Connecting Habitat for Birds Along the Chattahoochee River

By Dottie Head, Director of Communications

From its humble beginnings as a small stream in North Georgia all the way to the Florida border where it joins with the Flint River and ultimately drains in the Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, the Chattahoochee River, or ‘Hooch, is a popular place with outdoor enthusiasts, from birders and paddlers to hikers, anglers and more. In the metro area, the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area spans a 48 mile stretch of the river with 15 separate units where residents can relax, recreate, and recharge.

Along its 430-mile meandering path through Georgia, the Chattahoochee provides critical resources for millions of birds, including species that live in Georgia year-round and those that migrate through the state. Each spring and fall, billions of birds use the Chattahoochee River as a place to rest and feed during their epic migratory journeys. It’s critical for people, too, providing more than 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water to approximately five million people.

In recent years, Birds Georgia has been partnering with the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), the National Park Service (NPS), and the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to build bird-friendly habitat throughout the river corridor. The work is part of the greater vision of the Chattahoochee RiverLands which strives to reunite the Chattahoochee River with the metro Atlanta region and link suburban, urban, and rural communities into a continuous 100-mile public realm. Once complete, the Chattahoochee RiverLands will be a linear network of greenways, blueways, and parks that bring people to the water’s edge, promote stewardship and conservation, and reveal the subtle magic of the Chattahoochee River to all who visit.

Birds Georgia has been working along the Chattahoochee, from the Island Ford Unit in Sandy Springs downriver to McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County, to restore bird-friendly habitat by removing invasive plant species and replacing them with native plants that are good for birds and for pollinators. The habitat team has also assisted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources with prescribed burns at Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Let’s take a kayak trip down the river and look at some of this work.

We’ll start our journey at the Island Ford Unit, headquarters of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA), in Sandy Springs. As you approach the historic Hewlett Lodge Visitors Center, you can’t miss the fantastic bird and pollinator garden just outside the entrance. For the past three years, Birds Georgia has been working to install this beautiful and productive garden which welcomes visitors to the park. Chock full of native plants, like American beautyberry, ironweed, mountain mint, rattlesnake master, and other flowering grassland species, the garden is a bird and pollinator paradise. This work is being funded by the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), and they have also provided a cadre of volunteers to assist with planting and maintaining this landscape. 

From Island Ford, we float by our friends at the Chattahoochee Nature Center and portage our way around Morgan Falls Dam on our way down to Cochran Shoals Unit of the CRNRA. This is the most visited unit of the CRNRA, and Birds Georgia was thrilled to receive a grant from the Georgia Ornithological Society to restore the “Sparrow Field” at this site. Both CPNC and the National Park Service are providing support and volunteers for this project which helps fulfill the vision of connecting people with the Chattahoochee River. Birds Georgia has begun working to restore early successional habitat in the Sparrow Field, a popular birdwatching area that has been known to host common sparrow species, like Song and Chipping Sparrows as well as more uncommon species, like Grasshopper and LeConte’s Sparrows.

Continuing down the ‘Hooch a few more miles, we pass inside the Perimeter and make a stop at Standing Peachtree Creek. Standing Peachtree was an historic Native American village of the Muscogee Tribe and is the closest Native American settlement to what is now known as Buckhead, in Atlanta. The village was located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River in today’s Paces neighborhood. According to Wikipedia, Standing Peachtree was located in the borderlands of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations and is referenced in documents dating back to 1782.

Today, Standing Peachtree Creek is the first stop on the Chattahoochee RiverLand’s Camp + Paddle Trail. Once completed, paddlers will be able to use the newly installed launch for their kayaks/canoes and then camp and paddle their way down the river for 48-miles ending at McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County. The launch site for the Camp + Paddle Trail, at Standing Peachtree will feature a fully accessible kayak launch, and Birds Georgia is working with TPL to remove invasive plant species, like English Ivy and Chinese privet, and replace them with bird-friendly native species.

