West Atlanta Watershed Alliance preserves trails, wildlife and historic Negro Leagues site after storms

Hundreds of people visit the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance on Richland Road each week. That's why it surveys the 25-acre nature preserve for hanging or fallen tree limbs after storms move through metro Atlanta.

"Southwest Atlanta tends to get hit pretty hard because of the tree canopy," said Na'Taki Osborne Jelks, the co-founder and executive director of WAWA. "About 60 percent of the tree canopy in the city is in Southwest Atlanta. A lot of it is in private yards and things like that. But we also have some large tracts of green space like this one." 

Jelks says there are parts of the preserve's three trails that staff prioritize as they search the land. 

"There is an outdoor classroom that was built, erected in 2025, that is off of one of the trails as well," Jelks said. "So that actually be one of the spaces that our stewards will be surveying tomorrow just to make sure that that is still intact."

Staff also surveys boardwalks and bridges on the trails. Regardless of what they find on the trails, the group integrates fallen trees into the preserve's design, like limbs to line walking paths. 

"Any time you have, wood like this that's come down, it can be a part of the habitat of wildlife who live in the forest," Jelks said. "So it's not something that we just want to discard."

WAWA's trails hold historic significance in the Richland Hills, Oakland City, and Bush Mountain areas. Walkways lead to the Atlanta Black Crackers practice field, where the Negro Leagues played during segregation in the early to mid-1900s. 

The trails also lead to the Hartnett Community Garden.