<p>In a family of prehistoric Atlanta-area rock formations, Arabia Mountain is Stone Mountain's older but less popular cousin. Yet Arabia's defenders not only aren't jealous, they're asking the federal government to help keep it that way.</p><p>Let Stone Mountain be the bustling tourist destination, they say, but make Arabia and its surrounding area a shrine to life as it once was, before a sprawling metropolis wipes out the evidence for good.</p><p>"We're catching it on the front end," said DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones. "It won't turn into a place where you have all these ferris wheels. It'll be a place where you can do more walking, more leisure activities. We want to keep it in its natural form."</p><p>State and local leaders have done their part over the last decade by buying as much land as possible around the rock formation and other historic areas nearby, creating a bit of a buffer to ensure Arabia Mountain isn't engulfed by the Atlanta suburbs anytime soon.</p><p>The next step comes from Congress.</p><p>After a near miss last session, this could finally be the year lawmakers designate a 30-mile segment that includes Arabia Mountain as a "national heritage area." That title is currently assigned to only 27 sites nationwide that Congress determines demonstrate a way of life uniquely shaped by geography. These areas are eligible for as much as $10 million for management and upkeep, although few have received that much.</p><p>Unlike many publicly owned lands, such as national parks or monuments predominantly found in the West, nearly all the current heritage areas are east of the Mississippi River. They include the Augusta Canal in Georgia and eight others in the South.</p><p>Three new ones were designated last year, much to the chagrin of Arabia Mountain's boosters, who claim sprawl has made their project the most urgent.</p><p>"It's a bit of a historical fluke that part of this metro area still has undeveloped land," said Kelly Jordan, chair of the Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance. "There's still time, if we hurry, to protect or preserve the best of it."</p><p>And Congress is hurrying. Both the House and Senate passed bills last year designating the heritage area, but the legislative clock expired before the subtle differences between the two versions could be resolved.</p><p>Georgia Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have already reintroduced the measure this year, and Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., pledges to work with them to make sure the job is done.</p><p>"You could say Arabia Mountain is a little jewel tucked away in a hustling, bustling metropolis," McKinney said, "and it's our little jewel."</p><p>Charlotte Gillis, landscape architect for the National Park Service's Southeast regional office, says boosters often try to convince Congress there is a time crunch to get their project approved. But she concedes the Arabia situation may be a little more dire because of growth around Atlanta.</p><p>"That's a good thing because you're protecting the resources," Gillis said. "You're encouraging the community to pay attention to what they've got before they lose it."</p><p>If tourists are stunned by the 300 million-year-old Stone Mountain, Georgia historians point out Arabia Mountain is 100 million years older. Besides helping Arabia and Panola Mountains, the heritage designation would preserve numerous other nearby treasures: DeKalb County's last active dairy farms, houses from the 1800s, and a series of public trails on the mountain's foot slopes.</p><p>"We will prevail because of our persistence," Jones said. "There's no progress without struggle, and we're in it for the long haul."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2865460)</p>
