Park Manager Wayne "Buddy" Ingram presented a program describing the cultural and natural features of Cedars of Lebanon State Park. The park is rooted in the history of the land and its signature tree, the Eastern Red Cedar.

Born out of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, including the WPA, Cedars of Lebanon became one of the first state parks designated in Tennessee. The park’s landscape reflects the karst terrain of Ordovician limestone and unique plant communities associated with the cedar glades in Middle Tennessee.

Buddy, Park Manager II, has worked at the park for 44 years, starting as a park attendant. Under his management, the park won awards for Excellence in Innovation (2015) and the Excellence in Resource Management (2017). An entomologist studying grasshoppers honored Buddy by naming a new species found in the glades Melanoplus ingrami.

Buddy’s avocation is old-time banjo and fiddle music. He is an accomplished banjoist, winning the National Old-Time Banjo Award. He organized the Tennessee Banjo Institute in 1988, 1990 and 1992, which earned Buddy Ranger of the Year in 1988