Acworth: the little city that can - Acworth, Georgia

American Forests, Sept-Oct, 1992 by Nancy Anne Dawe

Little Acworth continues to dream big. Green, a member of the Foundation Board of North Metro Technical Institute, hopes to see an urban forestry institute established at the school. An ambitious agenda has been developed by Green; Sanford Chandler, head of the school's Industrial Division; and other board members with the support of school president Kenneth R. Allen.

"We envision a major place where conservationists, arborists, horticulturists, municipal and utility employees, green-industry personnel, and urban foresters can come together for seminars, conferences, training sessions--a think tank for the entire industry," Green says.

"We already have the existing facilities here at North Metro Tech, including an adjoining 27 acres of land," says Chandler. The first goal will be a start-up Identification Garden, to which trees and nurseries will be added, and where native plants will be made available to the public.

One Foundation Board member has given the school a 180-acre parcel of land, located 15 minutes away. "It's an ideal laboratory," says Chandler, "total forest, except for a nine-acre vineyard, and a 14-acre lake.

"After securing funding, we will build a nature center there where we'll develop interpretive gardens, each year bringing in all the elementary- and middle-school kids from five surrounding counties," he says. "We'll teach them identification, geology, ecology; interested adults and civic and political leaders will learn what tree-protection plans are and how to implement them; and we'll have summer programs to teach teachers. There will even be a nature trail for the blind."

While Atlanta plans for its hosting of the 1996 Olympic Games, Acworth is busy making some Olympic-size plans of its own. Green says that if all their urban-forestry-institute work comes together in time, they'd like to hold an Environmental Olympics in 1996. Competitions for all ages, professional and amateur, would include events such as tree planting and scaling, pruning, and essay writing. It's a fitting goal for a city that remains a proud torch-bearer for the importance of urban forests.