Leaders provide update on Ocmulgee Mounds’ national preserve push, park expansion
Earlier this year, members of Georgia’s congressional delegation reintroduced the bipartisan Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Act. If passed, the law would increase the park’s area of land protection by 7,100 acres.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The push to make the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park Georgia’s first national park and preserve continues.
Earlier this year, members of Georgia’s congressional delegation reintroduced the bipartisan Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Act. If passed, the law would increase the park’s area of land protection by 7,100 acres.
“One hundred percent of which would be set aside for hunting and fishing,” said Seth Clark, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Pro Tem and Executive Director of the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative. “And all of the land that is in that 7,100-acre expanded boundary, we could only acquire by working with willing sellers. So, their private property rights are protected in this process as well.”
Clark says an economic impact study shows expansion would bring a boom to middle Georgia, with an expected increase of $230 million in economic activity annually.
The mounds serve as the ancestral land of the Muscogee Creek Nation and were seen as its capital prior to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Tracie Revis, Director of Advocacy for the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative and a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation, says the park’s expansion and upgrade in status would better protect its wildlife and give tribal members a say in its updated management plan.
“Expanding with the hunting and fishing is one thing, but there’s also the co-management of the park and making sure that our voices are heard with everything that’s happening,” Revis said. “As we are the original hunters and fishers of this land, we would like to be able to be partners in everything happening.”
Clark and other local leaders plan to make the case for the upgrade in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Federal Lands. He’s hopeful that the hearing will take place before the end of the year.
“We’re hoping we can get that done in the next month or so,” Clark said.
