Chattahoochee Nature Center Recognized for Georgia's First Highway Pollinator Garden

The Chattahoochee Nature Center was recently recognized by the Federal Highway Administration for efforts in building The Ray, "the sustainable road of the future."

The director of horticulture for Chattahoochee Nature Center, Henning von Schmeling, received the 2019 Environmental Excellence Award on behalf of Chattahoochee Nature Center Jan. 6. This award was given to Chattahoochee Nature Center for its involvement in the pollinator habitat installation at The Ray, in conjunction with the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The Ray is 18 miles of highway along I-85, near the Alabama border, billing itself as the sustainability highway of the future. As part of the project, von Schmeling and Chattahoochee Nature Center joined with volunteers from Troup High School and Kia Motors in LaGrange, Georgia, and the LaGrange visitor's center, to plant two pollinator gardens. Chattahoochee Nature Center grew the native pollinator plants that were planted in the gardens.

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