Eagle Scout Leading North Buckhead Park Restoration Effort

ATLANTA -- Friends of Mountain Way Common has received a $3,000 grant from the National Environmental Education Foundation, with major funding support from Toyota Motor North America. These funds will support the reforestation effort for the Hornaday Project that is an ongoing effort by Matthew Keagle, an Eagle Scout from Troop 370.

Matthew and Mountain Way Common leaders have teamed together to apply for and receive a total of $12,000 for reforestation efforts at the park. With a grant from Trees Atlanta, Keagle has already planted 43 native hardwood trees, and the grant will allow him to plant another 100 saplings, along with native flowers and woody shrubs. The public is invited to help with these plantings on Saturday, March 9 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mountain Way Common is a 13-acre park located in North Buckhead that was created by the neighborhood to reclaim the land under a GA 400 overpass. MWC is a unique combination of forest, floodplain, wetlands, creek, stream buffer, and wildlife habitat that exists in one of the city’s steepest natural valleys, carved over eons by Little Nancy Creek. When the park was created, much of it was overgrown and inaccessible.

To address this problem, Keagle began clearing a large portion of land as part of his Eagle project in 2016. Keagle is now pursuing the Boy Scouts of America Hornaday Award, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to conservation. The projects that he has undertaken for this award include invasive species removal, water quality testing and education, and reforestation. To date, his projects have amassed over 1,100 volunteer hours and filled six dumpsters with invasive species and debris.

“Matthew Keagle and Boy Scout Troop 370 have been ideal partners in the continuing development of Mountain Way Common” said Marvin Pastel, president of the Friends of Mountain Way Common. “Matthew had a vision about how to address some of our challenges with invasive plants and tree canopy and hit the ground running. Without the leadership and support of Matthew and the Scouts, our park would not be the wonderful greenspace that it is today.”

Livable Buckhead is implementing Buckhead’s greenspace plan to add 106 acres of parks and trails, including Mountain Way Common.

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