native

As an outdoor venue dedicated to healthy activity and overall wellness, the Chattahoochee Nature Center (CNC) is taking the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic very seriously. The well-being of our guests and staff are of the utmost importance.

CNC is temporarily closed to the public. Essential staff will be on site as needed to maintain the property, continue working in the Unity Garden, and to take care of our wildlife. Please consider helping support these efforts by donating today to CNC.

We will continue to assess the situation daily and follow the recommendations of the CDC as well as state and local health agencies.

CNC’s expert staff are working harder than ever to deliver ways to experience nature on a personal level from the safety of your own home.

Connect with the land

The Unity Garden urban farm is CNC’s quarter acre outdoor classroom, growing hundreds of vegetables year-round. Everything grown in the Unity Garden is donated to the local food pantry, run by North Fulton Community Charities. A recent trip saw 340 pounds of fresh produce delivered at a time when many food pantries are going bare. These trips occur every week.

More than 70 families a day are fed through the NFCC food pantry.

“I feel honored to be a part of us still growing vegetables for all those needy families in North Fulton,” said Julie Hollingsworth-Hogg, manager of gardens for CNC.

Connect with learning

The education department typically sees more than 40,000 metro Atlanta schoolchildren every year, many of whom have never been on the Chattahoochee River, or seen a wild animal up close.

CNC has moved its learning online through videos and instructional sheets for parents and teachers, so learning about nature can continue long after school is out. Fun and informative, these programs instill the love of the outdoors and wildlife for which CNC is renowned.

Connect with nature

A leader in native horticulture, CNC is exploring new ways to connect people with the nature around them, even in their backyards.

The annual Spring Native Plant Sale continued in early April, working around the public gatherings restrictions. It moved online for the first time, accepting ordered digitally and promoting responsible plant pickups in the parking lot. This “drive-through plant sale” was such a success that more such plant sales are being devised to give Atlanta more of the native, hard-to-find species that CNC is known for growing.

Connect with friends

Even Camp Kingfisher has joined the online bandwagon, hosting a virtual Spring Break Camp on Facebook and Instagram the week of April 6-10. Videos, games, and camp fun took over CNC’s social media to show just how much fun can be had in nature with CNC, even from home.

With so many programs and activities moving online, there’s always new content arriving. Look for more programs, information, and updates via email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.