• Mist rising of the river at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

    Chattahoochee River

    National Recreation Area Georgia

  • Rising River Waters Can Kill!

    Watch for rapidly rising river levels on the Chattahoochee River. Water released from dams and heavy rain can turn a day on the river into a tragedy! More »

  • Call for Water Release Schedule Information

    For water release schedule info, call 1-855-DAM-FLOW (1-855-326-3569) for Buford Dam and 404-329-1455 for Morgan Falls Dam. Save numbers to your cell! More »

Parks For The People

The Chattahoochee River NRA is one of seven parks nationwide selected to participate in the Van Alen Institute's Parks for the People competition. The overarching goal of the competition is to generate new and innovative ideas for the design and planning for a twenty-first century conception of national parks, the experiences of their visitors, the sustainability of their infrastructure, and their relationship to the public.

Student participants will seek to inspire park stewardship by creating richer, more fulfilling park experiences. They'll consider the following questions:

  • How can design enhance park experience?
  • How can parks become more accessible?
  • What is "preservation" and how can it evolve?
  • What new ventures or partnerships could help connect parks to people?
  • What is "sustainability" and what is its future role?
  • What part can technology play in parks?

The competition will test six draft design principles identified in the Designing the Parks program:

  1. Reverence for place
  2. Engagement of all people
  3. Expansion beyond traditional boundaries
  4. Advancement of sustainability
  5. Informed decision-making
  6. An integrated research, planning, design and review process

The following documents are available for use in the competition:

2010 CRNRA Visitor Study

2010 Commercial Services Strategy

Below are links to GeoPDFs of the park units to aid in design. These files include advanced PDF features, accessible through the layers tab of PDF readers, which allow users to add and remove layers representing topography, trails, streams, roads, and other features.

 

Note: GeoPDFs are very large files and may take several minutes to download.

Did You Know?

Great Blue Heron hunting for food - Photo by Tom Wilson

Great Blue Herons stand up to four feet tall and have special feathers that dissolve into powder. They use a serrated middle claw to distribute the powder which they use for preening or cleaning themselves.