By Jared Teutsch, Executive Director
From its humble beginnings as a small stream in North Georgia all the way to the Florida border where it joins with the Flint River and ultimately drains into Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, the Chattahoochee River is a popular place with outdoor enthusiasts, from birders and paddlers to hikers, anglers and more. The Chattahoochee also provides critical resources for millions of birds. Each spring and fall, billions of birds use the Chattahoochee River as a place to rest and feed during their epic migratory journeys. It’s critical for people, too, providing more than 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water to approximately five million people.
Birds Georgia is partnering with the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), the National Park Service (NPS), and the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to build bird-friendly habitat throughout the river corridor. The work is part of the greater vision of the Chattahoochee RiverLands which strives to reunite the Chattahoochee River with the metro Atlanta region and link suburban, urban, and rural communities into a continuous 100-mile public realm.
Let’s take a kayak trip down the river and look at some of the work that is taking place along the river.
We’ll begin at the Island Ford Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA), in Sandy Springs. Approaching the historic Hewlett Lodge Visitors Center, you can’t miss the fantastic bird and pollinator garden just outside the entrance. For the past three years, Birds Georgia has been installing this Island Ford Wildlife Sanctuary that welcomes visitors to the park. Chock full of native plants, like American beautyberry, ironweed, mountain mint, rattlesnake master, and other flowering grassland species, the garden is a bird and pollinator paradise. This work is being funded by the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), and they have also provided many volunteers.
From Island Ford, we make on our way to Cochran Shoals Unit of the CRNRA. This is the most visited unit of the CRNRA, and Birds Georgia was thrilled to receive a grant from the Georgia Ornithological Society to restore the “Sparrow Field” at this site. Both CPNC and the National Park Service are providing support and volunteers for this project. Birds Georgia is working to restore early successional habitat in the Sparrow Field, a popular birdwatching area that has been known to host common sparrow species, like Song and Chipping Sparrows as well as more uncommon species, like Grasshopper and LeConte’s Sparrows.
Continuing south, we pass inside the Perimeter and make a stop at Standing Peachtree Creek. Standing Peachtree was an historic Native American village of the Muscogee Tribe and is the closest Native American settlement to what is now known as Buckhead, in Atlanta. The village was located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River in today’s Paces neighborhood. Standing Peachtree was located in the borderlands of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations and is referenced in documents dating back to 1782.
Today, Standing Peachtree Creek is the first stop on the Chattahoochee RiverLand’s Camp + Paddle Trail. When complete, paddlers will be able to launch kayaks and canoes, then camp and paddle their way down the river for 48-miles ending at McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County. The launch will feature a fully accessible kayak launch, and Birds Georgia is working with TPL to remove invasive plant species, like English Ivy and Chinese privet, and replace them with bird-friendly native species.
Our next stop is at the Chattahoochee RiverLands Showcase Project, a nearly 3-mile linear park and greenway trail that will extend from Riverview Landing downstream through the 140-acre Discover Park, across Nickajack Creek to RiverLands Gateway Park at Mableton Parkway. The entire project serves as a model for the Chattahoochee RiverLands and its work connecting people to the river. In partnership with TPL, Birds Georgia is restoring bird-friendly habitat along this stretch, including at the site for the much- anticipated RiverLands Gateway Park that will provide a gateway to the river complete with parking, restrooms, a kayak launch and boat ramp, and other recreation amenities. Birds Georgia is removing privet and other non-native invasive plant species and installing native plants, like elderberry, river birch, American sycamores , and buttonbus, along the southern one-mile stretch of the project.
Riverview Park is the north anchor of the RiverLands Showcase Project and featuring a dock and floating kayak launch. There is a nearby coffee shop, brewery, and barbecue restaurant which serve the river community. The Showcase Project is slated for completion in 2026.
Paddling past I-20, the river splits around an island. Marked by a large, sandy beach, Buzzard Roost will be an optional stop along the Camp + Paddle Trail. Keep your eyes peeled for shorebird species, like Killdeer and yellowlegs foraging on this sandy spit. The island houses some massive tulip poplar trees, black walnuts, and American sycamores and is a quiet, peaceful stop for paddlers and other river travelers to have a picnic, and a great place to birdwatch. Birds Georgia has been removing privet and replacing it with native rivercane, elderberry, black willow, buttonbush, and Eastern Cottonwood.
Just south of Buzzard Roost and Sweetwater Creek, paddlers encounter a boat ramp operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. From the ramp, you can paddle north to Buzzard Roost or continue downriver to historic Campbellton.
An additional public boat ramp can be found at Campbellton Park in the City of Chattahoochee Hills. This is the third stop on the Camp + Paddle Trail, featuring primitive camping sites and a new restroom and shower pavilion. TPL and Birds Georgia have been hosting volunteer workdays to restore native meadow habitat for birds and pollinators in a field adjacent to the boat ramp. The meadow includes a variety of native grasses, including wildrye, deertongue, gamagrass, and big bluestem, in addition to beautiful flowering perennials like pink milkweed, cardinal flower, ironweed, and common boneset. Birders may encounter Indigo Buntings, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Common Yellowthroat, Sedge and Marsh Wrens, and, during migration, a host of migrating warblers.
New RiverLands Park is the next stop on our journey and fourth site for the Camp + Paddle Trail. Visitors to this park will enjoy a stunning view of the river as well as primitive campsites and new restroom facilities for paddlers. Over the past year, Birds Georgia has been working with TPL to remove invasive plants, including an infestation of privet, multiflora rose, and Elaeagnus (or Autumn Olive). In their place, Birds Georgia is adding native plants, including ironwood, basswood, red mulberry, and American beautyberry.
The final stop is Mcintosh Reserve in Carroll County, located across the river from Chattahoochee Bend State Park. The Birds Georgia team has been working to install a pollinator garden near the new restroom facility. Be on the lookout for Bald Eagles that have been known to nest across the river. This spot is also near Council Bluff, which boasts a beautiful, elevated view of the river and is a great place to have a picnic or just enjoy the scenic beauty of the Chattahoochee.
McIntosh Reserve marks the southern end of our work with TPL on the Chattahoochee RiverLands, but at this point of the journey it is less than 50 miles downstream to Columbus, Georgia where you can take on the rapids near downtown or stop and enjoy a meal or a beverage along the wonderful RiverWalk.
“It has been a great experience working with TPL, CNPC, and NPS to implement the vision for the Chattahoochee RiverLands by restoring high quality habitat along this river corridor for the birds and people, too,” says Andrle. “The Chattahoochee River is such an amazing resource that runs across the state, and we look forward to continuing our work with these and other organizations to make the Chattahoochee River an even more important resource for birds and for the people who visit.”
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