NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Saving A Midstate Forest

Saving A Midstate Forest

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Nearly 100 years ago, H.G. Hill bought 200 acres of forest in Nashville and left it untouched.

To this day, it is still pristine and experts think no other city has anything quite like it.

An effort is underway to save this rare piece of nature off Highway 100.

The land is near Edwin Warner and Percy Warner parks are perhaps Nashville's best-kept secret.

After waiting his whole life, William Fields is about to find out just how old the secret is.

"We've been guessing," said the caretaker. "We know they're old, you know, 100 years old, but this will tell me exactly what I want to know."

On Tuesday, botany students from Austin Peay State University studied some of the largest trees in Nashville.

"We're going to find out how old it is. We're gong to find out what it's been through," said one person as they wound a borer into the tree.

What was once Fields' backyard is now an old growth forest. No other city has one this big.

"This place has been preserved. It's been kept that way probably been like this for years and years," he said.

But how long will it stay this way? 

A group called Friends of Warner Parks is raising money to save the forest. The goal is to raise $5 million. The group has until the end of the year to raise the money to preserve 200 acres.

Friends of Warner Parks said once the land is purchased, the group plans to hand it over to the city. Members hope to create walking trails through the forest so the community can enjoy its beauty.