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A high mast light at Exit 42, the location of the new Buc-ee’s in Brunswick on June 25, 2025.
Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current GA/CatchLight Local
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Glynn slow to shut off brighter turtle-confusing lights near Buc-ee’s
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Mary Landers, The Current
Correction: 3:15 p.m. Sept. 24: An earlier version of this article misstated the first name of the Georgia DNR Commissioner. He is Walter Rabon.
Glynn County has not turned off controversial lighting at the I-95 exit for Buc-ee’s convenience store despite getting written permission to do so earlier this month from the Georgia Department of Transportation.
“The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has been made aware of concerns by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GDNR) regarding the high-mast lighting at the I-95 Exit 42 interchange (SR 99) in Glynn County, particularly the potential environmental impacts during sea turtle hatching season,” GDOT Chief Engineer Meg Pirkle began her Sept. 5 letter to Glynn County Manager William Fallon.
“In light of the concerns from GDNR and the adequacy of the current roundabout lighting, GDOT hereby authorizes and requests Glynn County to de-energize the high-mast lights at Exit 42 during sea turtle hatching season,” the letter concludes.
Loggerhead sea turtle hatching season on the Georgia coast runs from about mid-July through October. Emerging at night, baby sea turtles have evolved to crawl toward the brightest point on the horizon. On a dark beach, that’s always the sea. But artificial lighting can misorient them, luring them landward and making them more vulnerable to hungry predators. That’s the threat of the high-mast fixtures at Exit 42, whose light is visible on the beach at the south end of Sapelo and north end of Little St. Simons islands, more than 12 miles away.
On other beaches, tall dunes or trees can block artificial light. That’s not the case with the Exit 42 lights.
“You look at where those lights are, and there’s not a tree from there to the ocean,” DNR senior biologist and Georgia Sea Turtle Program Coordinator Mark Dodd said. “It’s just Altamaha Delta. It’s marsh grass. It’s very flat, and there’s nothing to block that light.”
County wants more info
Instead of complying with GDOT’s Sept. 5 request to de-energize the lights, Glynn County Manager William Fallon asked for more documentation that the lights affect hatchlings.
“To properly evaluate and implement this request, the Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) respectfully ask that GDOT provide any available evidence, data, or documentation supporting the environmental concerns raised by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GDNR).” Fallon wrote on Sept. 8. “This information will help the BOC ensure that our actions align with both safety standards and environmental best practices.”
He made the same request that same day to DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon.
GDOT installed the high-mast lighting as part of the interchange reconstruction project completed in 2015, but the lights were not turned on until June 2024. Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based “country store” and gas station with a devoted following, opened its Glynn County location in July. Buc-ee's does not own or operate the lights in question, nor did it respond to a request for comment.
Light from Exit 42 visible on beach
The lights from Exit 42 are visible for at least 12 miles east, contributing to the misorientation of hatchling sea turtles on the north end of Little St. Simons Island and the south end of Sapelo Island, the Georgia DNR has indicated.
DNR and local advocates from One Hundred Miles raised concerns with the county over the effect of the lighting on hatchling sea turtles, and the advocacy group mounted a letter-writing campaign to the county among its members over the summer. During the ensuing public controversy, which received national media coverage, the county maintained the decision to turn off the lights rested with GDOT and couldn’t be resolved until after additional lighting was installed at the roundabouts near Buc-ee's and evaluated to see if it provided sufficient light for drivers’ safety without the high-mast lights.
“The roundabout lighting project is not yet complete,” Danny Smith, then-Glynn County director of public works and now assistant county manager, wrote to the DNR’s Mark Dodd on June 16. “When this is completed, Glynn County and GDOT will discuss de-energizing the high-mast lighting, as we have all stated and agreed to.”
The roundabout lighting was completed in July and less than two months later Glynn had its answer from GDOT.
“This lighting provides sufficient illumination for safe navigation of the roundabouts. It’s important to note that high-mast lighting is considered an interchange enhancement and is not required for the safe operation of the interchange,” Pirkle wrote in her Sept. 5 letter.
‘Defies logic’
Catherine Ridley, vice president of education and communications at One Hundred Miles and director of the St. Simons Island Sea Turtle Project, said the county’s request for more information “defies logic” and ignores the thousands of community members who have asked Glynn to “act with urgency and turn off the lights.”
“Glynn County is failing in its responsibility to uphold our community values and protect the threatened loggerhead turtles on which we have built our coastal economy and ecotourism industry,” Ridley said. “Protecting our sea turtles is as simple as flipping a switch, but inexplicably, Glynn County refuses to lift a finger to do so.”
In prior correspondence with Dodd of DNR, Glynn County’s Smith sounded eager to turn off the lights.
“Trust me when I tell you I would be happy to no longer have to pay for the electricity, have to service the lights, and face the cost of $250,000 per interchange (Glynn County has 4 of them) to convert to LED lights because Georgia Power can no longer service the mercury vapor lights,” Smith wrote in an email to Dodd on June 16, 2025. Later in the same email he wrote, “Nothing would make me happier than not having to be responsible for or deal with high-mast lighting, at any interchange in Glynn County, but that is not the world we work in.”
The Current GA obtained the email correspondence among GDOT, DNR and Glynn County from One Hundred Miles.
The DNR’s Director of Wildlife Resources Ted Will responded in writing to Glynn County on Friday.
Light pollution
Will’s letter, which references four peer-reviewed journal articles, discusses the effect of light pollution worldwide on sea turtle hatchlings, including reports of misorientation from skyglow from sites up to 31 miles from the nesting beach. It then turns its focus to Little St. Simons.
Because the island is undeveloped, there is no artificial light on the beach, the letter explains. But skyglow from Brunswick was already driving up the number of wayward hatchlings there. Then came the high-mast lights.
“The addition of lights at Exit 42 has increased the apparent brightness of the horizon to the west of the nesting beach,” the letter from DNR to the county manager states. “Buc-ee’s worked with our staff on a lighting plan that meets safety standards yet minimizes upward lighting of the horizon. The high-mast lights energized at Exit 42 essentially negated those efforts as they disproportionately increase skyglow due to their position above the tree line and are even visible from the north end of Little St. Simons.”
County spokeswoman Brittany Dozier said the county received DNR’s response on Sept. 19.
“The BOC and staff are now reviewing it and assessing potential options that align with safety standards and environmental best practices,” Dozier wrote on Monday, adding that they don’t have a timeline for a decision.
Sea turtle hatching season runs through October. But only three nests are left to hatch on Sapelo and none on Little St. Simons, Dodd said.
Light pollution is increasing in Coastal Georgia and impedes the recovery of loggerheads, a threatened species.
“The big picture here is that the proliferation of short-wavelength LED lights, particularly short-wavelength LED street lights on the coast, is potentially going to be a significant problem for sea turtles, coast-wide, and so it’s something that we want to look at,” Dodd said. “Turtles are telling us something, which is artificial light at night is affecting their reproduction, and ultimately, it’s also not good for human health. So it’s something we need to keep an eye on and try to control as development increases on the coast.”
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Current.
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