MACON, Ga. — For historical and environmental reasons, creating a national park and preserve along the Ocmulgee River corridor south of Macon may be a good idea, a National Park Service report says.
But the cost of acquiring up to 120,000 acres and other challenges makes the plan impractical, the federal agency says.
"It does not currently appear to be a feasible addition to the national park system," said the report released on Thursday. That finding means the park service won't recommend making the corridor Georgia's first national park.
The report goes to Congress, which would make the final call.
Bills to create such a park have stalled in Congress for nearly a decade.
For years, Central Georgia advocates have pushed for a national park along the river, extending south from Macon's Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic site.
They include groups like the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative.
"We believe formally preserving the area between Macon and Hawkinsville along the Ocmulgee River Corridor will not only provide opportunities for recreation, education, and protection of fragile resources, but will also benefit the area economically," their website said.
The river region is the ancestral home of the Muscogee Creek people. They were forcibly removed to Oklahoma during the 1830s "Trail of Tears.
The federal report says the Ocmulgee Corridor deserves to be a national park based on its historic, cultural and environmental importance.
But they say the cost of acquiring and maintaining all that land would be challenging.
They estimate it would cost between $146 million and $325 million to buy the target area between Macon and Hawkinsville.
And that's if private landowners would agree to sell. Many property owners oppose the park plan, the report says.
Some public agencies are also opposed — like the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which doesn't want to cede control over wildlife management areas.
Cost, opposition and the challenges of buying hundreds of private parcels is "likely an insurmountable barrier," the report says.
The park service recommends a scaled-down plan covering less land, managed by a partnership of public and private landowners.
But their report also raises alarms about the state of the river.
They say the Ocmulgee River corridor faces threats from sewage, coal-ash ponds, dumping and more.
Mining and timber cutting have also degraded lands along the river, the park service said.
And many people reported "shocking levels of trash" found during river cleanup events.
The park service wrote: "A substantial amount of environmental cleanup and mitigation would be required to address pollution and contamination issues, and decades of ecological restoration would be required to reverse over a century of timbering, mining, and invasive species’ intrusion."
Other threats — like noise and development pressure around Robins Air Force Base — would be impossible to roll back, the report says.
Despite this, members of Macon's Congressional Delegation are forging ahead on their efforts to turn the mounds into a national park. In a news release, Rep. Austin Scott says that he, Rep. Sanford Bishop, Sen. Jon Osssof and Sen. Raphael Warnock are still pushing forward.
"Designating the Ocmulgee Mounds as a National Park and Preserve will help protect our state's history and have a lasting, positive economic and cultural impact in Middle Georgia," Scott said in the press release.