Georgia THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2023 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD
Celebrating 50 Years of Impact, Thanks to You!
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Since the beginning, Trust for Public Land’s vision has been rooted in a singular belief: that access to the outdoors is essential to people’s well-being.
Georgia—places that are bringing neighbors together and fostering a love for the outdoors while uplifting local economies and delivering critical, nature-based solutions in the face of climate change.
What started as a bold idea in a small San Francisco office 50 years ago has blossomed into a nationwide movement to ensure everyone, no matter where they live, can experience nature’s countless gifts. At this special milestone, we celebrate the incredible network of TPL advocates who make our work possible and catalyze our future efforts.
And we are just getting started! It is an exciting time to be a part of the TPL community as we look to new opportunities to connect to nature, our histories, and each other. We are advancing the Chattahoochee RiverLands vision, transforming more Community Schoolyards© into vibrant places to learn and play, and improving health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities across the state.
With your support, we have preserved iconic landscapes that stand as a testament to the enduring impact of TPL’s work across the country, including the Atlanta BeltLine and Cumberland Island National Seashore. These are now some of the best-known and most visited places in 2 |
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With your enduring support, we will continue to build parks and protect land, making Georgia a healthier and more equitable place for everyone. Thank you!
Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Building Between 1980 and 2008, TPL purchased more than a dozen properties along Auburn Avenue—where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up and had some of his most formative experiences—to help create Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. When Dr. King was growing up in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, two institutions anchored the community: the Ebenezer Baptist Church (part of the national historic park) and the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge. Built in 1940 by John Wesley Dobbs, the Lodge Building has been home to important African American organizations, including the Atlanta Civic-Political League, a voting-rights organization; the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a labor organization; Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. King’s nonviolent direct-action civil rights group; Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Shoppe, whose owner became America’s first self-made female millionaire; and WERD, the nation’s first Black-owned and operated radio station. In 2018, Congress expanded the national historic park boundaries to include the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Temple. TPL is working with partners to restore the Lodge and incorporate it into the park.
Through our Black History and Culture Initiative, TPL has partnered with NPS and others to restore sites like the Lodge Building to tell the vivid and honest history of America’s failures and triumphs in the struggle for civil rights. Only 3 percent of sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places commemorate the experiences of Black Americans. Join us as we create, protect, and activate public spaces of historical and cultural significance to Black communities across the country.
The Lodge Building has retained its original character due to its uninterrupted Masonic use and maintenance through 2019. However, the building has not been upgraded since an annex was added in 1955. In recent years, water has infiltrated and begun to damage the interior of the building, increasing the urgency of our efforts to restore the building by 2025. Once the building is restored, the National Park Service (NPS) will provide guided site tours as part of the visitor experience. Adding the restored Lodge and SCLC’s office to the historic park’s existing destinations will create a more immersive and comprehensive historical experience.
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Chattahoochee RiverLands TPL is partnering with community-based organizations, public partners, and local experts to champion and advance the creation of the Chattahoochee RiverLands, an unprecedented outdoor recreation destination with 100 miles of trails and parks through the heart of metro Atlanta. The RiverLands will stretch across 19 cities and seven counties, connecting nearly one million nearby residents to the outdoors through a stretch of parks, paths, and paddling trails. The RiverLands is a game-changing approach to urban planning and conservation, climate justice, and communityled development that will revolutionize regional residents’ personal, environmental, and economic relationships with the Chattahoochee. By weaving a huge outdoor recreation destination through the region’s heart, the RiverLands will establish a new model for cities worldwide to unite people and nature while building healthy, resilient, equitable futures for everyone. This transformative vision has already attracted more than $250 million in philanthropic, federal, state, and local funding. Investments will further the ongoing recovery of the Chattahoochee River and provide nearby residents with more equitable outdoor recreation and investment.
RiverLands Showcase Project By 2026, TPL and partners will build the first section of the RiverLands, connecting the Mableton and Smyrna communities of Cobb County. Known as the RiverLands Showcase, this keystone demonstration project will bring the RiverLands vision to life for the first time and build community excitement. The Showcase will feature three miles of greenway trails that link three new parks totaling 150 acres and provide first-time access to the River for residents in this area. We are excited to share that TPL acquired an 8.8-acre parcel that will become the new RiverLands Gateway Park at the intersection of Mableton Parkway and the River. The park will serve as the southern gateway to the 4 |
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RiverLands Showcase and feature amenities like a kayak launch, parking, restrooms, and more to fully activate the RiverLands. We hired award-winning landscape architecture firm SCAPE to create a plan for the park that reflects local priorities and needs and the RiverLands vision’s overarching goals. Our partners in Cobb County and the City of Smyrna are also making great progress on projects in the Showcase area. Cobb County broke ground on a 0.6-mile trail segment, opened Discovery Park at the River Line, and is currently designing a one-mile trail segment for the future Gateway Park. And TPL is nearly ready to begin construction on a portion of the greenway in collaboration with the City of Smyrna. When completed, the Showcase will serve nearly 44,000 people who live within one mile of the project—75 percent of whom currently lack access to public outdoor space.
