Fort Benning Appointment Line - The University of Georgia is part of an innovative project that will create a recreational area along 35,000 acres around Fort Benning, an effort to spur development in the seven counties bordering the military base.
The UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the River Valley Regional Commission and The Nature Conservancy are working with Fort Benning on the project.
Fort Benning Appointment Line
Spanning six counties in Georgia (Harris, Talbot, Taylor, Marion, Stewart, and Chattahoochee) and one county in Alabama (Russell), the undeveloped land serves as a military base for Fort Benning and forms a natural barrier to the base. to prevent training and testing from disrupting surrounding communities.
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Although the needs of the military dictate that the country remains undeveloped, it still offers plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation and related industries, said Scott Pippin, a public service associate with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
"The military has its mission and goals, and those are the driving forces behind it," Pippin said. “We try to connect them to projects and goals and ideas and society's vision for the future. … What can we do to take this effort beyond conservation and turn it into a community development and economic development project?”
Vinson Institute Rural Development Manager Saralyn Stafford speaks in front of a map showing the Army Compatible Use Buffer and surrounding counties at a kickoff event at Fort Benning. (Photo: Shannah Montgomery / PSO)
Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the purpose of the partnership is to work with surrounding communities and help develop a coordinated plan to grow, promote the region's outdoor activities, such as hiking, rafting, and fishing and better use.
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The State Department of Management will follow the blueprint they used to develop city areas and community parks as they guide community leaders and residents in prioritizing and planning the best way to use the Fort Benning grounds.
"A project like this is exactly what the University of Georgia, through its land grant program, should be doing," said Jennifer Frum, UGA's vice president of public service and when announcing the partnership. "This is a tremendously talented team at the Vinson Institute who will help guide you through a process that will lead to real and actionable steps." I am convinced that these steps will lead to long-lasting economic effects."
The collaboration started in 2020 and is expected to continue for the next two years. Small working groups of regional leaders will be formed to help engage their communities and identify shared needs, problems, assets and opportunities. Representatives from Fort Benning, led by Commander Colonel Alexis Rivera, will participate in the entire project, but will not lead the community discussion.
Fort Benning Garrison Commander Col. Alexis Rivera (right) chats with Chattahoochee Sheriff Damon Hoyte (left) during the commencement event. (Photo: Shannah Montgomery / PSO)
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"There are many resources and opportunities that one community may not even realize another community has," said Brent Widener, Fort Benning's chief of environmental support. “A shared and shared understanding of what the resources are and what is available is an important part of this. We must be open and receptive to other development options and systematically consider how to fit them into the landscape if they are not fully compatible with the military mission. I think we should all go into it with an open mind and allow these congregations to share with us what they see and think and look for where there are common ground.”
In addition to opportunities for economic development, thousands of hectares of natural land represent a potentially great opportunity for conservation. That aspect of the partnership is led by The Nature Conservancy, an international environmental organization dedicated to protecting land and water.
"It's a unique part of the state because it's on the fall line," said Deron Davis, director of the Georgia Nature Conservancy and chair of the Army Compatible Use Buffer Advisory Board. "What you find is a very complex soil structure. You will find soil that looks like a beach, but you will also find soil that looks like Piedmont or in rare cases the mountain. What the soil looks like determines what the plants look like, and what the plants look like determines what the animals look like so having a relatively narrow geographic area with a mixture of soils that are so close together gives you things that are almost anomalous the complexity and variety is what this region unique."
The hope for Davis, and the partnership, is that the community will work together to develop the area, similar to how nearby Columbus has embraced and used the Chattahoochee River.
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If the project develops as hoped, it could serve as a proof-of-concept for the Vinson Institute, potentially setting guidelines for similar projects involving military installations in the future.
'Fort Benning isn't the only one who has to do this kind of work,' Pippin said. "All installations in Georgia and across the country face the same issues, so this is a truly innovative project." The Department of Defense has acknowledged this and said this is an innovation they need to see more of. So it's really an experiment for everyone to do something different."
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