MACON, Ga. — The Open Space Institute’s (OSI) plans to create Georgia’s first National Park and Preserve continue.
They announced on Thursday that 931 acres of land in Twiggs and Bibb county are now protected, according to a press release.
The institute have been working since 2022 to provide long-term protection and preservation of the Ocmulgee Mounds and Ocmulgee River floodplain so they can turn it into a national ark.
The new protected properties, named the “Branson Tracts,” will be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to be added to the 8,600-acre Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. The fish and wildlife service, according to the news release, prioritized preserving this land for hunting and fishing and to preserve wildlife habitat.
The OSI provided a map of the newly protected land.
“This acquisition represents a generational commitment to the conservation and expansion of public hunting and fishing lands in middle Georgia,” said Seth Clark, executive director at Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative (ONPPI) and Mayor Pro Tempore of Macon-Bibb County. “The Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative is grateful for the Open Space Institute, and the Peyton Anderson, Knobloch Family, and Green South Foundations for their dogged dedication to realizing the vision of filling the current and future public boundaries as we work to create Georgia’s first National Park and Preserve.”
The ONPPI worked with the OSI to preserve the cultural resources important to the Muscogee Creek tribe. The tracts are a short distance from traditional Muscogee Creek lands and are a part of a 200,000-acre landscape that is considered sacred. The tribe has also had a big part in the expansion project.
“The benefits of protected land should be for everyone,” said Maria Whitehead, OSI’s senior vice president of land (in the) Southeast. “The protection of the Branson Tracts serves the residents of the Macon-Warner Robins area, but also safeguards the site of 17,000 years of Indigenous history. It’s a meaningful conservation accomplishment and the next step in creating the National Park and Preserve. We at OSI are deeply grateful to the many partners who worked so closely together to conserve these lands for cultural preservation and public recreation, forever.”
The OSI has been working to create Georgia’s first national park near the Ocmulgee Mounds for some time. In 2022, they added nearly 1,000 acres to the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park and nearly doubled its size. Most of that land is in Twiggs County — 881 acres of it — while the rest is in Bibb County.
Just this year, the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail looked into extending the river walk from north Macon all the way to Milledgeville on 33 miles of abandoned railway. On April 30, members of Georgia’s congressional delegation in Washington filed for a bill to create the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve.
The bill allows the park service to buy the land they need from willing sellers, but can’t use eminent domain to take land for the park.
It also broke down leadership responsibility, as they want to create a nine-person advisory council to oversee management and preservation.
Recently re-elected Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller also said he will continue to support and emphasize a possible new national park.
While the efforts to create Georgia’s first national park have been long, this expansion alongside more visitors at the park in 2023, made Clark excited about 2024.
"It’s going to happen,” Clark said in 2023. “We will be home of the 64th National Park and Preserve in 2024. I have the utmost faith and respect in our members of Congress and really believe they can do it.”