It is a first for southwest metro Atlanta. It is a first for Georgia. The move is underway to establish the state’s first wildlife hospital and clinical research center in the new city of Chattahoochee Hill Country. The non-profit Georgia Rehabilitation of Wildlife Center (GROW) is raising $3.5 million construct the 11,000 square-foot facility on the grounds of Cochran Mill Nature Preserve in Chatt Hills. Land for the new facility is being donated by Minerva Properties, developer of Friendship Village, a Chatt Hills community in the planning stages in south Fulton County that will feature more than 60 percent greenspace.

Phase I of the GROW plan is to build a "green" wildlife hospital and research center. GROW will work with the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine to staff the facility including specialist veterinarians, resident and veterinary students. The hospital will treat all types of wildlife including mammals, reptiles, birds, and amphibians, returning only excellent rehabilitation candidates to the wild. The facility will include examination rooms, a surgery suite, radiography, animal wards, necropsy/pathology and a laboratory, according to the organization. To help minimize the environmental impact of the facility, it will be designed and constructed as a green building which is an eco-sensitive structure and is cleaner, healthier for occupants, and the environment, GROW said. It will also serve as a research center for veterinary, zoology, biology, wildlife, and ecology students from Georgia universities and serve as a data source for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Phase II of the GROW plan is to build an education center to teach adults and children about Georgia wildlife and the environment. The education center will be home to animals that are unable to be successfully returned to the wild. It will be located on the Geenway Trail connecting south Fulton, Coweta, Douglas and Carroll counties.

Minerva Properties co-owner Brian Davison said the addition of the wildlife hospital was an idea that made sense. Locating the facility in the Cochran Mill Nature Preserve, 800 acres of virgin forest and rolling hills and also the home of Cochran Mill Nature Center, is fitting for the concepts found in the development of Friendship Village, positioned on 2,000 acres immediately to the north.

For more than 10 years Minerva has leased approximately 40 acres at no cost to the nature center. With the upcoming addition of the wildlife hospital, Minvera is donating the property to the nature preserve and to GROW.

“We agreed to give the land to Cochran Mill Nature Center so they could have it as an asset and expand the facility. GROW and Cochran Mill will partner in the effort, with GROW running the wildlife facility and sharing parking with the center,” Davison said. “The focus of Friendship Village is being environmentally friendly and this is the first step of many. We’re really excited about this addition of a new relationship for Friendship Village and Chattahoochee Hill Country, where there is a different way of looking at development and community life.”

Davison said GROW will be an independent operator and will work in partnership with Friendship Village, with the new community installing an interconnecting trail system with its neighbor to the south.

“The effort exemplifies the concept of Friendship village,” Davison said. “From its inception, the village is an environmentally friendly community that is responsive to nature and respectful to wildlife

GROW will serve as a liaison with Federal and State Wildlife agencies and associations including the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, to identify and coordinate the release of wildlife cases.

The Jack Hannah Celebrity Benefit Gala to raise funds for the wildlife hospital project will be held Jan. 18 in the Oceans Ballroom at the Georgia Aquarium. Tickets are $250. For more information call (770) 969—5280 or visit www.thegrowcenter.org

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