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Helen to Lake Lanier Kayaking Trail Close to Reality |
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 This week Georgia spent $1.7 million to purchase 204 acres around Helen. This will allow boaters and kayakers to have access to the Chattahoochee River. Its hoped that this will the first of a string of public-access boat ramps and put-in points for canoeists, kayakers and rafters to paddle the river from Helen to Lake Lanier.
Darcie Holcomb, the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper's headwaters conservation director, is working on a strategy to present to the state Department of Natural Resource that will include boat ramps, parking lots, and overnight camping spots for paddlers at state-owned properties at Hardman Farm, Buck Shoals, Mossy Creek and Don Carter at Lake Lanier.
"All our really pretty mountain land is in high demand for retirement and second homes," said Jim Langford with the Trust for Public Land in Atlanta. "This is protecting the viewshed so that you won't have houses looming over that farm and that valley."
The Chattahoochee campaign, which is led by TPL and includes the Georgia Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Fund and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, has raised millions in public and private money to purchase a green way on either side of the Chattahoochee River between Helen and Columbus. To date, about $160 million has been spent to protect 13,500 acres touching about 140 miles of river, Langford said.
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