Top, Wolf Creek Park; below, SPACE has assisted partnership working for protection of Nancy Creek.

Saving Places for Atlanta’s Community Environments (SPACE), GLT’s conservation program for metro Atlanta, works to protect the natural qualities that make Atlanta such a desirable place to live. We accomplish by providing landowners with such land conservation options as conservation easements; land donation/sale and remainder trusts; collaboration with local, city and state governments and other non-profits; and financial assistance to neighborhood groups.

CONSERVATION EASEMENTS

SPACE’s first easement, achieved through the combined efforts of Jim and Sally Morgens (current and former board members) and other Wolf Creek residents, resulted in the protection of a one-acre woodland which became Wolf Creek Park. That protection effort resulted in the creation of SPACE, which subsequently merged with the Georgia Land Trust.

In 2002, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) donated a conservation easement on 3.5 acres of urban woodland along Riverly Road in Fulton County. The easement prevents future infill construction and provides a green buffer to adjacent developed parcels. It is heavily forested with mixed hardwoods and pines and supports many wildlife species including barred owls. 

SPACE also holds a conservation easement on 25 acres of woodlands off Camp Creek Parkway, just outside the Atlanta city limits. The woods are home to a great variety of bird and upland animal species. Atlanta Audubon and the State wildlife/botanical agencies have certified the property for its high wildlife and botanical values. The grantor obtained the property through family inheritance and the use of a conservation easement saved this property from condemnation and clear cutting.

Several other easements held by SPACE permanently protect streams, wetlands, and contiguous forest within the urban community.

Barred Owls find
refuge in
Riverly Road
land protected
by easement and
donated by
TNC to SPACE
 

James Coe, www.jamescoe.com