---
title: O.C.G.A. § 12-3-113. Duties and powers of department as to system; requirements as to title to land traversed by system.
collection: code
id: 12-3-113
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 12-3-113 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3-113
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3-113.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3-113/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t12-(v10)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=67595359_0#page=122
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3-112.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-3-114.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES / PARKS, HISTORIC AREAS, MEMORIALS, AND RECREATION / SCENIC TRAILS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 12-3-113. Duties and powers of department as to system; requirements as to title to land traversed by system.

The Department of Natural Resources shall have the responsibility of creating a Georgia Scenic Trails System. In carrying out such responsibilities, it shall be the duty of the department to identify and plan the system, to acquire or otherwise gain control over or rights to the use of the necessary land for the system, and to construct, manage, and maintain the system. For the purpose of carrying out its primary duties as provided in this article, the department shall be authorized to exercise any powers heretofore provided by law for the department, except for the powers of eminent domain. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other statute concerning the improvement of land held in fee simple by the State of Georgia, the department shall be authorized to expend state funds for construction, maintenance, and management of trails on lands acquired through purchase, easement, lease, or donation; provided, however, that no buildings shall be constructed on any real estate to which the State of Georgia does not hold title in fee simple, unless it is held under a quitclaim deed with a reversionary interest in the federal government or under a long-term federal license agreement with a reversionary interest in the federal government.

## History

Ga. L. 1972, p. 142, § 4; Ga. L. 1972, p. 1015, § 1511; Ga. L. 1973, p. 1260, § 1.