Chattahoochee Camp + Paddle Trail The Chattahoochee Camp + Paddle Trail is the first step in creating a transformational blueway trail. Visitors will be able to spend multiple days boating and camping at three new campsites and kayak launches along a 48-mile stretch of river between Atlanta’s Peachtree Creek and Carroll County’s McIntosh Reserve Park. The Camp + Paddle Trail will open in June 2024, expanding recreational benefits to communities who lack access to the River and generating sustained economic opportunity for locals. We also recently partnered with Carroll County to add 429 acres to McIntosh Reserve Park, a 527-acre riverside park. The expansion links McIntosh Reserve Park to
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Chattahoochee Bend State Park, creating a contiguous 3,000-acre green space at the southern terminus of the Chattahoochee RiverLands.
Bridging Communities In July 2023, a new pedestrian bridge crossing the River opened to the public. Rogers Bridge, one of the 25 proposed RiverLands river crossings, allows people to walk over the river from Duluth’s Rogers Bridge Park to Johns Creek’s Cauley Creek Park, which TPL helped protect in 2016.
JOIN US TPL’s role as shepherd of Chattahoochee RiverLands’ vision continues to grow. Support our work by donating or learning more about this exciting project on RiverLands.org.
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Community Schoolyards in Georgia TPL’s Community Schoolyards are game-changing: they transform undeveloped schoolyards into vibrant, green spaces that improve the daily lives of students, educators, and the surrounding community. They promote a healthy lifestyle, reduce educational disparities, and improve educational outcomes while making vulnerable communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change. That is why TPL is leading a coalition of local and national partners to reimagine Atlanta’s schoolyards, delivering outdoor equity for hundreds of thousands of students and residents.
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This year, we are excited to share that we completed Community Schoolyard construction with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) at Centennial Academy, Harper-Archer Elementary, Miles Elementary, Price Middle School, and Scott Elementary—and we are nearing completion at two more. At two of these APS sites, local artist Aysha Pennerman worked with students to design and paint murals that represent their schools and neighborhoods. The resulting murals feature uplifting imagery and words of affirmation to inspire students to shine. Our efforts in APS will continue to grow at Hope-Hill Elementary and
Benteen Elementary, thanks to investment from the City of Atlanta and our partners. In the year ahead, we will continue to expand the Georgia Community Schoolyards program into communities with high need for park access and systemic equity challenges, delivering vibrant, safe, nature-rich spaces for the entire metro Atlanta region. In Fulton County School District, we finalized the first schoolyard design at Stonewall Tell Elementary, and this past fall we started community engagement at Conley Hills Elementary School. Additionally, we are advancing our partnership with the DeKalb County School District and look forward to our future collaboration.
Thanks to our partners at Delta Air Lines for joining us at Scott Elementary School for a volunteer build day.
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GEORGIA ADVISORY BOARD We are so grateful for our outstanding volunteers! Virginia Almand, Community Volunteer
Suzanne Masters, Community Volunteer
Hunter Amos, Newmark
James H. Morgens, Morgens Property & Investment Co.
Patricia T. Barmeyer, Community Volunteer
Alan S. Neely, Community Volunteer
Cory Boydston, Community Volunteer
Carlos Pagoaga, The Coca-Cola Company
Anna S. Callaway, Keller Knapp Realty
Kevin Pearson, Georgia Power Company
B.W. Cardwell, Jr., Community Volunteer
Amy Phuong, Atlanta Hawks
Tres Carpenter, ZWJ Investment Counsel
Michele Reale, The Shopping Center Group
Jason Carter, Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore
Christopher Glenn Sawyer, Community Volunteer
Jackie Cushman, Community Volunteer
Jeff Seavey, Truist
Jocelyn Dorsey, Community Volunteer
Sally Seeds, Community Volunteer
Natalie Giurato, Cox Enterprises
Markham Smith, Smith Dalia Architects
Chris Graham, Georgia-Pacific
Rian Smith, The Integral Group
John Hardman, WildArk, WoodLeaf Partners
Emily Sweitzer, RangeWater Real Estate
Paula B. Hennessy, Community Volunteer
Alex Watts, Merrill Lynch
Cecilia Houston-Torrence, Community Volunteer
Shelli Willis, Board Chair, Troutman Pepper
Bob Kinney, Community Volunteer
Eric W. Wilson, Turner & Townsend Heery, a CBRE Company
Alison Lathrop, Delta Air Lines
Chad Wright, GDP Holdings
Trey Loughran, Purchasing Power
THANK YOU for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Georgia and beyond and for protecting special places for everyone to access and enjoy!
Nicole Blackshear South Region Director of Philanthropy nicole.blackshear@tpl.org
Join us Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you. tpl.org/donate/ga
George Dusenbury Vice President, Southern Region Georgia State Director george.dusenbury@tpl.org 600 West Peachtree Street, NW Suite 1840 Atlanta, GA 30308
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