For years, local community members have shared a grand vision: expanding the historic Ocmulgee Mounds into a massive, protected National Park and Preserve. This would create Georgia’s very first National Park and protect miles of this sacred river corridor forever.

Imagine hundreds of people arriving on the Ocmulgee with a shared goal: to leave it better than they found it. What kind of support could we gather for this park initiative if we show the world that local citizens are actively looking after this waterway?

Instead of waiting for distant experts, how might our community use open-source ideas to create a visible network of environmental stewardship that proves how much this land matters?

All across Georgia, the landscape is changing. Huge warehouses filled with powerful computers, known as data centers, are popping up rapidly to support the internet and digital technology. While these centers help power our modern world, they also raise important environmental questions for our communities:

• Resources & Energy: These massive computer hubs require an immense amount of electricity to stay running, yet they often create very few permanent jobs for local residents once construction is finished.

• The Question of Water: Computers get hot. To keep data centers from overheating, millions of gallons of water are often used every single day to cool them down. Where does that water come from, and what happens to our local ecosystems if it is pulled from our rivers and underground supplies?

How can a community keep track of the health of its own natural resources when changes happen so quickly? What if regular citizens had access to low-cost, independent ways to observe river levels and temperatures in real-time? How might open data help neighborhoods have a louder voice in conversations about their own environment?

The health of the Ocmulgee River is deeply connected to the health of every family living around it. In rural Georgia, protecting our watershed is one of the most direct ways we can look out for our neighbors' public health:

• The Water Around Us: When a river system faces pollution from runoff, chemicals, or extreme changes, it threatens everything from local drinking supplies to the safety of wildlife.

• The Power of Recreation: Did you know that simply enjoying a river is a form of environmental protection? Under federal guidelines, if a community can prove they actively use a waterway for recreation—like kayaking, fishing, and boating—they can legally compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to raise water quality protections.

What if enjoying the river and protecting the river became the exact same activity? Imagine a future where recreationalists, like kayakers and paddlers, naturally check on community-led environmental projects just as a part of their regular day on the water. How might we connect outdoor fun with long-term public health tracking to shield our rural communities from environmental risks?