REGIONAL OVERVIEW AND CONSERVATION CHARACTER

The River Valley Region includes the second-largest city in Georgia, one of the nation’s premier military installations, and some of the poorest and smallest rural counties in the Southeast. 25 Located along what is known in Georgia as “the Fall Line,” b the communities in the project study area are shaped by a beautiful and unique natural landscape threaded with rivers, streams, and wetlands.

The Chattahoochee River starts in northern Georgia and flows south along much of the border between Georgia and Alabama. It has been a rich and life-giving natural, economic, and cultural resource for native and settling peoples for more than 1,000 years. In many places along the Fall Line, the land rapidly loses elevation, resulting in rocky shoals and waterfalls along rivers. Historically, this made the region a common place for settlement. During pre-industrial times, the Fall Line presented a barrier to river travel where people would have to navigate around impediments. During industrialization, the shoals and waterfalls presented good opportunities for hydro-power for mills and electricity generation. Many indigenous communities settled here, with early evidence of the Mississippian culture. Later, MuscogeeCreek tribes resided in this area for centuries before the arrival of American and European settlers, until their forcible removal in the 1820s and 1830s. 26 The fi rst road linking the newly formed United States to its newly acquired Louisiana Territory passed through Marion County, crossing the Chattahoochee River on land that is now Fort Moore. This Old Federal Road was the primary means for post, the military, and other travelers to reach New Orleans and other western territories until the coming of the railroad in the mid-1800s.27 The city of Columbus, Georgia, was founded shortly before Indian Removal and quickly became a regional hub due to its industrial capacity and role as a transportation crossroads. Its advantageous location once supported thriving mills that transformed cotton into textiles, and after the Civil War, it became a center for entertainment and river boat traffi c. 28

Like the river, the surrounding countryside also shaped and continues to shape the area. Native longleaf pine once dominated the landscape. The region now supports significant commercial forestry operations, relying primarily on loblolly and slash pine.29 The area once supported row crop farming in the 19th and early 20th centuries after the original longleaf pine forests were harvested. Rare gopher tortoises, endangered redcockaded woodpeckers, bobwhite quail, and white-tailed deer call the landscape home, along with unusual pitcher plants, wild orchids, and a myriad of moths and butterflies. Local conservation efforts support programs spanning the Southeast focused on restoring the biologically diverse longleaf pine ecosystem that once dominated the region.

What exactly is the “Fall Line?”

It’s all about geology and soils. The Fall Line is literally a fall — a drop in elevation from the rocky, more clay-based soils found to the north of the Fall Line, to a drier, sandier soil system to the south of the Fall Line.

The lands to the north of the Fall Line typically support more hardwooddominated forests and rocky steams, while south of the Fall Line, dry sandhills reminiscent of ancient dunes support a pine-dominated landscape with an incredibly diverse assemblage of plant and animal life. The Fall Line is where these natural worlds collide and merge together.

MICHAEL HENSLEY, The Nature Conservancy, Chattahoochee Fall Line Program Director

The sustainability of Fort Moore’s military mission and the resilience of the civilian communities in this region depend on the continued existence of this biologically diverse landscape.

As noted above, almost 20 years of effort by Fort Moore, DOD, state and federal agencies, conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, and private landowners has resulted in approximately 36,000 acres surrounding the installation being protected from incompatible development.

The following collaborative efforts have been critical to this conservation success:

Fort Moore’s Army Compatible Use Buffer Program

Approved by DOD’s REPI program in 2006, Fort Moore’s ACUB program is governed by an advisory board, whose members represent Fort Moore, The Nature Conservancy, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Georgia Forestry Commission, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The purpose of Fort Moore’s ACUB program is to create land conservation partnerships between the Army and outside organizations to protect land from development that is incompatible with the military mission. To date, approximately 36,000 acres on the western Fall Line have been protected, a little more than halfway to the program’s overall goal of 75,000 acres. Of this amount, 30,000 acres are owned in fee and managed either by Georgia DNR or The Nature Conservancy. The 22,000-acre Chattahoochee Fall Line Wildlife Management Area is available for outdoor public recreation and is a direct result of the ACUB efforts. The ACUB fee-owned lands are managed under a Land Management Plan jointly developed by Fort Moore and The Nature Conservancy.30 In 2020, a stewardship endowment was created to support long-term management of these lands.

The Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership

Established in 2011, the Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership (CFLCP) consists of partners working together to establish a conservation corridor that restores longleaf pine and is managed to conserve the natural heritage and quality of life of the Chattahoochee Fall Line Region.31 Spanning West Georgia and East Alabama, the partnership brings together private landowners, nonprofit organizations, public agencies, elected officials, and community leaders. The CFLCP’s vision is a sustainable landscape of native wildlife and plant communities that supports forestry, farming, hunting, outdoor recreation, and tourism, while providing a buffer of conservation lands around military training activities on Fort Moore.

the Georgia Sentinel Landscape

In a larger context, these conservation efforts are situated in and partner closely with the Georgia Sentinel Landscape, which was established in 2018 to coordinate a larger partnership involving several of the nation’s most important installations and ranges, including Fort Benning (Moore), Fort Stewart, and Townsend Bombing Range.32 In addition to being strategically important to our national defense, the Georgia Sentinel Landscape encompasses a high concentration of prime timber land and large swaths of longleaf pine forests. Supporting agricultural communities and sustaining working forests are ways the Georgia Sentinel Landscape works to promote uses compatible with the military mission.