With the arrival of June comes the annual commemoration of Great Outdoors Month. Whether your kids are out of school or you just like to get outside and PLAY, it’s a great time to enjoy some fresh air and fun in the sun. If you’re fortunate enough to call Gwinnett County, Georgia, your home, you’ll find that we make the celebration of the Great Outdoors easy to pursue. Your friends at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful have narrowed that long list down to eight of our favorites…

Hit the Trail

Gwinnett is rich with a variety of local trailways that weave through towering pines and over grassy wetlands. Be sure to add one or more of the following to your list of destinations:  Ivy Creek Greenway, Camp Creek Greenway, Suwanee Creek Greenway, Sugar Hill Greenway, and the Preston Williams Trail at Gas South District. To plot a course, visit https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/government/departments/parks-recreation/parks/gwinnett-trails.

Spend Your Days in Our Award-Winning Parks

We are blessed with a large collection of local parks, scattered throughout the county. From playgrounds and athletic fields to aquatic centers and family-friendly events, each is distinctive in its own way, offering a variety of attributes to draw you there. Be sure to bookmark Gwinnett Parks and Recreation and visit their website often for a list of parks, events and activities, day camps, trails, and so much more. If your home or community doesn’t offer a pool, you may want to include  West Gwinnett Park & Aquatic Center, Best Friend Park & Pool, Mountain Park Aquatic Center & Activity Building, Rhodes Jordan Park Pool, Collins Hill Aquatic Center, Lenora Park Pool, Bethesda Park Aquatic Center, Dacula Park Pool, and/or Bogan Park Aquatic Center to your summer plans.  Learn more at https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/government/departments/parks-recreation.

Pitch a Tent at a Local Camping Ground

Camping out under the stars has been a favorite pastime for many for eons. What better way to experience the Great Outdoors than by spending a whole day and staying a whole night smack dab in the middle of it? A couple of our local campgrounds include Shoal Creek Campground, with lakefront campsites on Lake Lanier in Buford; Stone Mountain Park Campground; Camp Margaritaville RV Resort at Lanier Islands; and Shady Grove Campground in nearby Cumming.

Shake Hands with a Local Farmer

President Ronald Reagan once deemed farmers as “the backbone of our country.” We are fortunate to have many working farms in and around Gwinnett, several of which are open to the public. Pay a visit this summer to DJ’s U-Pick Blueberry Farm in Lawrenceville, Washington Farms in Bogart, and/or Southern Belle Farm in McDonough. Of course, you can always meet farmers up close and in person at any one of many farmers’ markets around the county, including Braselton, Suwanee, Duluth, Lilburn, and Peachtree Corners.

Beautify Your Own Backyard

One of the most personally rewarding ways to celebrate the Great Outdoors is by beautifying your very own backyard. Whether planting sustainable fruits and vegetables for your family and friends to enjoy or establishing a pollinator garden filled with flowers that the bees, birds, and butterflies will love, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Office is a great place to start. From home gardens and landscaping to selecting the ideal ornamentals to thrive in our region, visit https://extension.uga.edu/ to learn more.

Hit the Road (for a Good Cause)

In between days at the park and trips to the beach, consider becoming a part of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s Adopt-A-Road program. A great corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative for companies and community outreach for civic organizations, churches, schools, and other groups, it’s designed to reduce unsightly trash and illegal signage along county roadways. After selecting a dedicated roadway to steward, your group will conduct a cleanup once a quarter and report the results. Each adopted section of road will be marked with two signs with your group’s name. To learn more, visit: https://gwinnettcb.org/programs/adopt-a-road/.

Get Your Feet Wet

While most people seek to put their toes in the sand this summer, you could be putting yours in a cool Georgia stream. Unlike our Adopt-A-Road program, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s Adopt-A-Stream program is open to individuals and groups alike. This volunteer water quality stewardship program is a joint effort by GC&B and Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources. We’ll provide the necessary tools and training, as well as certifications for chemical, bacterial, and macroinvertebrate testing. After selecting your waterway, you will periodically collect baseline water quality data to both observe the conditions of our local streams and become more aware of pollution and water quality issues. For more information about this program, visit https://gwinnettcb.org/programs/adopt-a-stream/.

Don’t Let the Bad Stuff Go Down the Drain

You could be out in the fresh air, meeting your neighbors, AND doing something good for the community by becoming a part of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s Stormwater Protectors program. Often washed down storm drains, non-point source pollution introduces harmful pollutants such as fertilizers, insecticides, oil, toxic chemicals, and pet waste into our local waterways. Our Stormwater Protectors place “NO DUMPING – ONLY RAIN IN THE DRAIN” medallions on storm drain catch basins, serving as a clear reminder that anything dumped into the drains flows directly into our local rivers, lakes, and streams untreated. You would also distribute educational door hangers throughout the neighborhood to further grow awareness. In exchange, households that provide at least 4 hours of volunteer time to the Storm Drain Medallion Marking Program are eligible to receive a credit of up to 5% on their stormwater service fees. You can learn more about the program here: https://gwinnettcb.org/programs/stormwater-protectors/.

While many of the items featured on the list above are environmentally focused, we would be remiss not to include the following “honorable mentions”:

• Cheer on the Gwinnett Stripers during a home game at Coolray Field
• Explore the exhibits and five miles of trails at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center
• Fish, tube, or kayak the Chattahoochee River
• Dine on the rooftop or patio at one of our many incredible local eateries
• So much more!

No matter how you choose to celebrate Great Outdoors Month in your own special way, we applaud you for getting outside and sharing your enthusiasm for the environment and our little corner of the world with those you love. From all of us here at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, we wish you a BEAUTIFUL summer!