Public Open Spaces
Every year, millions of dollars of public and private funding are used to purchase and maintain land that is available for friends and residents of Georgia’s coast to enjoy and explore. To evaluate this indicator, we inventoried public open spaces, such as parks and wildlife management areas, in coastal Georgia’s 11 coastal counties (six with ocean and river access, and five just inland with river access).
Public Open Spaces on and Near the Georgia Coast
What we learned
Georgia’s local and state governments have made significant investments in land to provide opportunities for residents to enjoy the outdoors.
- Within the 11-county coastal region, there are 1,075,205 acres of publicly-accessible land available for a variety of outdoor recreation activities. This includes 875 different tracks of land.
- Residents of the 11-county coastal region have available to them an average of 4.19 acres of publicly-owned open space or 1.5 acres per capita.
Over the next year we will have surveys available online and in the coastal watersheds to develop a better understanding of how much these important places are visited and used by the public.