The 8th annual Beaver Creek Flotilla is set for Saturday, May 31, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. Last year more than 400 watercrafts (mostly kayaks) joined the fun. The launch is on Brickyard Road behind Powell High School with suggested parking at the high school.
Gates open at 7 a.m. Get all the details at floatthebeaver.com/.
What makes this event special is the dedication of community volunteers, led by the Beaver Creek Kayak Club and its president Charlie Austin. The club puts volunteers in the creek to help anyone who might get lost or stuck.
Other volunteers pop up to offer water or maybe strum a few lines from “Deliverance.” You just never know what you might find in the creek including wildlife from otters, ducks and beavers to cows and donkeys.
Meet the float masters
Joey and Nancy are the WIVK Radio hosts weekdays from 5:30 to 10 a.m. The presenting sponsor is Vulcan Materials Company.
Joey Tack grew up in the Midwest and moved around a bit while building his career. In Knoxville, he met and married Jhasta, a Farragut High School graduate. They have two boys, Johnston and Marvin. Joey said he’s settled here in Rocky Top.
Nancy Barger grew up in Knoxville, graduating from Bearden High School in 1997. She and husband Matt are local business owners. Nancy got into radio by filling in for a friend. “The laughter was contagious and a personality she never realized was hidden came out,” according to her bio. Nancy and Matt share four children and two pups.
Olivia Graves is Jr. float master
Olivia Graves
A senior at Powell High School, Olivia plans to attend Pellissippi State in the fall. At PHS she is involved in Young Life, edits the yearbook and is a junior commissioner working with Larsen Jay (District 10). She is employed as a private nanny to a family with a child with cerebral palsy whom she cares for after school. Her senior superlative: Most Dependable.
HPUD helps clear Beaver Creek
Hallsdale Powell Utility District employees completed HPUD’s first Adopt-A-Stream cleanup on Beaver Creek recently, picking up about 700 pounds of trash while braving the pouring rain. This earned a shout out from Knox County Stormwater Management, who posted this picture.
Cleaning up Beaver Creek are Aaron Munsey, Steve Dalton, Austin Whisonant, Derek Frear, Lindsey Montierth, Melissa Elliott, Judy McMahan, Ethan Parker and Sam Barbee; Ryan Scheuer is not pictured.
Elizabeth Crunk loves the land
Elizabeth Crunk preserves 230 acres
After her husband passed, some doubted whether Elizabeth Crunk could manage her 151-acre Hill View Farm on her own, despite spending her whole life on the farm. As her niece, Bettye Cason, recalled, “The neighbors, when my uncle died, thought, ‘Well, she’s a woman. She can’t do nothin’.’ [But] I think over the years, the neighbors have realized she’s smarter than they thought she was.”
After hearing her father speak so much about how he didn’t want to see the other farm, Cedar Land Farm, “cut up in little squares,” Crunk spent years trying to figure out how to preserve her land so it could be kept in the family, secure, so she could pass it on.
This led to her conservation easement with The Land Trust in 2002 to protect both family farms, totaling over 230 acres in the rapidly growing Williamson County. Crunk figured out how to run her farm and save her land.
“It’s not for everybody,” Crunk said, “but a lot more people need to do it.”
The Land Trust for Tennessee provided information and quotes for this story. Learn more here.
Outdoor Knoxville
Legacy Parks Foundation and Elle Colquitt’s Outdoor Knoxville events calendar – has hikes, races and more for this week and next. Check it out here.
Harvey Broome Group, Sierra Club, will meet Tuesday, May 13, 7 p.m. TN Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Open to all. This week’s program is on “Bats – Understanding their Important Role in our Ecosystems” by Susie Kaplar, Bat Rehabilitation of Grainger County. Details here.
May 14 – Tai Chi in the Trees will be offered Wednesday, May 14, 12:15 p.m., UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Free. Info: 865-483-3571. Classes are held at the Sharp Program Shelter; parking is available at the Shelter. Classes are held twice weekly on Monday and Wednesday. No experience needed. Details online.
