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Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Upson County's Sprewell Bluff park being donated to state

Sprewell Bluff, the only remaining state park that was owned by a private company, is being donated to the state by Georgia Power.

Last week, Georgia’s Board of Natural Resources accepted the donation, which includes 3,000 acres of rocky woods and scenic shoals along the Flint River near Thomaston. The state properties commission is expected to finalize the deal in December, said DNR Commissioner Chris Clark.

DNR officials say the change bodes well for permanent protection of the area and perhaps a renewed investment in Sprewell Bluff.

The park lost its sole employee and its state park designation during budget cuts this summer. One of the reasons cited was that the land was not owned by the state. Sprewell Bluff remains a location where some locals and Georgia congressmen want a reservoir built.

After Gov. Sonny Perdue asked the parks division to chop 40 percent of its budget, parks officials proposed closing Sprewell Bluff several days a week. But officials with the DNR wildlife division stepped in to take over management July 1. The park remains open daily during daylight hours, and other portions of the property are state natural areas available for archery hunting.

The main park area is mostly used for picnicking, hiking, swimming and fishing. The area was a popular party spot for many years before becoming a state park.

Sprewell Bluff is now technically a state outdoor recreation area run by the Fort Valley office of the DNR wildlife resources division, Clark said.

Several days of Telegraph calls to employees with the wildlife and parks divisions revealed that no one except Clark was even sure whether Sprewell Bluff was a state park. Officials with the parks division removed the “state park” designation from the Sprewell Bluff Web site after Telegraph inquiries.

Currently, wildlife resources division employees cut grass, clean the bathrooms, remove trash and patrol the park about three times a week, said Kevin Kramer, regional game management supervisor in Fort Valley. Those employees are also responsible for trail maintenance when possible, but they are stretched thin already, he said.

Areas along the river trails have started to wash out and destabilize.

Clark said he is optimistic that Sprewell Bluff may see improvements as a result of the donation by Georgia Power, which had leased the land to the state for 13 years.

“If I’m leasing the land from someone, I’m really going to be hesitant about where I outlay my very limited dollars,” Clark said. But now the state can be sure it will reap the return on long-term investments there, he said.

“Our big goal is to add camping there,” he said That would include tent and recreational vehicle camping, as well as river camping for paddlers. This would attract more visitors and perhaps allow the park to generate enough revenue to pay for its operations, he said.

In recent years, Sprewell Bluff had the fewest visitors of any state park, but it also cost the least to run per visitor.

For now, its status remains in flux. Clark convened a new land management task force, which met for the first time Friday, to re-evaluate the management of all state recreation lands.

“Sprewell is one of two areas we spend the most time talking about,” Clark said.

HERITAGE PRESERVE?

Warren Budd of Newnan, chairman of the DNR board’s land acquisition committee, proposed at the DNR board meeting last week that the state make Sprewell Bluff a heritage preserve. That would ensure that the area would never be developed and would presumably prevent dam building there.

“This area is so unique; it’s one of the most spectacular areas in the state,” Budd said this week. “Building a lake there kind of went out with hula hoops, miniskirts and lava lamps,” he added, referring to a large-scale reservoir proposal that was shot down in the 1970s by then-Gov. Jimmy Carter.

Budd noted that preservation of Sprewell Bluff would depend on Perdue and his successor. Governors must sign off on heritage preserves, which are the highest level of protection the state affords, said Steve Friedman, DNR real estate chief.

Clark said that when he spoke with Perdue about Georgia Power’s land donations Wednesday, the governor was “very excited” about them.

Friedman said Sprewell Bluff’s master plan calls for it to remain a state park, and there has been no discussion of the state using the property for anything but recreation.

Georgia Power had purchased Sprewell Bluff in the 1920s, said Christy Ihrig, media relations manager. She said the company is donating it now because the park is so popular and because Georgia Power’s owner, Southern Co., is involved in a multistate project to restore longleaf pine forests.

Sprewell Bluff has old-growth longleaf stands that were seedlings when the country was founded, said Nathan Klaus, a DNR wildlife biologist drafting a 50-year-management plan for the area.

“It has the most extensive old-growth forests anywhere in Middle Georgia,” he said.

Sprewell Bluff’s long-term plan will likely emphasize longleaf and other ecosystems that depend on regular burning, as well as protection of an old-growth beech forest and archaeological sites such as ancient Indian mounds and a historic village that was burned during the Civil War, Klaus said.

The $5 parking fee charged at all state parks continues to be collected at Sprewell Bluff. It does not go toward Sprewell Bluff maintenance, but toward the operation of other parks, Kramer said.

However, DNR Commissioner Chris Clark said that at the state level, money is going to be returned to the wildlife resources division and pay for maintenance at Sprewell Bluff.

Kramer said the state parks division still advises his staff and is currently trying to arrange for a rotating volunteer camp host to stay on the property and act as a “quasi-manager.”

“We’ve had a lot of interest from Upson County, too,” Kramer said. Local leaders want the area maintained as a park with a family atmosphere, he said.

The county is assisting with mowing and trash removal, and Upson County Sheriff Donald Peacock is planning to move a deputy into the former park manager’s house.

“We patrol more down there than ever before,” Peacock said. “We just hated to see them stop having it as a state park.”

Clark said his land management task force will create a report and make recommendations to the DNR board early next year about changes to management of state lands, including Sprewell Bluff. Public hearings about the proposal will be held afterward, he said.

Information from The Telegraph’s archives was used in this report. To contact writer Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.