(GPB) — Last year, advocates successfully fought to save a stretch of land at the eastern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp from mining company Twin Pines.
The nonprofit The Conservation Fund spent $60 million to prevent 8,000 acres from being used for minerals mining. Now, it’s selling half of the land back to the state and the other half to the federal government, as an extension of the existing refuge.
“Our goal was always to make sure that it ended up in public ownership so that it can be accessible to the public,” said Stacy Funderburke of The Conservation Fund. “That is a really great outcome, both in terms of recreational access and habitat management.”
(Credit: Stacy Funderburke/The Conservation Fund)
The purchase was made possible through a $7 million grant from the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program that allowed the state to leverage federal funding, wrote the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Haley Chafin in a statement.
The nearly 4,000-acre state property will be called the Alachua Trail Wildlife Management Area with opportunities for hunting, fishing and other activities. It’s planned to open up to the public next year.
The area contains 60 priority species, including the gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake, gopher frog, Florida pine snake, Florida sandhill crane, Okefenokee giant pitcher plants, and blackbanded sunfish.
The DNR will complete its portion of the land transfer early next year.
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