Originally published on SaportaReport.
Local author and park naturalist Jonah McDonald is on a mission to make Atlanta’s hidden forests less hidden.
One decade after his first hiking guidebook, “Hiking Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Intown and Out,” Jonah and his co-author Zana Pouncey recently released “Hiking Intown Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Inside and On the Perimeter.”
The latest book includes 61 Atlanta hikes, 37 of which have never appeared in a hiking guidebook. Next year, the duo will release a second book called “Hiking Metro Atlanta’s Hidden Forest” which includes another 65 hikes that are within a one-hour drive of Atlanta.
Jonah and Eli Dickerson, Park Pride’s Director of Education, sat down to chat about the latest book, why folks should check it out, and Jonah and Zana’s shared goal of helping Atlantans integrate hiking into their everyday lives.
Eli: Jonah, you’ve now authored two books dedicated to Atlanta’s hidden forests and you clearly have a love for Atlanta’s parks and greenspaces. What fuels that love?
Jonah: I used to be a hiking snob. I hiked the whole Appalachian Trail when I was in my early 20s, and I decided that the only real way to connect with nature was through giant adventures. But when I moved to Atlanta and would do my hiking on the weekends, I started finding all of the greenspaces that we have in our metro area, and I had a huge change in perspective. I found that the local green spaces, the ones that we can visit over and over again, can be truly life-changing.
I’ve become a passionate believer that we need to find greenspace that’s close to our homes. A trip to a national park might be a honeymoon but a trip to our local greenspace is a marriage.
Eli: We definitely resonate with that at Park Pride, and that connects directly to our mission of engaging communities to activate the power of parks. How would you, personally, describe the power of parks?
Jonah: I meet people almost daily who tell me that a park is a refuge for them. We talk about parks as being wildlife refuges, but I think they’re really a refuge for humans. That’s part of the power of parks, and the other is connection.
When you have parks that become destinations, either for amazing playgrounds like Cook Park or a fantastic trail system like Southside Park, people from across the metro area visit each other’s neighborhoods and build human connections across differences.
Eli: What inspired you to write your first book, “Hiking Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Intown and Out”? Full disclosure to readers – Jonah looped me into this project!
Jonah: I was looking for a book that was truly about local hikes – ones I didn’t have to drive a long way to get to – and I couldn’t find that book. My wife and I looked at each other and said, ‘I guess this is mine to write!’
Eli: Trees are a major feature of many of our parks and in your book, you use the term “sentinel tree.” Can you share what a sentinel tree is?
Jonah: I wanted there to be a scavenger hunt on each hike. So I went to Eli, who was working on a Champion Tree list with Trees Atlanta at the time, and said, ‘I want there to be a champion tree on every hike.’ Eli chuckled and told me, ‘There’s only one champion tree per species, you’re not going to have one for every hike.’ I said, ‘There’s got to be a special tree on every hike. What’s that called?’ So [I decided] to call them ‘sentinel trees’ because they’ve been standing sentinel over our city – something we may not have noticed but have been providing value.
Eli: You co-authored “Hiking Intown Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Inside and On the Perimeter” with Zana Pouncey. Why did y’all decide to team up for this project?
Jonah: Zana and I used to be colleagues, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to collaborate with somebody who I already like, trust and work well with. Having multiple perspectives … has produced a much better product than the original book. I’m very proud of what we’ve done.
Eli: What about your recent book stands out from prior books?
Jonah: This is doing something that’s very different from a typical hiking guidebook.
One thing you’ll find unusual is that many of these hikes are wheelchair and stroller-friendly because they’re paved. To really make nature accessible to all, we have to have some paved trails. I think this allows more people the option to connect with nature. Some of the trails are muddy, single-track dirt trails and some are beautiful, raised boardwalk platforms. So, it shows a wide diversity of what hiking means in our city.
If connecting with nature without spending lots of time in your car interests you, this is the book for you.
Eli: What’s your favorite park at the moment? I saved the hardest question for last!
Jonah: My favorite park is the one that I work at – my office is Mason Mill Park. You can walk over seven miles here, and I’m absolutely passionate about it. If I had to choose a lesser-known one that should get more play, that’s Kittredge Park in DeKalb County. It has about two miles of trails and some really amazing trees.
If you’re inspired to explore the amazing trails that helped Atlanta earn its title as The City in the Forest, check out Jonah and Zana’s new book. You’ll feel like you’re in North Georgia, just without the long drive!
You can also meet Jonah at our upcoming Second Friday Walk in the Park at Mason Mill Park on Friday, Dec. 13 at 9 a.m. He’ll have his Mason Mill Park Ranger hat on, and we’ll learn about park programming, trail maintenance, native plants and more. We hope to see you there!