Sally Bethea, photo by Bard Wrisley

Join hometown heroine, Sally Bethea, on a walk along one of her favorite trails by the Chattahoochee River. As Founder and Director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Bethea spent two fast-paced decades protecting the Chattahoochee and its watershed from pollutants and a host of other threats. Largely due to her work, the Chattahoochee River has been reclaimed from being a forgotten and polluted waterway to being respected as a critically important natural feature of the largest city in the South. Protecting the River and its watershed is now assumed to be a self-evident value held by most Atlantans, and the non-profit organization, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, is well-known and respected throughout the metro area and beyond.

In the last few years, after retiring, Bethea was able to spend more time enjoying the natural places she worked so hard to protect, and she began to explore more deeply the flora and fauna whose lives and intricate interactions often go unnoticed yet are, in fact, the foundation of a healthy natural world.

In her newly published memoir, Keeping the Chattahoochee, Reviving and Defending a Great Southern River, Bethea intertwines stories about the pollution, people and politics that defined two decades of her advocacy work for the River, with a series of thoughtful observations and insightful experiences gleaned from spending more reflective time along woodland trails and in the forests along the River corridor. 

On our walk we’ll have the chance to talk with Sally and spend time in the places that inspired her writing, and she will share several readings from her new book. 

Our walk will be about 1.5-2 miles on natural trails descending through hardwood forest to the banks of the Chattahoochee. Expect some roots and rocks and an incline on the walk back up to the parking area. 

Limit 18 attendees.

To register (RSVP) click HERE – details and directions sent to registered participants.

A donation of $20 or more helps support our programs.

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“These walks through the seasons never failed to teach me about nature and myself. They also summoned memories of the adventures, people, challenges, victories and joyous celebrations that illustrate the effort to save one of the most important rivers in the Southeast.”

“Every time I walk this path, I see something that I have never seen before, or see things in an entirely new way.” 

“Like many children, I loved playing in the streams and falling asleep to the soothing sound of flowing water outside my bedroom window and the hooting owls in the trees above the streams: my pocket of nature. I was a city girl with a love of the natural world and a predilection for adventure, both of which have stayed with me all my life.”

                                                                                                                        — Sally Sierer Bethea