ABOVE THE WATER LINE

By Sally Bethea Sally Bethea is the retired executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and current board president of Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy whose mission is to build a community of support for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

Mario Cambardella City of Atlanta Urban Agriculture Director

The City of Atlanta has announced the launch of the AgLanta Grows-A-Lot program representing the first step towards creating a process by which city-owned land can be utilized for food production.

The AgLanta Grows-A-Lot pilot program will provide a 5-year renewable, license for farmers, non-profits and residents to adopt vacant, city-owned land to grow fresh, healthy food for themselves and their community. Nine out of these 10 pilot sites are located in a USDA low-income, low-access food desert area. The pilot reflects the city’s commitment to reach a goal set by Atlanta’s former Mayor Kasim Reed: ensuring that 75 percent of Atlanta as we patrolled during my riverkeeping days; the SwallowTail Kites that swooped over our boat on the Apalachicola River, catching flying insects, gliding, rolling upside down and then speeding through the air; and, more recently, the hundreds of Sandhill Cranes that flew over downtown Atlanta on a chilly December afternoon, heading south, as we watched in awe from a fourth floor balcony and listened to their distinctive cries. residents will be within a 10-minute walk to healthy food by 2020. This goal has been incorporated and Atlanta’s new Resilience Strategy. The Grows-A-Lot pilot represents one of the many action steps in the Resilient Atlanta Strategy (which covers numerous topics, ranging from affordable housing to clean energy, transportation etc.) to be implemented in 2018.

At home in my intown Atlanta neighborhood, it is the brown and white Barred Owl who thrills me, when I see him or hear his classic hoot which sounds like: “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.” One early evening, I looked out my back door and saw the owl sitting on a large tree branch, staring down at me with his penetrating eyes. Another time, I heard loud bird squawking and raced outside to find several small birds flying around the owl in agitation, dive bombing him. Just a few weeks ago, I heard him hoot in the morning, as I woke up to snow that had fallen during the night.

The Office of Resilience led by Chief Resilience Officer Stephanie Stuckey, with urban agriculture director Mario Cambardella, food systems planner Elizabeth Beak, and a host of community partners spent a year planning this program. The team analyzed 78 vacant, city-owned properties and identified 10 properties suitable for food production. An advisory committee comprised of urban growers and food system leaders helped create a clear application process.

Maybe I am a birder, of sorts: one who just needs to pay more attention (now that I’m retired) and learn about these amazing and beautiful creatures. Fortunately, there is a thriving chapter of the National Audubon Society in Atlanta, originally established nearly one hundred years ago as the Atlanta Birding Club.

For the past four years, Atlanta Audubon Society (AAS) has been led by Nikki Belmonte. A longtime birder with degrees in wildlife conservation and environmental education, Nikki says that she has a “job of passion.” Her organization, which offers field trips and lectures, organizes bird counts and monitoring programs and restores bird habitat in the 20-county metro region, is, according to Nikki, on a growth trajectory with new staff and initiatives.

Bird Fest 2018 will take place from April 14–May 13, featuring exclusive, bird and nature-centered field trips, workshops, and other special events across metro Atlanta and Georgia. Authors Julie Zikafoose and Janisse Ray are confirmed speakers. Registration opens to AAS members on March 1 and the public on March 8 at atlantaaudubon.org/ atlanta-bird-fest. Slots fill up fast, so register early.

The good news is Atlanta’s food desert map is also changing to reflect the evolution of Atlanta’s local food movement. A food desert is defined as an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. Between 2010 and 2016 Atlanta’s food desert area decreased by 17 percent (from covering 53 percent of the total area of the City of Atlanta to 36 percent). However, there is more work to be done.

Partnerships will be key in ensuring that AgLanta pilot Grows-A-Lot urban garden and farm teams succeed. We invite you to visit AgLanta.org to learn more about the program.

Editor’s Note: To read a more extensive version of Mario Cambardella’s column on AgLanta, visit AtlantaINtownPaper.com.

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