This Unique Blackwater Swamp Could’ve Been a Mine. Now It’s Becoming a Wildlife Management Area

Hunters and anglers within the Deep South got motive to have fun final summer time, when a conservation group bought a big chunk of land close to the Okefenokee Swamp that was the location of a proposed mine. The acquisition put an instantaneous halt to the mining challenge — one which native conservationists and outdoorsmen had been preventing for years. Now, the state of Georgia is planning to accumulate greater than half of that land with a view to set up a brand new wildlife administration space there.

The pending 4,000-acre acquisition lies close to the southeast nook of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the most important remaining blackwater swamp in North America. The acquisition was only in the near past accredited by the state legislature, in keeping with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and it’s being funded partially by a $7 million grant from the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program. 

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Similar to the opposite WMAs positioned throughout Georgia, the land will probably be managed as high-quality wildlife habitat by the state’s Division of Pure Sources. It can additionally present public entry for searching, fishing, and different outside recreation.    

“Like some other land acquisition alternative thought of by the DNR, this property is critical due to its excessive conservation worth,” the DNR deputy commissioner Trevor Santos advised the AJC final week. 

Santos mentioned the brand new WMA hasn’t been formally named but, however that it ought to open to the general public someday in 2027. He didn’t specify how a lot of the WMA will probably be open to searching and fishing, and his workplace didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark from Outside Life.

A part of the explanation for the property’s excessive conservation worth is its proximity to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. This federally managed refuge is a 438,000-acre haven for fish and wildlife, together with paddlers and fishermen. It’s been in comparison with different iconic wilderness areas just like the Boundary Waters, and it was nominated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.

“Go forward and put Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp on the identical shortlist with Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, and Nevada’s Ruby Mountains,” reads an explainer piece by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “[These are] areas that present unmatched fish and wildlife habitat and recreation alternatives that spur the native economic system however have been in danger from improvement pursuits.”  

The newly acquired land is positioned on Path Ridge, which kinds the japanese boundary of the Okefenokee Swamp, in addition to the headwaters of two main rivers: the Suwanee and the St. Mary’s. Conservation teams like TRCP had lengthy campaigned in opposition to the Twin Pines mine due to the downstream impacts it may have on these watersheds, which feed the Okefenokee Swamp. Much like the long-simmering debate around the Boundary Waters and the proposed Twin Metals’ mine, opponents have contended that that is merely the wrong place for a mine.

The Twin Pines challenge had already encountered allowing roadblocks on the state stage. Its prospects have been additional dimmed in January 2025, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to expand the Okefenokee NWR, opening the door to a possible buyout of the mining web site. 

The Conservation Fund seized this chance in June, when it reached a take care of Twin Pines Minerals LLC to buy each the land and the mining rights for 7,765 acres on Path Ridge. The TCF reportedly paid round $60 million, a big portion of which got here from personal funders and philanthropic teams who needed to see the Okefenokee Swamp protected long-term.

“Georgia’s Okefenokee Nationwide Wildlife Refuge is a particular place and some of the necessary pure treasures in Georgia.” mentioned Stacy Funderburke, vp of the central Southeast area at TCF, in an announcement final June. “By buying this land from Twin Pines, The Conservation Fund will be sure that the Okefenokee Nationwide Wildlife Refuge stays wild and unspoiled for all People.” 

Funderburke additionally cheered the state’s newer choice to buy 4,000 acres from TCF, which is able to retain possession of the remaining 3,765 acres. 

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“In my thoughts, it will get public entry [to the property] on the desk sooner,” Funderburke advised reporters. “However it additionally enhances the general public recreation profit for native communities across the swamp.”