Category: People, Places & Parks

By Alex Beasley, Donor and Public Relations Manager, ISA Certified Arborist, Trees Atlanta Atlanta’s summers are becoming hotter, drier, and longer. This is the new norm. Much of the world has undergone ‘climate change-induced seasonal creep,’ meaning fall arrives later and spring arrives earlier each year. As the tropics expand by up to .2 degrees […]

…and Supporting the Communities that Host Them By Georgia Conservancy Senior Planner Nick Johnson In recent years, Georgia’s larger cities have taken great strides toward incorporating sustainability into their designs, plans, and objectives. Atlanta’s new stormwater parks and living buildings have introduced natural systems into the urban fabric, while Savannah has contemplated how to adapt its […]

By Ellen Bruenderman, Director of Community Building and Kayla Altland, Friends of the Park Program Manager Invasive plants are a serious problem in our local parks and are top of mind for Park Pride volunteer staff, our government partners, and Friends of the Park groups.  Invasive plant species are not native to the local ecosystem […]

By Marlena Reed, communications & marketing manager, The Nature Conservancy in Georgia The critical link between healthy forests and beer may not be obvious to most people, but it comes down to beer’s main ingredient: water. That’s why Georgia brewers are joining The Nature Conservancy to celebrate OktoberForest, a campaign to raise awareness about the […]

By Jay Wozniak, Georgia Parks Director for The Trust for Public Land  One hundred million Americans cannot walk from their home to a park within 10 minutes. According to The Trust for Public Land’s 2019 ParkScore rankings, about 71 percent of Atlanta residents can reach a park in that timeframe, and that number has been […]

Georgia’s marine mammal, The North Atlantic Right Whale, numbers only 400. By Brian Foster, Communications Director, The Georgia Conservancy With an estimated global population of only 400, the North Atlantic right whale is in trouble, and a bipartisan measure from the U.S. Senate seeks to provide some much-needed help. The Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered […]

By Rachel Maher, Park Pride For 30 years, Park Pride has engaged communities to activate the power of parks. Thirty years.  The organization was founded in 1989, the year that Seinfeld premiered.  Park Pride was organizing volunteer projects and beautifying Atlanta’s greenspaces when America was “getting online” in the early 90s.  Park Pride was helping […]

By John D’Andrea, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Georgia Power Our lands and waters are more than just our country’s beautiful natural features. They are the very foundation of our security, way of life and all life itself. That is why in 1964, Congress established the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which balances the […]

By Judy Yi, Director of Outreach, Trees Atlanta Since early 2018, the City of Atlanta’s tree protection ordinance has been under review for a rewrite by the Department of City Planning as part of its larger Urban Ecology Framework (UEF) initiative. On August 22nd, over 80 attendees filled the City Council chambers for the latest […]

By Michael Halicki, Executive Director of Park Pride To state that you value the positive relationship between access to nature and health is not, on its surface, a controversial statement. However, when access to nature has a cost, there is a tendency to undervalue the public’s need for it—and its associated health benefits—in relation to […]

By George Dusenbury, The Trust for Public Land in Georgia Sarah Kirsch, Urban Land Institute, Atlanta District Council New analysis from The Trust for Public Land shows that opening schoolyards to the public during non-school hours—including summer break, after school and on weekends—would provide access to open space for 19.6 million people, including 5.2 million […]

Author: Robert Crimian, Coast & Ocean Partnership Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy Almost daily in South Atlantic waters, fishing lines pull deep-dwelling fish to the surface. Not all these fish can be kept. Those that are too small, are out of season, or exceed a catch limit are released back into the water. However, there internal […]

By: Nick Johnson, Georgia Conservancy Senior Planner When it comes to land conservation in Georgia, there is strength in numbers. Conserving lands rich with environmental resources, including wildlife, wetlands, forest, agricultural, and scenic amenities, requires a coordinated effort from non-profits, state agencies, and landowners. The Georgia Conservancy is pleased to announce a new initiative that […]

By Teri Nye, Park Designer at Park Pride (and person who draws) The City of Atlanta is in the process of rewriting its tree ordinance—this is the set of rules that protects trees on public and private land throughout the city. The task isn’t quick or easy, but it’s a necessity as the city grows […]

Author: Ashby Nix Worley, The Nature Conservancy When you sink your toes into the sand at a beach along Georgia’s coast, your first thought probably isn’t about climate change, hurricanes, or the coastal flooding that can result from both. It is worthwhile, however, to consider the role of sand and silt in helping coastal ecosystems […]