Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Wayne Johnson, a wildlife biologist who was among the first to propose the restoration of West Tennessee rivers and who worked to prolong the life of Reelfoot Lake, died July 30.
He documented the struggles to improve waterways, wetlands and wildlife habitat in his books, “Rivers Under Siege: The Troubled Saga of West Tennessee’s Wetlands” and “Reelfoot Lake: Oasis on the Mississippi.” The first book has been used as a textbook in University of Tennessee classes for more than a decade. A third book, with the working title of “The Last Wilderness,” is now being edited by UT Press. It documents the fragmentation of wilderness, its devastating effects and potential remedies.
Graveside services are scheduled 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at Mt. Manuel Cemetery in Obion County. The cemetery overlooks Walnut Log and Reelfoot Lake, both key elements in his life.
Johnson was born May 22, 1940, in a cabin on an island in Reelfoot Lake. He is the son of the late Bennett “Rass” Golden Johnson and the late Mildred Marine King Johnson of Walnut Log. He grew up fishing, hunting and trapping beaver, mink and turtles. He guided big city “sports” who hoped to kill a few ducks. Sometimes, he tied strings to dragonflies and watched them fly in circles. Other times, he climbed saplings, waited for his pals to chop the tree and rode it to the ground. He liked to explore Reelfoot Lake Biological Station near his home, where specimens were preserved in bottles.
He graduated from Hornbeak High School in 1958, where he was voted Mr. Hornbeak High School, Best Physique, Best All Around and Most Handsome.
Johnson volunteered for the U.S. Air Force immediately after graduation, serving with the 6963rd Air Police Squad in Crete, Greece, and earning the rank of Airman First Class and a Good Conduct Medal. He joined the U.S. Army Reserves in 1963, serving as a drill instructor at Fort Knox, Ky., for two years.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management/Forestry from Southern Illinois University.
His wildlife career began in Washington, D.C., as assistant to the National Wildlife Federation’s field director. Among his responsibilities was the creation of NWF’s first and second nationwide youth camps at Land Between the Lakes in 1968 and ’69.
Returning to Tennessee in 1972, he became the district wildlife biologist for the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission in Jackson. Within two years, the organization had a new name — the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency — and Johnson was the assistant West Tennessee regional manager. The job was heavy on administrative tasks and short on nature and wildlife. Ten years later, he stepped down to become a lands management biologist, a role that got him back into the field.
Johnson, a keen observer of what worked and what didn’t, proposed solutions.
Reelfoot Lake was choking with eroded silt and fisheries were suffering. Levees prevented Mississippi River floods from periodically flushing the lake clean. Johnson advocated for a lake drawdown, allowing muck on the lake bottom to decay and consolidate. He received death threats but persevered. He became part of a team writing an Environment Impact Statement that eventually allowed the state agency to buy a buffer zone around the lake, to improve water circulation, to use an aquatic track hoe to remove muck, and to construct a new dam on the southern shore.
The rivers weren’t in any better shape. They had been channelized, forced into a straight-jacket of soil in ditches that didn’t follow earth’s contours. The rivers were separated from their floodplains. Gone were the meanders that forced the rivers to slow down and drop the debris they carried. A federal lawsuit stopped the channelization effort and ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to buy 32,000 acres of wetlands in compensation. That land was turned over to TWRA and Johnson was to manage it. He realized the standard build-a-levee-and-pump-water method to create duck habitat wasn’t effective or efficient. If the adjacent rivers could be restored, the entire watershed would be healthier, more accommodating for wildlife, and more capable of handling floods.
In 1992, Gov. Ned Ray McWherter created a task force to study the possibility of re-focusing the West Tennessee Tributaries Project away from channelization and toward river restoration. The West Tennessee River Basin Authority has restored more than 300,000 feet of stream, reconnected almost 6,000 acres of floodplain and currently maintains thousands of feet of river. Johnson served as a basin authority advisory board member until his death.
Johnson retired in 2005 after devoting 33.5 years to the wildlife agency (22 of them also as a commissioned wildlife officer). He continued to enjoy outdoor pursuits, such as birdwatching, photography and gardening. He studied guitar and could sing remarkably like Elvis. His curiosity drove him to study many topics, including religion. He visited Israel in 2000 with the Truth Seekers Fellowship from Memphis. He was baptized in the Jordan River by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a Messianic Rabbi who led the tour.
He leaves his wife of 28 years, the former Kathy Krone. They married April 25, 1998, amidst a swirl of Monarch butterflies.
He is survived by two daughters, Robin Salyers of Humboldt and Kara Peters-Ballard (Lance) of Spring Hill; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; four sisters, Jennifer Barnes, Shelvie Key, and Donna Gregory, all of Union City, and Reta Gooch of Springfield, Mo.; one half-brother, Jack Sanders of Grants Pass, Ore.; his mother-in-law, Betty Krone, who lived with them in Jackson; and five cats who love to help in the garden.
He was also preceded in death by one grandchild, Alec Peters; and two brothers, Billy Johnson and Ronnie Johnson.
Edmaiston-Mosley Funeral Home in Union City is in charge of the arrangements.
The Messenger