This is a link to a web page about the Nature Conservancy. I found it recently when looking to see what else I could find about this creek. This webpage is apparently by people who advocate unrestricted mining and logging and oil drilling. Their page on TNC (The Nature Conservancy) gave a lot of information I didn't know, assuming it is true. I think the page was posted in 2002; seems I saw that date somewhere. Their numerical information comes from a couple years before that. One item that struck me was the enormous salary paid
to the CEO. You can read all that financial stuff for yourself. There are a couple of stories there about TNC using nefarious methods to gain more land. I read the first one, and it sounds bad. I don't know what TNC would say about that.

The people behind that website obviously want to downgrade TNC, and I suspect any other organizations that want to protect the environment. It seems that they want unrestricted harvesting of any natural resources. Logging comes to mind. If unrestricted, the US would have much less forest, I think. Trees big enough in the national forests and state forests could be taken. I don't doubt that the logging companies would take down all the redwoods if given the chance. Lot of wood there. I don't know if it is still going on, but in the 1980s I read that whole logs were being sent to Japan. I think it is also true that the Forest Service sells state trees at cheap prices to timber companies--if not regularly, then some of the time. I read an artical that discussed this. As for oil drilling, the US needs to do some drilling, and get more of our own oil, and not be so dependent on foreign countries. In the long run, we need to develope alternative propulsion methods for road vehicles, or at least an alternative fuel, and I don't think burning corn derivitives is the answer. There are starving people around the world, and using food for moving vehicles just doesn't seem right.

If what the anti Nature Conservancy people behind that website say is true, then TNC isn't so nice. It does good in that it protects various areas of land, and the natural environment that is on it, but it seems like a big business to make lots of money, and pay people high up fat salaries. Part of their money comes from people who want to protect land, and make donations of money and/or land, and/or buy memberships. I for one don't want to donate money to TNC if they are going to pay their high tier people fat salaries. It is bad enough that other business corporations pay people at the top such hugh salaries, plus big bonuses, and give then "golden parachutes" to boot, especially if they are the heads of financial institutions that go down, as we have seen lately. An organization that takes donations should not do this.

I saw on TNC web page about Kentucky that some of their preserves allow admission by guided tour only, so as to protect the area and what is in it. I can understand the reasoning, but I don't care much for guided tours, unless I need somebody to show me how to get somewhere. I'd rather go on my own.

It seems to me that people ought to be allowed to walk into a place, unguided/monitored, if they are just going to walk and look and make pictures, and enjoy the place, and not cause damage. I can understand restricting ATVs and dirt bikes, and horses. Those can mess up a place; not so much hosres, but the motorized vehicles. Who wants to hear all that racket when they are out trying to enjoy nature?

There is an area near Livingston, Ky, which is between Mount Vernon and London, Ky. It used to be an ATV haven. I went there twice, several years ago, in my Jeep I had then. I heard about the place and went to have a look. Trucks, trailers, and gobs of ATVs were all over the place, the part I drove through. Dirt bikes too. People were zooming along the main gravel road, some zoomed by me. I saw many trails going out from the road. Many went up hill. People like to charge up steep hills.

ATVs are very populat now days, and I have seen trails in many places. People drive them in and along creeks too. If the Nature Conservancy didn't put some restrictions on their preserves, they too would be criss-crossed with ATV trails, and "4-wheelers" would be running rampant in those places. Another thing is the noise. Some ATVs are loud, and the owners seem to like it that way. Those kind of people don't care if they bother other people. They just like to rip-roar around, slinging dirt and playing Evil Knivel with an ATV. Kentucky is the number one state for ATV deaths.

I have a page on this website about Mantle Rock, in western Ky, which is owned by TNC. According to their page, it is still accessable without a tour guide. Jessamine Creek, however requires a guided tour for admission. I don't know when that started, but Barb and I went on our own in 2005. We saw other people leaving the road and walking back there. I don't think we saw any NC signs there. Somebody said it was privately owned then, and it appeared to be ok to go back there. We went down the creek part of the way, walking in the creek where we had to. We could go only so far that day, and intended to go back, but never did. There is a picture book that shows a waterfall back there somewhere, and we wanted to find that, but didn't get to it. What we saw was really neat though. It is a very nice place, with numerous rock walls.