This Georgia plan could help conserve 1,000+ species. What to know

Caption

Gopher tortoises are considered a keystone species because they dig burrows that provide shelter for approximately 350 other species.

Credit: Josiah Lavender / Open Space Institute

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has revised its State Wildlife Action Plan, and it’s now in use as it awaits a required review from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan is a statewide strategy to conserve populations of native wildlife species and their natural habitats, according to a press release from the department of natural resources.

“The goal of Georgia’s SWAP is to conserve animals, plants and natural habitats statewide through proactive measures emphasizing voluntary and incentive-based programs on private lands, habitat restoration and management by public agencies and private conservation organizations, rare species survey and recovery efforts, and environmental education and public outreach activities,” the agency’s website reads.

The revised plan will guide work to keep hundreds of species from becoming more rare and costly to conserve, such as gopher tortoises, tricolored bats and yellow pitcherplants.

The teams involved in making the plan identified 1,062 “species of greatest conservation need” based on the status of each in the state, the importance of Georgia populations to global conservation, and the available data.

Plants represent the greatest proportion of Georgia’s species of greatest conservation need at 46%, followed by freshwater species such as fish, mollusks and crayfish at 23%, followed by terrestrial invertebrates like bees, butterflies and beetles at 14% and then birds at 6%.

The plan’s efforts to help protect the state’s native species include planting native grasses and wildflowers on public lands to restore natural habitats, supporting a statewide network to grow and share native seeds, reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions to improve survival of at-risk species and minimizing the impact of solar farms on sensitive species and habitats.

Native plants help attract native pollinators because “they’ve evolved over the eons together,” according to Steve Blackledge, senior director of Conservation America with Environment America.

Pollinators are crucial to food security and a healthy, thriving ecosystem, which makes the current rate of decline concerning on many fronts, according to Rich Hatfield of the Xerces Society.

Pollinator populations are experiencing major declines due to a range of factors, including climate change, pesticides, habitat loss and disease, according to Hatfield.

Planting pollinator friendly vegetation on some government lands would help combat this decline, Blackledge said.

“A lot of the pollinators, native pollinators, in Georgia, for millions and millions of years, evolved with native plants,” said Jennette Gayer, director of Environment Georgia. “And so when you strip out those native plants and instead plant something from Japan or even another part of this country, you are basically removing habitat, food and breeding locations that native pollinators grew up with, and so it means that we don’t have any place for our native bees, for example, to lay their eggs or catch on, etc.”

In addition to supporting native species, the new plan also discourages the use of harmful chemicals used for land management.

The plan seeks to “reduce use of herbicides and pesticides for land management and along roads.” It also focuses on “educating individuals and farmers on the impact of chemical pesticides and herbicides is essential to protecting species and habitats.

“Offering alternatives to dangerous chemicals would be helpful, as well,” the plan says.

Saving pollinators in Georgia

While Georgia is taking new steps focused on environmental health, recent reports show other states are advocating for more in the way of protecting pollinators. Pollinators are animals that move pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part, which enables fertilization. Bees, butterflies and moths are all pollinators.

There are 12 U.S. states which have put restrictions on the sale and use of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which are known to kill pollinators. Two states, Minnesota and California, have also blocked the use of neonics on state lands.

Other states such as Vermont and New York have restricted the use of agricultural seeds coated in neonicotinoids, which disperse pollinator-killing chemicals through growing plants and into the soil and groundwater, according to a press release from Environment Georgia.

Neonicotinoids affect a pollinator’s ability to navigate and reduces their foraging efficiency, which then affects their ability to bring resources into the nest and reproduce, according to Hatfield.

“I would love to see more of our state agencies taking actions to reduce the amount of pesticides, neonicotinoids, that they’re using, and plant more native species,” said Gayer. “I think that’s a great first step.”

Why a Wildlife Action Plan? 

The latest revision of the State Wildlife Action Plan also includes an online tool to track conservation projects in addition to the Wild Georgia Conservation Hub, which is a new website to explore plan data.

To receive State Wildlife Grants — the main source of federal funding for protecting animals that aren’t hunted or fished — states must have a Wildlife Action Plan that’s updated every 10 years and approved by Congress.

Updating the plan is a major effort that involves more than 100 partners and stakeholders, including conservation groups, government agencies, universities and private landowners, according to DNR.

This 2025 plan’s revision process began in 2022. The state’s first Wildlife Action Plan was created in 2005.

DNR submitted the 2025 revision to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for review in June. The review, which could take months, will ensure the plan meets congressional requirements but will not change the plan’s species or priority areas.

Georgia’s Wildlife Action Plan has played a major role in conservation over the past two decades. Projects such as the creation of the Ceylon Wildlife Management Area near St. Marys and the expansion of Paulding Forest Wildlife Management Area in northwest Georgia were funded in part because they provided essential habitat for wildlife.

The plan also contributed to efforts that kept species like the gopher tortoise and sicklefin redhorse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Macon Telegraph.