(research.)  I got to know Debra Edelson after she moved to Atlanta and was working on the Atlanta Beltline for the Trust for Public Land. In a previous life she worked for CSX as a partner in the effort to build the High Line in New York. In December 2013, however, she took me on a tour to see the beginnings of another great transformation. Proctor Creek connects the Atlanta Beltline to the Chattahoochee River through some of the most blighted and industrialized parts of town. Lined by stark contrasts of natural beauty and tragic degradation, this much-maligned creek has been identified as one of eleven waterways targeted under the EPA’s Urban Waters Federal Partnership. Debra’s enthusiasm is contagious and the creek’s potential is obvious. From one fence along the tour we looked south into a contaminated wasteland, and north toward a mountain stream that flows across granite shoals below a mature hardwood forest. My jaw had dropped – the creek’s condition and its potential are nothing short of stunning. >> Ryan Gravel

Find out more about Proctor Creek from the EPA’s press release, its Green Street Health Impact Assessment, the Trust for Public Land, and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership.

Map it: at the Bankhead MARTA Station, at Westside Park, at the Hollywood Landfill, at the Chattahoochee River.