Accomplishments:

Here are just a few of the many accomplishments and success stories of our member organizations:

The Chattahoochee Greenways Project is a campaign to transform the Chattahoochee River from one of the nation's most threatened rivers into a vital center of community life for metro-Atlanta. The Chattahoochee provides drinking water for half of all Georgians and is Atlanta's most significant natural resource. This 180-mile ribbon of green would stretch from the North Georgia mountains to Columbus, protecting safe drinking water and enhancing communities with recreational and natural lands. Four Earth Share members have been integral players in the Greenways initiative The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, The Georgia Conservancy and the Georgia Wildlife Federation.

Greenprints, one of Atlanta's premier environmental events, is fast becoming an internationally renowned conference on sustainable design and construction that celebrates new ideas on improving our built environment. Greenprints has an entire "GreenWeek", a cutting-edge curriculum of learning and networking activities for professionals in community design, urban ecology, clean energy, and high performance building. Southface Energy Institute, the organizer of the 5th annual Greenprints conference this February, has been a key player in educating and partnering with developers, real estate specialist and urban designers to develop and redevelop the metro area with a visionary eye.

Saving parks and adding greenspace in the Atlanta area, in 2006 PARK PRIDE led the successful charge to have the Fulton County Board of Commission reverse its decision to sell six Sandy Springs Parks to the highest bidder. Also in 2006, PARK PRIDE encouraged Fulton County to sell the Bellwood Quarry to the City of Atlanta, which is now posed to become a park—one of the City’s largest—along the BeltLine in Southwest Atlanta. Park Pride also continues to work with community organizations and grassroot advocates to support the creation of the Atlanta BeltLine, which will create more than 1,000 acres of new parks and 33 miles of trails.

IBA stands for Important Bird Areas, a program designed by the Atlanta Audubon Society to select, designate and protect the top 100 bird habitat sites in Georgia. Twenty-nine sites have been selected so far including: Big Duke's Pond, Carter's Lake, Fernbank forest, Phinizy Swamp and Kennesaw Mountain. These areas are increasingly important as migrating bird populations plummet.

Bike There is a project of the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign to increase the use of bicycling for commuting to work and other trips resulting in reduced use of the automobile. The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign has been instrumental in spurring the development of bike lanes and shoulders across metro Atlanta and convincing MARTA and other bus systems to install bike racks on buses for the first time this year.

The 15,443-acre Chickasawhatchee Swamp was purchased this past year for $30 million, the largest land acquisition project in the history of the The Nature Conservancy's Georgia Chapter. This vast swamp near Albany is considered the most important wetland in Georgia, outside the Okefenokee Swamp.