founded by Mike Cooley and is now run in his memory, raised $10,000 for the repair of the 1930s-era stone bridges on the golf course. This year, the new landscape plants near the first fairway of the golf course was purchased by Park Friends and installed by a team of volunteers.

The group has also been involved in advocating for the park’s future. Members helped to bring the community together for more than 100 public meetings surrounding the park’s 1988 master plan, and they have advocated against development projects that would have compromised the park’s integrity.

Sam supports Overton Park, he says, because it’s the right thing to do. “I don’t think Midtown would be Midtown without the park. It’s an anchor that has been great for the city.” Its proximity to multiple universities, he says, allows students to connect service with their use of a public amenity–particularly the Rhodes track team, which regularly performs volunteer trail work.

“We have so many days in the woods working on the trails, and ten people will come through and all say thank you. We’re thrilled to have this trail system now, and seeing people enjoy it is really rewarding.”