SEE RED TEXT BELOW FOR LINK CORRECTION!
We Want to Hear from You!
Public Input Meetings for CRNRA Trails
Applied Trails Research – the consultant hired by the National Park Service (NPS) to assess trails in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) and develop a management plan – is hosting public meetings next month (April 12 and 14) to hear from you. What park unit trails do you use? What observations and recommendations do you have about the condition and alignment of these trails? Are there opportunities for connectivity?
Funded by the National Park Service and Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy (CPC), this master planning initiative is the first-ever study conducted for the 83 miles of trails in the park’s fifteen land units. Many of the paths are so-called “social trails,” meaning that they were never designed and sited using standards to ensure their sustainability. Over the past four decades, since the park’s creation, they have been loved to death by walkers, runners and bikers.
Using their field notes, input from the public meetings and an online community engagement tool called Social Pinpoint (accessible in late April), the trail planners will develop a draft plan that is expected later this summer. This final plan will help guide volunteer and fundraising efforts to significantly improve park trails in the coming years.
Meeting details are provided in the graphic above; If you have questions, contact us at info@chattahoocheeparks.org. Thanks to all the donors who helped make this planning project possible, especially the Childress Foundation, Lennox International and Trust for Public Land.
Exciting Trail Restoration Project at Vickery Creek
Have you walked the covered bridge over Vickery Creek from Roswell’s Old Mill Park into our national park? If so, you may not have realized that you were entering a unit of the CRNRA, as there is no signage. You may have had to scramble down a steep, eroding slope to access the creek and view the mill dam and/or had to navigate an eroding concrete staircase to enter the national park. When it rains, the trails are slippery and hazardous.
The NPS and Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy have developed an exciting restoration plan to improve trail access at this location, build a sustainable staircase, reduce erosion and install signage – but we need your help!
We have raised more than half of the funds needed to implement the plan this year – thanks to a generous grant from REI’s Community Partnership Program and park funds. Now, we need your help to raise the remaining $25,000 to implement the project. Our hope is that individuals, corporations and foundations will step up to make this priority project a reality.
You can make a designated donation here; note in the donation comment section that your gift is for VC Restoration. Or, you can mail a designated contribution to P.O. Box 769332 Roswell, GA 30076 Questions? Email Sally Bethea, CPC Board President, at sbethea063@gmail.com Thank you!
THINGS TO DO IN THE PARK
SWEEP THE HOOCH CLEANUP on Sat, April 7 – Register Today! CPC is sponsoring the cleanup at the East Palisades/Whitewater Unit of the CRNRA. Click here to register and select Whitewater as your team site.
- Nantahala Outdoor Center (Park Concessionaire) Opens on April 7. Current CPC members receive a boat rental discount from NOC on weekdays (M-F). Join or renew today at here. Learn more about NOC’s Chattahoochee Outpost here and its wilderness medicine courses here.
- Backcountry Navigation in the Park with REI, April 28. During this field outing in the East Palisades Unit, REI instructors will help a small group understand the information provided on maps, the proper use of a compass and how to put the two together while planning your hiking trips. Details and registration here. LINK CORRECTION!
- SAVE THE DATE! Shoot the Hooch – With A Camera on Sat, May 5. Ready to take your photographic skills to the next level? CPC is pleased to offer a one-day workshop with nature photographer Tom Wilson in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Details and registration available on our website beginning April 1. Fee: $50.
Become a member of Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy today!
As a member, you can help us achieve our vision of an inspired and thriving community of support for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Click here to join!
Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy Inc. is proud to support our Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, a unit of the national park system managed by the National Park Service.