BusinessTN

Julian Bibb's passion is three-pronged. There's the law. He joined Stites & Harbison in 1977 and is chairperson of the nearly two-century old law firm's real estate and banking service group. In 2009, Bibb led efforts on behalf of bank clients to recover or protect their interests in a wide variety of assets involving the automobile industry, manufacturing and real estate development.

And then there is land preservation. Bibb is a past board member and current legal counsel of the Land Trust for Tennessee, a charitable organization that has protected thousands of acres of land. Among his many other personal preservation endeavors, Bibb has also been involved in groups like Franklin's Charge, which recently acquired and protected a Civil War battlefield in his home of Williamson County.

Bibb's final passion is for Sewanee, the University of the South. The '73 alum who had already served his alma mater in roles ranging from career services advisor, class reunion chair and member of the off-campus admissions program and the parents' council, was in 2008 named to the school's board of trust for a three-year term.

Not long ago, Bibb had the opportunity to serve all three passions on a historic land deal with major implications for Tennessee -- the placement of a conservation easement over 2,987 acres of forests, creeks, springs and caves adjacent to Sewanee in an area known as Lost Cove.

In the early 2000s, word got out that the property owned by American Timberland, a subsidiary of timber investment management organization Regions Morgan Keegan Timberland Group, was going to be sold. Bibb and the Land Trust for Tennessee started negotiating to purchase the tract. An appraisal was completed, a sale price confirmed, and The Land Trust started to raise funds.

Initially, the university was not involved. "We started cooking the soup, and as we were working through it we thought, 'Gosh, the best thing would be if we are able to acquire this property, place a restrictive conservation easement on it to protect it, and have the University of the South own it,'" Bibb explains.

University officials jumped at the opportunity to expand its domain from 10,000 acres to 13,000 acres, recognizing how well the land would serve as an outdoor laboratory for its environmental studies program.

From that moment on, the university and the Land Trust were joined at the hip in their fundraising efforts.

"Once we went to the public, the speed at which this all happened was unbelievable," Bibb says. "It is probably one of the most successful acquisition projects that I've ever worked on in terms of the public getting the message and stepping up immediately to protect the property. And it was such a labor of love for me."

After the $4.3 million purchase transaction was completed, a perpetual conservation easement was put in place protecting the land from future development. The university quickly incorporated the land into its forestry and environmental studies program curriculum and expects to design long-term field studies involving generations of undergraduate researchers. The area is a rich research environment. Geologically speaking, the Lost Cove is known for its complex patterns of hydrology -- there are places where running water will disappear at one point then pop up a half-mile away. Archeologically speaking, very little study has been done in parts of the Lost Cove. Bibb says cave art has recently been discovered that has still not been announced due to security concerns.

"In short, everything you would want a land preservation project to be about was tied up in this property," Bibb says.