Paddling downriver, past I-285, our next stop will be the Chattahoochee RiverLands Showcase Project, the nearly 3-mile linear park and greenway trail will extend from Riverview Landing downstream through the 140-acre Discover Park, across Nickajack Creek to RiverLands Gateway Park at Mableton Parkway. The entire project serves as a model for the Chattahoochee RiverLands and its work connecting people to the river. In partnership with TPL, Birds Georgia is restoring bird-friendly habitat along this stretch, including at the site for the much anticipated RiverLands Gateway Park that will provide a gateway to the river complete with parking, restrooms, a kayak launch and boat ramp, and other recreation amenities. Birds Georgia and TPL are hosting habitat restoration workdays, bird walks, and other events to showcase this new area. TPL recently received a Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program Grant which will support the development of the land into a regional park and trailhead. Birds Georgia is removing privet and other non-native invasive plant species and installing native plants, like elderberry, river birch, American sycamore, and buttonbus, along the southern one-mile stretch of the project.
As the north anchor to the RiverLands Showcase ProjectRiverview Park is a trailhead and provides access to the river with a dock and floating kayak launch. Nearby there is a coffee shop, brewery, and barbecue restaurant which serve the river community..  The Showcase Project will be complete by 2026.

Continue paddling downriver until you pass under I-20 and the river is divided by an island. A large sandy beach marks the north end of Buzzard Roost Island. Only accessible by boat, Buzzard Roost will be an optional stop along the Camp + Paddle Trail. Keep your eyes peeled for shorebird species, like Killdeer and yellowlegs, that forage on this sandy spit. The island houses some massive tulip poplar trees, black walnuts, and American sycamores, and is a quiet, peaceful stop for paddlers and other river travelers to have a picnic, and a great place to birdwatch. Birds Georgia has been working at Buzzard Roost, to remove privet and replace it with native rivercane, elderberry, black willow, buttonbush, and Eastern Cottonwood.

As you depart Buzzard Roost and travel downriver past Sweetwater Creek,  you’ll encounter a boat ramp on property owned by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. This is another good place to launch a boat if you want to access the southern section of the river. From the boat ramp, you can paddle north to Buzzard Roost or continue downriver to historic Campbellton. You’ll find an additional public boat ramp at Campbellton Park, located in the City of Chattahoochee Hills, this is the third site of the Camp + Paddle Trail which provides sites for primitive camping and a new restroom and shower pavilion.

The Trust for Public Land has been a tremendous partner to Birds Georgia providing volunteers and other resources for our work restoring a native wet meadow for birds and pollinators in a field adjacent to the boat ramp. The meadow includes a variety of native grasses, including wildrye, deertongue, gamagrass, and big bluestem in addition to beautiful flowering perennials like pink milkweed, cardinal flower, ironweed, and common boneset. In 2023, an Olive-sided Flycatcher was also spending time in this meadow. Other birds you may see here include Indigo Buntings, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Common Yellowthroat, Sedge and Marsh Wrens, and, during migration, a host of migrating warblers.

New RiverLands Park is the next stop on our journey and fourth site for the Camp + Paddle Trail. Located in Chattahoochee Hills, this brand new park is not yet open to the public. Once opened this fall, visitors to this park can enjoy a stunning view of the river as well as primitive campsites and new restroom facilities for paddlers. Over the past year, Birds Georgia has been working with TPL to remove invasive plants, including an infestation of privet,  multiflora rose, and Elaeagnus (or Autumn Olive). In their place, Birds Georgia is adding native plants, including ironwood, basswood, red mulberry, and American beautyberry. Gabe reports that this is an excellent birding location, having seen species such as Swainson’s Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Kentucky Warbler on breeding territory at the site. He predicts that it will quickly become a new eBird hotspot.

Continuing downriver into Carroll County, you’ll arrive at Mcintosh Reserve. This is the final stop along the Camp + Paddle Trail and is across the river from Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Managed by Carroll County, this beautiful park just tripled in size thanks to two new land acquisitions that TPL helped secure. The Birds Georgia team has been working to install a pollinator garden near the new restroom facility. Be on the lookout for Bald Eagles that have been known to nest across the river. This spot is also near Council Bluff, which boasts a beautiful, elevated view of the river and is a great place to have a picnic or just enjoy the scenic beauty of the Chattahoochee. 

McIntosh Reserve marks the southern end of our work with TPL on the Chattahoochee RiverLands, but at this point of the journey it is less than 50 miles downstream to Columbus, Georgia where you can take on the rapids near downtown or stop and enjoy a meal or a beverage along the wonderful RiverWalk.

“It has been a great experience working with TPL, CNPC, and NPS to implement the vision for the Chattahoochee RiverLands by restoring high quality habitat along this river corridor for the birds and people, too,” says Andrle. “The Chattahoochee River is such an amazing resource that runs across the state, and we look forward to continuing our work with these and other organizations to make the Chattahoochee River an even more important resource for birds and for the people who visit.”