Pinhoti Trail

For nearly two decades, the Alabama Trails Association, The Conservation Fund, Georgia Pinhoti Trails Association and others have worked to protect more than 7,000 acres and add more than 20 miles to the Pinhoti Trail across Alabama and Georgia.

Summary

With support from the Centex Homes Land Legacy Fund and in partnership with the Alabama Trails Association and Georgia Pinhoti Trail Association, we acquired 1,760 acres of pine and hardwood forest, including 266 acres along the border of Alabama and Georgia, as an addition to the Pinhoti Trail. This capped a long-term effort to link the Alabama trail to the Appalachian Trail.

Challenge

When the Appalachian Trail was mapped in the 1920s, the plan set out by Benton Mackaye called for a trail and associated spurs that stretched from Maine to northern Alabama. While the primary trail was completed in north Georgia in the 1930s, efforts to extend the trail into Alabama faded.

Solution

In 1985 the Alabama Trails Association spearheaded an attempt to link the Pinhoti Trail in the Talladega National Forest in Alabama to the Appalachian Trail in north Georgia. The Association worked with The Conservation Fund to engage private landowners and negotiate the acquisition of properties key to completing the trail.

Results

We helped acquire nearly 10 properties to extend the trail, including the 2006 purchase from Temple Inland which protected three miles of trail corridor and culminated the effort of hundreds of volunteers who have worked for more than two decades to link the Pinhoti to the Appalachian Trail. In 2008, with key support from Fred and Alice Stanback Jr., we partnered with the Georgia Pinhoti Trail Association and Chattooga County to protect roughly 325 acres that connect the trail with Chattahoochee National Forest, expanding public access and moving the trail off-road. With our partners, we have successfully linked the Alabama and Georgia segments of the Pinhoti Trail and joined them with the Appalachian Trail.