Planning for Georgia’s First
National Park and Preserve

As momentum continues to build for Georgia’s first National Park and Preserve, in Spring 2026 Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative completed a major milestone for Middle Georgia’s future: the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Corridor Strategic Plan.

Developed with generous support from the Knight Foundation and in partnership with the Middle Georgia Regional Commission (MGRC), the plan was created by Kimley-Horn with additional tourism expertise from Clarity of Place. The final plan reflects a year-long community-driven process launched in March 2025 that included extensive public and stakeholder engagement and ongoing collaboration with local, state, tribal, and national partners.

The Plan provides a shared roadmap for how Middle Georgia can prepare for the opportunities and responsibilities that come with a new national park and preserve. It outlines high-level strategies to help the region protect cultural and natural resources, expand outdoor recreation access, strengthen regional tourism offerings, support the development of an outdoor recreation economy, improve infrastructure and visitor readiness, and ensure local communities benefit from long-term economic growth.

View the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Corridor Strategic Plan here.

What Happens Next

With the plan now complete, the next step is adoption and implementation. Local governments and partners across the region are encouraged to adopt the plan and use it as a practical framework to guide local decisions, align investments, and advance shared regional priorities. ONPPI will help lead implementation by coordinating partners and moving priority conservation, infrastructure, and community projects from planning into action.

Why This Plan Matters

Creating a new national park involves more than protecting land. It is also an opportunity to shape how Middle Georgia grows, how communities preserve the region’s cultural and environmental significance, and how residents benefit from expanded recreation, tourism, and economic development.

This plan helps position the region to maximize those benefits while responsibly stewarding the landscapes, stories, and resources that make Ocmulgee nationally significant.

  • With the creation of the national park and preserve expecting to generate over $200 million dollars in commercial activity a year and the creation of several thousand jobs, how can this opportunity be capitalized on to transform the economies of Middle Georgia and create greater prosperity in the region?  

  • How do we steward and restore the ecosystems and species that make the Ocmulgee River Corridor unique, while also creating fun and engaging, but also appropriate and sustainable interactions between nature and the people that visit it?

  • What can our communities do to protect, celebrate, and honor 17,000 years of human habitation along the Ocmulgee River corridor, which is part of the Muscogee Creek people’s ancestral homeland and central to their cultural and historical legacy? 

  • Can the region’s existing infrastructure and transportation networks accommodate what is expected to be a 6-fold increase in visitation to over 1.3 million visitors? Can it keep up with the commercial development that will occur as the result of that increased visitation? If not, what needs to be done so that it can?

  • What can local governments do to guide land use and development around the park and preserve boundaries in ways that support the visitor experience and enhance the surrounding communities?

  • What work needs to be done so that the numerous departments, governments, and agencies that operate in and around the park and preserve can effectively communicate and coordinate to ensure a safe and organized visitor experience?

How to Stay Involved

Community partnership remains essential as this work moves forward. Residents, organizations, and local leaders are encouraged to stay engaged, support implementation efforts, and work locally to advance the plan’s recommendations.

Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media for updates on next steps, implementation progress, and future opportunities to get involved.

For questions or more information, please contact Matt Chalfa, Director of Strategic Planning, at m.chalfa@ocmulgeepark.org

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