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By Sally Bethea

Sally Bethea is the retired executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (chattahoochee.org), a nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to protect and restore the drinking water supply for nearly four million people.

Did you know that the Chattahoochee River, which flows southwesterly through Atlanta, has one of the oldest and most stable river channels in the United States? It has been “locked in place” along the Brevard Fault Zone for at least 185 million years.

By contrast, the Colorado River, which drains seven states, is relatively young; geologists say that plateau uplift, resulting in the river that we know today, took place just five to six million years ago. There is some evidence that tectonic activities which occurred 70 million years ago also contributed to the river’s creation. Even assuming this earlier “birth,” the Colorado is still a youngster, when compared to our Chattahoochee.

I have always been fascinated by streams and rivers: where they begin, how they formed and the type of landscape that makes up their drainage basins, or watersheds. Not surprisingly, my vacations often revolve around rivers.

In May, I traveled to southeastern Utah on a Sierra Club trip to paddle the Colorado and Green Rivers and hike in several national parks. The buttes, bluffs and mesas towering over these rivers proved to be mesmerizing: massive, eroding rock shapes built of layer upon layer of sandstone, limestone, volcanic rock, salt and shale over millions of years. In this stone fantasyland, I envisioned the profile of iconic desert writer Ed Abbey in one of the formations.

The ancestral Colorado River formed after the landscape uplifted from an inland sea; water from the higher elevations then drained to the northeast, the opposite direction of the flow of today’s river.

Eco Briefs

Keep Atlanta Beautiful is moving one of its community recycling centers from Old Fourth Ward to Kirkwood beginning on Sept. 9. The new center will be located at Coan Middle School, 1550 Hosea L. Williams Drive. Electronics, metals, glass, latex paint, paper shredding, Styrofoam, textiles and books are all accepted at the monthly recycling events, which are held on the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The last recycling day at Walden Middle School in the Old Fourth Ward will be Aug. 12. For more details, visit KeepAtlantaBeautiful.org.

Piedmont Park has replaced oftenphotographed Climbing Magnolia, which toppled over last summer after to rot. Based on its rings, many believe the magnolia dates back to the Cotton States Exhibition in 1895, which was held in what is now the grounds of the park. A 20’ magnolia, with a 70” root ball, weighing over 8,000 pounds has been successfully installed in Piedmont Park to replace the Climbing Magnolia thanks to $20,000 donation from the Vasser Woolley Foundation.

Millions of years ago, there was more water in the Chattahoochee River system, until a geological phenomenon called “stream capture” occurred. Eroding rivers battled each other for supremacy and ultimately the top of the Chattahoochee watershed was cut off, its water diverted into the Savannah River basin. Prior to this event, the ancestral headwaters of the Chattahoochee extended up into what is now North Carolina, incorporating a much larger land area and collecting more rainwater, which increased the river volume downstream.

The Tugaloo River, at the top of the Savannah basin, had eroded through a ridge over thousands of years and captured the Chattooga and Tallulah Rivers, formerly tributaries to the Chattahoochee. Their waters began to crash dramatically over what is now Tallulah Falls, flowing to the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Atlanta’s loss was Augusta’s and Savannah’s gain.

Today, the watershed upstream of Atlanta – about a thousand square miles – is one of the smallest drainages in the country that supplies a major metropolitan area with river water. When rain fails to fall over this small watershed for months, especially in the summer, the water level in the Chattahoochee system begins to drop. Our water supply challenges in Atlanta are largely a function of our geological history – and a decision made nearly 200 years ago to locate our metropolis near the top of a river basin on the banks of a small river. Our country is blessed with nearly three million miles of rivers. Each one of them has a geologic story to tell with chapters that will continue to unfold through the millenia.

Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta named Trees Atlanta as one of the recipients of its 33rd annual Managing for Excellence Award. Trees Atlanta and co-recipient Literacy Atlanta will each receive $75,000. The nonprofit has planted more than 119,000 trees since 1985, helping to improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions.

The Wylde Center will host the second annual Mulberry Fields Gone Wylde on Saturday, July 15, from 6 to 9 p.m. The festive outdoor evening will feature live music by Webster, food and drinks for purchase from Fox Brothers and other vendors, children’s games and much more. After sunset, the Chickabilly, a metal sculpture/fire bowl will be set ablaze. The event is free for Wylde Center members and children 12 and under, and $10 for non-members.

Mulberry Fields is located “down the alley” at 1301 Iverson St., in Candler Park.

Mulberry Fields

Gone Wylde will be held rain or shine and is sponsored by the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization, Premier Grease, Small Business Services and the Harris Bathrick Basch family. Proceeds will benefit Mulberry Fields. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit wyldecenter.org/mulberry-fields-gonewylde-2017.

By John Rutherford Seydel III

Recently, Atlanta hit a milestone that proves a major metropolitan area can clean the air its residents breathe, while increasing the number of jobs and industries that keep them working. As the City’s newest Director of Sustainability, I wanted to highlight what this means for Atlanta’s present and future air quality.

The Atlanta metropolitan area was able to meet ozone standards that were established in 2008 and put them in place by 2012. This may not seem like much of a feat, but make no mistake, this is a significant achievement for an area working to balance vitality and livability.

For much of the South’s modern history, growth and ozone went hand-in-hand. Emissions from cars, trucks, factories and coal-fired power plants all reacted with the hot southern sun to create that ground-level ozone that has vexed metro areas for decades.

Breathing ozone is harmful to your lungs and it’s especially hard on children and those with asthma.

But for a long time, there was this notion that cleaning the air meant hurting businesses and industries, and jeopardizing the wages of the workers. Atlanta proves that’s no longer the equation. The metro area has added jobs and people, while at the same time cutting the number of high ozone days.

According to the American Lung Association, Atlanta had the fewest number of high-ozone days since the association started keeping count 18 years ago. That means there are fewer airquality warnings in Atlanta. Fewer days where you have to worry about exercising outside. Or worry about your kids at recess. Or your grandparents on their walk around the neighborhood.

This is certainly worthy of celebration, but we understand that the metropolitan Atlanta area still has much work to do. And we’re doing it.

While President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement to address worldwide climate change, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is moving forward.

Mayor Reed and 70 other mayors have pledged to continue improving the health of our cities. They will do it by pushing for fewer harmful emissions, building better public transportation and embracing modern, clean and sustainable energy.

As someone dedicated to building Atlanta’s sustainability, I stand with Mayor Reed and his efforts to improve the South’s environment. I’m proud of the progress this city has made to improve the air, and proud that we are working even harder for a cleaner future.

Yes, Atlanta has a ways to go. But I take inspiration from folks like my grandfather Ted Turner’s example that you can create jobs, build industries and grow cities while still taking care of the place you call home.