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SEYMOUR — "Bill, it's time to save my mountain."

Some words can save the world.

Or at least a piece of it.

Marian Oates completed the process she began with a phone call two years ago, signing the papers Friday that put permanent easements on the top of Bluff Mountain and securing the future of the east end of the Chilhowee.

"This is one of our crown jewels," said Bill Clabough, executive director of the Foothills Land Conservancy, which will manage the easements and eventually co-own the 510-acre Bluff Mountain Ecological Reserve tract with the Legacy Parks Foundation.

The easements will prohibit development on the entire ridge line seen daily from Chapman Highway in Sevier County to the north and visible from U.S. 321 in Blount County to the south. Several down-mountain tracts will be eligible to be sold in the future for one-family dwellings that meet established criteria that includes residence and prohibits overnight rental use.

"I'm half a tree hugger," said Oates, who has lived in her family's home atop the bluffs for the last 20 years. "We need a few more people living up here (full time)."

The Oates family has been the heart of Bluff Mountain the last 60 years. Her father, Frank, began buying parcels in 1946 and at one point owned more than 2,200 acres of the mountain beginning near where the Dupont Springs Cool Chilhowee Health Resort stood as a hotel in the early 1900s. Frank Oates sold some parcels to finance building the road up the mountain and in 1964 completed the family home that blends seamlessly into a dip in the ridge crest.

"My mother was the business sense, and my dad built the roads," Oates said of her family's history on the mountain. "They would stay up here working in a little cabin on the weekends until they built the house."

The gift is a first for FLC as the group will for the first time own the land under an easement and will be responsible for its management after Oates passes away.

"It's something new for us, and we'll take care of this gift," said Clabough. "We'll be responsible for checking the boundaries and keeping a watch on the hotel site. Marian has provisions that will allow the University of Tennessee to build a forestry experiment station, should they desire to do that, and for youth groups to hike and camp. They will have to get permission from us, but she was a director of the Girl Scouts Tanasi Council and wanted to make sure children could enjoy this area after she was gone."

Oates, who also recently endowed an environmental enrichment award for middle school teachers, answered questions as the wind blew a cloud to mountain level, temporarily blocking the view of Knoxville and the rest of the valley.

"Marian is an example," said FLC vice president and UT professor Billy Minser. "You always hear people say, 'Somebody should do something about that.' She did do something about it. It's not like someone is making more land; what we have is what we've got."

Oates' addition brings the conservancy near 25,000 acres under easements and is a vital link for Chilhowee Mountain. Bluff Mountain anchors the eastern end of the 12-mile-long span reaching into Sevier and Blount counties.

The 5,000 acres of Three Sisters in Walland anchor the western end and was put under easement in 2007 by an LLC whose partners included the Haslam family, of travel center operator Pilot Corp.; Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain founder Sandy Beall; Brad Martin, former CEO of Proffitt's; the Clayton family, of manufactured housing giant Clayton Homes; and the family of Charlie Hicks, businessman and East Tennessee landowner.

"There are really just two landowners now for the 10 miles of the ridge top between the two tracts," said Clabough, who hopes some other large easements to come to fruition before the end of the year.