Forty Oaks Nature preserve is a 10-acre site with trails, a small human-made bog, hardwoods, small drainage stream, and an organic community garden. This property originally belonged to the Sutton family and in 1970 the family donated half of the property to DeKalb County Parks Department with the understanding that the Parks department would buy the other half. And so it happened. The old farmhouse has become the office space for both DeKalb Natural Resources section and the Atlanta Outward Bound Center - AmeriCorps EcoWatch. Together, the two agencies work together on many parks environmental projects. Here at Forty Oaks, the wooded area is currently undergoing invasive exotic plant removal and native plant restoration with the help of the AmeriCorps EcoWatch team members. Georgann Schmalz of Birding Adventures is helping the team members also observe the bird populations in both the areas that have undergone removal and the areas which have yet to be "attacked." This is a research project which will help us understand the role that privet plays in our ecosystem.
We are also working with the Georgia Organic Association and the Newcomer's Network on an organic community garden which will provide after-school and summer day camp gardening education to refugee youths in the Clarkston area. A long-range goal is for this garden, in addition to the restored woods, to become a demonstration site for the public to see and understand a healthy ecosystem.