Trail Creek Park is a public park located on the east side of Athens, GA. Located in the watershed for Trail Creek, the 120-acre park includes athletic fields, a splash pad, and multi-use trails amidst large areas of forested land. Due to environmental, cultural, and economic factors, the health of the park's forest and watershed is suffering issues such as erosion, invasive species infestations,
and lack of natural diversity. The Trail Creek Park Restoration Project aims to reclaim the ecological and social functions of this land - to rebuild the ecosystem and create a wild space for the community to congregate, connect to nature, and care for the land by facilitating the natural functions of a thriving and productive ecosystem within the park. Guided by the principles of permaculture, some elements of this restoration will include planting a "food forest" to provide for for the human and natural communities alike, establishing connections between surrounding communities and the restoration of the land, and exploring a regenerative approach to long-term management of invasive species on public land. This project is also part of a larger effort to rehabilitate the environmental and social aspects of Trail Creek and the greater Trail Creek watershed.
