National Park Service Delivers Roadmap for Protecting Georgia's Ocmulgee River Corridor

The National Park Service announced that it had submitted to Congress its long-awaited assessment on whether the Ocmulgee River corridor in central Georgia fits the criteria for management as a national park and preserve.

The answer is: not quite, not yet.

Managing The Land Is Too Challenging

According to the Special Resource Study, 120,000 acres (48,560 hectares) of riverfront between Macon and Hawkinsville are nationally significant and suitable for a park, but it is not feasible because the corridor includes too many private property owners and state-managed lands.

Acquiring and managing all of that land, which is under threat from construction, mining, and logging, would be too difficult.

The study region includes a 50-mile river corridor that runs through the Georgia counties of Bibb, Twiggs, Houston, Bleckley, and Pulaski. Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Robins Air Force Base, and the Echeconnee Creek, Oaky Woods, and Ocmulgee State Wildlife Management Areas are among the area's major public land holdings.

The river corridor has a rich human history, with archaeological resources dating from the Paleoindian Period to World War II, including extensive American Indian resources such as Mississippian mound sites and Muscogee (Creek) heritage and history.

The river corridor is largely bottomland hardwood forest and swamp, with some upland woodland on terraces above the floodplain. Black bears, white-tailed deer, wood ducks, alligators, wild turkeys, and several waterfowl species can be found in the area.

The procedure for selecting and approving studies of new national park units was established by the 1998 National Parks Omnibus Management Act (54 United States Code 100507).

For a research area to be suggested for inclusion in the national park system, it needs to fulfill four requirements. 1) National relevance, 2) suitability, 3) practicality, and 4) requirements for NPS management are some of these factors.

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Alternative Way Forward

The park service stated that there is a way forward: the research advises formally cooperating with the Muscogee Creek Nation and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to manage a smaller region along the Ocmulgee's banks "to mitigate many of the concerns that led to a negative finding."

The mayor pro-tem of Macon, Seth Clark, stated that the city has already taken these steps: it has formally partnered with the Muscogee, endorsed Georgia's continued management of state assets, and obtained a $1 million grant from the Knight Foundation to fund a multiyear regional strategic plan to develop the park.

A contract has already been signed for 1,000 additional acres (405 hectares) of soon-to-be public land.

"The SRS is studying a snapshot of time 2.5-3 years ago. We anticipated that, and chopped out the state-owned land already. A bear doesn't care whether it's on state or federal land; as long as it's protected, we're good," he added.

Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican, has teamed up with Georgia Democrats, including U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, and Representative Sanford Bishop are in favor. Ossoff's office announced that they are drafting bicameral, bipartisan legislation.