🎙️ Transforming a Toxic Wasteland into a Wildlife Haven

Award-winning journalist, author, and environmentalist, Sally Sears tells ‪@KateTucker‬ the story of transforming Zonolite Park from a toxic wasteland to a wildlife haven in the middle of bustling Atlanta, Georgia.

HOPE Is My Middle Name Season 3, Episode 3 - Transforming a Toxic Wasteland into a Wildlife Haven

Where’s your creek? Atlanta’s own Sally Sears asks, as she spills the tea on how she and her neighbors discovered an urban paradise, hidden in swaths of kudzu, swamped with sewage and asbestos, but there nonetheless, waiting for them to reclaim it.

This is the story of Zonolite Park, an industrial wasteland abandoned for decades, declared a brownfield by the EPA, only to be rescued by a handful of locals who believed it could be done. From court battles to coordinated clean up, the people of South Fork Conservancy built a veritable wildlife haven between two major interstates. And it’s only the beginning… With five miles of pathway and three new public parks along Peachtree Creek, they plan to connect and restore 31 miles of thriving watershed.

A lifelong journalist and co-founder and CEO of South Fork Conservancy, Sally shares her wealth of experience covering urban growth in the South. “When you can help a little thing like a creek, you start to see some of those intertwining connections that make for a much more rich life for yourself, as well as for the world around you, and you inspire other people to do it too. [...] It's a purpose. It's a unifier. We are not here alone. We are here as part of something bigger.”

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
00:00 Introducing Journalist Sally Sears
02:17 Kudzu, the Invasive Plant that Ate the South
04:14 How Non-Native Plants Harm Ecosystems
05:31 Milkweed and Monarch Migration
08:05 Pollution of Peachtree Creek
10:07 How Zonolite Became Contaminated with Asbestos
11:35 Reclaiming an EPA Brownfield
20:06 Feeding Privet to Giraffes at the Zoo
20:50 Frederick Law Olmsted’s Legacy
27:04 How to Start a Conservation Project
29:30 Tour of Zonolite Park
35:16 A Trail to Connect Communities
38:31 Hope of Innovation for a Sustainable Future

LISTEN 🎙
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wxJ...
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Everywhere else: https://pod.link/1566145497/episode/a...

LEARN MORE 📔
https://southforkconservancy.org/
  / sally-sears-b4683b9  
   • 🎙 Bayou Dave: Cleaning Up Trash to Sa...  

SUBSCRIBE 🎬
‪@KateTucker‬
‪@ConsensusDigitalMedia‬

CONNECT 🌍
  / katetuckerm.  .
https://consensusdigitalmedia.com/

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

Do you have a question for Sally or Kate? Comment below and we’ll ask them!