Recently, I began my work with the Atlanta Creek League by collaborating with Hannah Palmer, one of the minds behind the initiative, to begin building a local creek team. The Atlanta Creek League aims to engage communities in the Atlanta area with their local creeks in a fun and competitive way. By building creek teams and river divisions, communities across Georgia can find interactive and rewarding ways to be more aware of the natural world around them as well as improve the conditions of these critical water bodies. 

Many people live around creeks or have one just in their backyard, but may not know much about it. In fact, some creeks are not even named as a result of the lack of awareness about the local bodies of water around us. Prior to beginning my work with the Atlanta Creek League, I knew about the parks around me and the bodies of water (particularly lakes and rivers) that surrounded my house but I didn’t know much about the organizations that maintain them, the names of the creeks and rivers in my general watershed, nor the counties boundaries they cross over. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know much about creeks at all. Talking with Hannah and looking into the incredible work she and others involved with the Atlanta Creek League have done for our local watersheds made me all the more excited to learn about my own creek and how I can play a role in preserving it. Learning the importance of preserving watersheds beyond the borders of counties, cities, and legal jurisdictions dictated by maps really opened my eyes to how those boundaries can affect the livelihood of the creeks around us. I learned what my watershed is, how far it extends, the organizations that may be involved with its preservation, and how to start building a team for the creek. Here is a picture of the Little Mulberry Watershed that’s in my area, in case you haven’t seen it or heard about it before!

This watershed, like many others, connects so many different people from different cities, counties, and neighborhoods. I’m excited to start engaging the community with my local creek and have people meet each other and connect that would have otherwise never considered themselves a community with a shared regional feature or identity. I’m eager to begin with the projects I have planned out for my creek to raise awareness about and enact the preservation of Little Mulberry creeks and rivers. Beyond that, I’m happy that this initiative will also give communities around me an opportunity to connect with each other and collaborate on the bodies of water that sustain us and our environment. 

I can’t wait to update you guys again, hopefully with more faces in the pictures and another step towards creating a team for my creek!