National Park Service and partners cut the ribbon at the newly upgraded entrance of the Island Ford park unit. (Photo courtesy of Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy)
The National Park Service and its partners cut the ribbon to a newly upgraded trail system at Island Ford right above a feature they used to call “the Mess.”
Island Ford’s entrance used to be an eroded dirt path, filled with tree roots. Now, after years of planning and fundraising, it looks like a regular trail entrance: a few gravel steps down to the trail along the river.
The new trailhead at Island Ford. Previously, the area suffered from intense erosion. (Photo courtesy of Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy)
“All of that groundwork eventually leads somewhere. Well, here we are. This is somewhere we have done it. We’re celebrating today,” said K. Lynn Berry, the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area’s superintendent.
A brand-new trail at the entrance opens to more upgrades throughout the park.
“New routes, new experiences, plus the rehabilitated trail work, the bridges, the signage, that means a better visitor experience, better safety, better resource protection and a lot less guesswork about where you’re actually allowed to walk,” Berry said.
The park now has about 2.2 more miles of trail, including a loop trail.
Better naming and signage will help visitors navigate the trails more easily, the superintendent said, and trail work also helped to combat erosion and guide visitors away from some more dangerous areas.
Brittany Jones, executive director of the Chattahoochee National Parks Conservancy, said the real heart of this project was partnership.
“It’s possible because people chose to invest in their backyard national park,” she noted.
According to Jones, this project is the largest in the history of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, just shy of half a million dollars. From concept to completion, it took about two years, though trail work accounted for only a few months of that.
She said the public supplied a lot of input on the designs years ago, and the community stepped up to help secure matching funds to make it a reality.
“One of my favorite things about this project is that you can actually see the philanthropy at work here,” Jones said.
“Sometimes philanthropy can feel really abstract, but today it’s going to be right under our feet. Every improved trail, every restored landscape, every safer crossing, every visitor who will enjoy this place for years to come.”
Jones said the Park Service, her organization, donors, volunteers, contractors and designers built a collaborative framework and processes they’ll use in the future to restore other areas of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
