The Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and far northeast Florida is a slow-moving waterway that provides a specialized habitat for more than 1,000 species of plants and animals, including American alligators, bobcats, black bears, and wood storks. It is one of the world’s largest intact freshwater ecosystems, and is renown for its amphibian population—a great bio-indicator of a habitat’s health.
The Okefenokee Swamp is also home to the largest national wildlife refuge in the eastern U.S. at over 400,000 acres—which includes more than 350,000 acres designated as a U.S. Wilderness Area. The Okefenokee Swamp also serves as the headwaters of two important rivers—the Suwannee and the St. Marys.
But now a mining company—Twin Pines Minerals, LLC—wants to put a titanium strip mine on an unprotected 12,000-acre tract along the eastern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia atop a sand formation called Trail Ridge. This natural formation acts as a “dam” that maintains the unique hydrology for a large swath of the swamp.
Allowing a mining operation in this area could catastrophically alter the Okefenokee’s surface and ground water movement, as well as expose the delicate ecosystem to toxic mining runoff!
Take Action!
Tell the agency that Trail Ridge and the Okefenokee Swamp are no place for a strip mine!
