A coalition of environmental organizations delivered more than 24,000 petition signatures and nearly 300 pieces of artwork from children to Gov. Brian Kemp’s office Thursday, urging him to permanently protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
The groups, which included Environment Georgia, Garden Club of Georgia, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light and others, called on the governor to support pending legislation to ban future surface mining on the refuge’s Trail Ridge, a geological feature that contains valuable minerals but also serves as a barrier protecting the Okefenokee. House Bill 561, known as the “Okefenokee Protection Act” and sponsored by Rep. Darlene Taylor, a Thomasville Republican, has not yet passed out of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee.
An Alabama-based company, Twin Pines Minerals, dropped its plans to mine Trail Ridge this summer and said that it would instead sell 8,000 acres near the refuge. In the 1990s, DuPont also attempted to mine near the swamp.
“The immediate threat to the swamp has been resolved, but that does not mean the Okefenokee is safeguarded for future generations,” said Jennette Gayer, state director of Environment Georgia, which collected a large majority of the signatures.
The legislation aims to prohibit the state’s Environmental Protection Division from issuing future mining permits in the area. The bill states that the director of the division “shall not issue, modify, or renew any permit or accept any bond to conduct surface mining operations on Trail Ridge for any permit application or permit amendment.” The bill makes the case that the Okefenokee Swamp “is of equal importance to all citizens of the state, is of state-wide concern, and consequently is properly a matter for regulation and protection.”
The bill also warns that surface mining “risks adverse impacts to the wetlands, water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, air quality, and wilderness values of the Okefenokee Swamp.” Taylor pointed to those concerns in a phone interview Thursday, warning that a drained swamp could lead to catastrophic forest fires and change the entire ecosystem.
“My big fear, especially with the mining, was once you perforate and get into the underneath, it won’t be what you see on the surface to begin with. It would drain out of the swamp, and as it would drain out, the swamp would become drier,” she said.
Supporters argue that Kemp’s backing is needed to move the legislation through the House and Senate. Aside from passing Taylor’s bill, Gayer said Kemp could support designating the Okefenokee as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a designation former Gov. Sonny Perdue supported and one that proponents say would spur economic development through tourism. Gayer also suggested Kemp could support or allocate funds for the purchase of land or mineral rights along the rest of Trail Ridge to permanently protect the area for conservation.
Josh Marks of Georgians for the Okefenokee, who has been involved with conservation efforts for nearly 30 years, criticized the governor’s silence on the issue. Marks said that he was disappointed the governor has not publicly addressed the issue and challenged the governor to “put the word conserve back into conservative and lead the charge to permanently protect Trail Ridge.”
“We’re here today to tell Gov. Kemp to protect the Okefenokee Swamp once and for all,” Marks said.
Carter Chapman, a spokesperson for Kemp, addressing claims the governor has been silent on the issue, pointed to an interview he did in April 2024 on the Politically Georgia podcast from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where Kemp said — before Twin Pines Minerals dropped its plans — that Georgia was handling the permitting process “like we would for any private sector landowner.”
“I think it’s improper for a governor, any governor, to weigh in and say yes or no when we have laws on the books and processes,” Kemp said at the time.
Chapman also said in a statement Thursday that the governor has continually balanced economic growth with protecting natural resources.
“As an avid outdoorsman, Gov. Kemp has always worked to ensure Georgia is a good steward of its bountiful natural resources while balancing the economic development opportunities and growth coming to communities statewide,” Chapman said.
But Rep. John Corbett, a Lake Park Republican whose district includes the refuge, said that if signed into law, the bill would impose on landowners’ property rights, saying that it would be equal to “taking (property) without compensating the owner.”
“To go in there and take their right, you’re taking somebody’s property,” he said.
Corbett, however, said that he supports protecting the Okefenokee Swamp by selling the land that could be mined, whether to environmental groups, the state or the federal government, if they can work out a deal with the landowners.
Despite opposition over concerns about property rights, Taylor said she has received more calls on the issue than on any other in her 15 years as a lawmaker in south Georgia, adding that they have come not only from Georgia but also “from across the country and even internationally.”
“It is important to the world, to Georgia and to our country. It is a very important issue. There’s only one Okefenokee,” she said.
Marqus Cole, organizing director for Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, approached the issue as a matter of morality, saying that people of faith across Georgia “recognize the Okefenokee as a sacred trust” that must be passed onto future generations.
“The Okefenokee is more than just a landscape. It’s a living testament to creations, beauty and balance,” Cole said. “There’s a piece of faith wisdom that says we don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we steward it for the next generation.”
