Comment period on Okefenokee expansion nears deadline

A proposal that could pave the way for an expansion of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge got a second public meeting with a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service webinar on Monday.

The proposed “minor expansion” does not automatically add the approximately 21,000 acres to the refuge, which is already the largest refuge east of the Mississippi. But if approved, it would allow the USFWS to negotiate with willing sellers at the edge of the refuge. 

“There’s nothing in this proposal that compels anyone to sell their land or anything of that nature,” Refuge Manager Michael Lusk told webinar attendees. “All it says is because now it’s within a minor expansion boundary, that if they’re a willing seller, we can talk to them about acquiring the land.”

The federal proposal aims to allow the refuge to create a mile-wide fire buffer around the swamp. If planted in long-leaf pine, and burned periodically in a controlled way, the buffer would help prevent wildfires from escaping the refuge, Lusk said.  

One of the largest landholders within the proposed expansion is Twin Pines Minerals, which has applied for permits to mine near the southeast edge of the refuge. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division is still working on the response to the more than 70,000 public comments received and has not made public a deadline for a permitting decision. 

No representatives of Twin Pines made public comment during the webinar, but last week the company indicated it intends to move forward with mining for titanium dioxide and other heavy mineral sands as soon as it’s permitted regardless of the expansion plan, the Georgia Recorder reported. 

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service would pay for land primarily with funds from the Land Water Conservation Fund, which collects revenue from leases for oil and gas exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf, USFWS realty officer Steve Seibert said during the webinar. Another potential source of funding could be the migratory bird conservation fund, revenue generated from the sale of federal duck stamps and import duties on arms and ammunition. 

Lusk explained that in the 1970s the FWS used eminent domain – the power of the government to force a sale of land from a private owner for public use – to acquire about 3,000 acres of the more than 400,000 acre refuge. It did so to acquire land at the Chesser Island homestead and Kingfisher Landing, both near refuge entrances. But since then, the USFWS has developed a willing seller policy and does not rely on eminent domain.

At least 16 people commented during Monday’s webinar, all of them in favor of the expansion. No one spoke against it.

“We the people of Georgia need to be done once and for all with the threats to our refuge,” said Max Brown. “We look to the Fish and Wildlife Service for our protection and a permanent conservation of this resource for generations to come.”

The FWS could have moved forward without public input, said Cheri Ehrhardt of the FWS. 

“But we felt it was so important to hear what people had to say and to understand their concerns that we wanted to make sure that we really had a good handle on what the public really thought and felt about this proposal,” she said. 

The service expects to develop a final proposal and submit it for approval in early to mid-January.