Riverlands Alliance Overview

The Riverlands Region

The Riverlands region is comprised of 25 full and and 9 partial counties in west Kentucky and Tennessee. The region is defined by five rivers; the Clarks River that flows into the Tennessee River, which lies west of the Cumberland River and these latter two flow into the Ohio River, which is the largest tributary of the Mississippi River.

A High Quality of Life

Individuals, families, and industries are attracted to our region for the high quality of life here, which is generously provided by the lands and waters that belong to us all.

This region has abundant woodlands that are home to a diversity of wildlife for viewing, photography, and hunting.

The five major rivers and many tributaries provide opportunities for world-class fishing and access to hundreds of miles of canoe and kayak trails.

Additionally, there are ample opportunities for hiking, biking, camping, and other similar outdoor recreation activities.

While forests offer recreation opportunities, farmland has long been another driver of our local economies. Family farms, fresh produce stands, and farmer’s markets are a way of life in this region.

A region rich in natural resources

Over 50% of the Riverlands region is within Conservation Opportunity Areas (blue areas on figure) defined in the most recent KY and TN State Wildlife Action Plans and portions of the region are classified by the Southeastern Climate Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) as priority areas or connections (purple on figure) within the Southeastern Conservation Blueprint (Fig 2; TN SWAP Team [2015], KY SWAP Team [2023], SECAS [2024]).

Regional Trends

Despite the clear abundance of natural resources that are important to the quality of life and outdoor recreation-based economy of the Riverlands region, trends, both positive and negative, will affect the Riverlands in the coming decades and could transform the region in a negative way without proactive planning.

Populations are expected to increase through 2028 within some cities located in the Riverlands region (e.g., Paducah, Clarksville, and Murray) and there are several large cities within a few hours (< 3 hours) drive of the Riverlands region (e.g. Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, and St. Louis) where high levels of population growth are expected (see figure).

This growth is projected to fuel an increasing demand for outdoor recreation, which is already booming. For instance, national participation in outdoor recreation activities grew by 4.1% in 2023 (Outdoor Industry Association 2024).

At the same time, non-Federal forest areas are forecasted to decrease by 5 to 13 percent from 2010 to 2060 (Keyser et al. 2014). Additionally, some landcover types (e.g., early successional scrub, forests, and grasslands), which are of special significance to an outdoor recreation economy that relies heavily on hunting and wildlife viewing, are extremely limited and in many places still declining.

All of this is occurring at a time of stagnating budgets for conservation and natural resource stewardship at both the federal and state levels.

Formation of the Riverlands Alliance

As the authors of the seminal Nature of Americans report suggest, “We believe a significant expansion of funding for nature- and outdoors-related programs, including wildlife conservation, will be achieved when various sectors effectively link nature, wildlife, and the outdoors to the public’s self-interest in health, productivity, and quality of life.” (Kellert et al. 2017).

The Riverlands Alliance (RA) was formed in 2019 to make these linkages and ultimately to help us with what will be the greatest challenge within the region - to guide growth and development in a way that enhances, rather than degrades, the region’s natural assets upon which the area’s outdoor and natural resource economy are based.

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