Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025
Good morning! Fresh off Thanksgiving break, we have a report today about turkeys getting more scarce in Georgia. We then turn to Savannah’s latest chapter in funding its increasingly burdened stormwater system. Finally, we have the latest in Georgia data center news, both inland and on the coast.
If you’re looking for results from Tuesday’s runoff elections in Midway and Richmond Hill, find them here.
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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Talking turkey
It’s a tough time to be a turkey in Georgia, and not because they’re the centerpiece of many a traditional holiday meal. The number of wild turkeys in Georgia is declining due to habitat loss, as Ross Williams of the Georgia Recorder reports. The state has taken steps to reverse the trend, including shortening the turkey hunting season and encouraging controlled burns.
NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Stormwater fee
The proposed stormwater fee Savannah plans to implement next year would apply to all properties, including those owned by churches, nonprofits and other tax-exempt entities, Eric Curl reports in Savannah Agenda. The city attorney warned council that collecting the fee from nonprofits could be challenged in court, pointing to Chatham County’s fire fee. Nonprofits successfully challenged the legality of that fee as applied to them, though the county has appealed.
NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Data center plans near and far
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family are backing a massive data center project in Butts County that is expected to consume 4.5 million gallons of water per day and generate $92 million in annual tax revenues, but many of the project’s details are still unknown and environmental advocates are concerned about the impact on the region’s water and energy supplies, as Alander Rocha and Ross Williams of the Georgia Recorder report.
Along the coast, Port Wentworth is considering a zoning ordinance change to define data centers and add them as a land use in the Industrial, Infrastructure and Transportation, or I-1 zone, as Destini Ambus reports in The Savannah Morning News. The Planning Commission will take up the issue at its Dec. 15 meeting.
Also noted
- Pooler City Council on Monday gave the go-ahead for two warehouses with a combined footprint of nearly 1 million square feet at the original Chatham County megasite off Pine Barren Road. The council voted unanimously to approve the warehouses despite public comment from nine residents opposing it. Residents expressed concern over the loss of trees, loss of wetlands, increased flooding risk, and lack of need for more warehouses.
- The Trump administration released a draft of its five-year plan for the offshore drilling leasing program last month, but with strong opposition to opening the Atlantic coast to drilling and the Trump administration’s 10-year moratorium still in effect, Atlantic waters were excluded, the Southern Environmental Law Center reports.
- The Gray’s Reef Ocean Discovery Center at 340 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Savannah opened its doors again in November with newly reimagined exhibits. The center is open from 10 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. and 1 – 4 p.m. Tuesday – Friday. Admission is free.
- Rising at 6:14 p.m. Thursday is the year’s last supermoon — a full moon that occurs when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth in its orbit. The BBC offers tips to photograph this phenomenon with your smartphone.
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Experts express concern over declining wild turkey numbers in Georgia
The number of wild turkeys in Georgia is declining due to habitat loss, but the state has taken steps to reverse the trend, including shortening the turkey hunting season and encouraging controlled burns.
Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of data centers proposed for Georgia
A massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown. This story also appeared in Georgia Recorder Jones, a Republican, is running to be Georgia’s next governor. The Highway 16 Interstate Health Development near […]
Federal Medicaid cuts could limit access to services for people with disabilities
Medicaid cuts have left many people with disabilities in Georgia uncertain about their access to services, with families and providers worried about the potential impact on their quality of life.
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