In the middle of East Cobb’s busy roads, neighborhoods, and expanding development, Unity North Atlanta is nurturing something increasingly rare: a place where people can slow down, reconnect with the living world, and experience restoration in more ways than one.
Through a five-year Conservation Campus initiative developed in partnership with Gaian Restoration Alliance, selected areas of Unity North Atlanta’s property will become thriving spaces for native plants, wildlife, food production, environmental education, and spiritual renewal.
The initiative will thoughtfully use pockets of land across a portion of UNA’s 8.5-acre property. These areas will work together as a living network of gardens, meadows, habitats, and outdoor learning spaces, each contributing to a healthier environment and a more meaningful connection between people and the natural world.
Restoring More Than the Land
For many people, nature offers something difficult to find amid the pace and noise of modern life: room to breathe. A meadow alive with butterflies, a shaded garden path, or the sound of birds in the trees can quiet the mind and restore the spirit.
That sense of renewal is central to the Conservation Campus vision. The project is not simply about landscaping or beautification. It is about creating an oasis from the surrounding urban sprawl, a place where ecological restoration and inner restoration can meet.
The initiative reflects a spiritual understanding that humanity is not separate from nature. We are part of a vast, interconnected living system, and the way we care for the Earth expresses how we care for one another. Restoring the land becomes an act of stewardship, compassion, and hope.
A Five-Year Vision Taking Root
Beginning in spring 2026, Bruno Castellanos of Gaian Restoration Alliance began leading a collaborative effort to identify opportunities across the property and develop a thoughtful, long-term plan.
Over five years, selected areas may include Georgia native plantings, pollinator gardens, natural meadows, an orchard, edible gardens, outdoor classrooms, and restored habitat. Plans also include improving wet areas of the property, protecting distinctive plant life, and creating spaces where visitors can learn how healthy ecosystems function.
Native plants will play an especially important role. Because they are adapted to Georgia’s climate and soil, native species often require fewer outside resources while providing essential food and shelter for local birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife. Pollinator-friendly areas and meadows can help rebuild habitat that has been steadily disappearing through development.
The orchard and edible plantings will add another dimension to the initiative. Apples, blueberries, and other food-producing plants can demonstrate how land stewardship can also address human needs. As these areas mature, part of their harvest may help provide fresh food for people experiencing food insecurity.
Outdoor learning spaces will make the campus a place of discovery as well as beauty. Children, families, students, gardeners, and community members will be able to explore conservation in action and learn practical ways to support nature in their own yards and neighborhoods.
Community Collaboration in Action
A vision of this size does not grow through the work of one person or organization. It depends on people bringing different skills, resources, and perspectives together.
Gaian Restoration Alliance is leading the environmental restoration effort, with Bruno Castellanos helping guide the overall vision. Unity North Atlanta, represented by Senior Minister Rev. Richard Burdick, is providing the land, spiritual foundation, and community support needed to help the initiative flourish.
Keep Cobb Beautiful, with support from Hailey Dowell, brings valuable community conservation experience. Steve Luitjens of Conservation Landscaping contributes specialized knowledge of sustainable landscapes, while Eric Duncan of Ecosystem Services Solutions helped secure plants for the project. Environmental science expertise from Kennesaw State University adds an educational and research-based perspective to the work.
Volunteers are already helping turn the vision into reality. Through Publix Serves, Publix employees assisted with clearing areas and installing Georgia native plants. Their work represents the heart of the initiative: people gathering with willing hands to create something that will benefit wildlife, the environment, and the wider community for years to come.
A Campus That Continues to Grow
Because this is a five-year initiative, the Conservation Campus will unfold gradually. Gardens will develop, trees will mature, habitats will expand, and each season will reveal new possibilities. The project will remain a living endeavor – one shaped by the land, community participation, and what is learned along the way.
The ultimate goal is not to create a polished outdoor display. It is to cultivate a place that is genuinely alive: buzzing with pollinators, producing food, welcoming wildlife, teaching visitors, and offering moments of peace and wonder.
Unity North Atlanta has long believed that spiritual growth invites us to live with greater awareness, responsibility, and love. The Conservation Campus brings those values outdoors, turning selected portions of our property into visible expressions of care.
Here, environmental stewardship becomes more than an idea. It becomes soil beneath our hands, food shared with our neighbors, habitat returned to wildlife, knowledge passed to the next generation, and sacred space where people can remember that they belong to the Earth, and to one another.