As a young man in love with roaming the landscapes of rural Georgia, Joe Tanner said there were two things he could never see himself doing.
“He would never get into politics, and he would never live in Atlanta. And he wound up doing both of those things,” said his son Scott Tanner.
Tanner died Sunday, Nov. 24, 2025, at a hospice facility in Athens of pancreatic cancer. He was 86 years old.
Tanner’s political resume spans six decades, but his main legacy is in conservation of the state’s natural resources. He helped create the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1972 under Gov. Jimmy Carter and was its first commissioner.
“Joe Tanner is a legend,” said Lonice Barrett, who succeeded Tanner as DNR commissioner. “He accomplished tremendous amounts of key conservation legislation and protected land all over Georgia.”
At DNR, Tanner was frequently out in the field with his ever-present two-way radio, checking on what was going on.
“I just like to be where the action is,” Tanner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1990.
Gov. Zell Miller later appointed him to oversee Georgia’s side in the “water wars,” the lengthy federal river water-use lawsuit brought by Florida and Alabama against Georgia. He also cleaned up Labor Department corruption as Georgia’s elected Labor commissioner and later oversaw the privatization of some state assets such as Stone Mountain Park.
“He was one of the best communicators I ever dealt with,” said Barrett. “He built relationships. He was true to his word. He had an open mind and was a good listener.”
Joseph Delano Tanner was born Feb. 28, 1938, in Twin City, Georgia, and grew up enjoying the outdoors. He attended the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech but did not graduate.
Tanner married Sandra Cook in 1963 and the couple divorced in 1980.
When he was manager of Sumter County Electric Membership Corporation in Americus, he became friends with Jimmy Carter before Carter was elected governor. After his election, Carter asked Tanner to head up what was then the Georgia Game and Fish Commission, and Tanner’s long career in Georgia state politics began.
Credit: staff/ ksmith@ajc.com
Credit: staff/ ksmith@ajc.com
Tanner consolidated 38 state agencies to create the DNR. He helped pass landmark laws, including the Shore Protection Law protecting Georgia’s beaches. He pioneered the Heritage Trust Act of 1975, safeguarding natural areas such as Sapelo and Ossabaw Islands. He was instrumental in acquiring several state parks and historic sites, including Sweetwater Creek State Park and Panola Mountain State Park.
“When my dad was a newly minted DNR commissioner, Jimmy Carter learned that the Army Corps of Engineers was dredging an estuary in the Brunswick area and dumping the spoil right into the marsh,” Scott Tanner recalled.
“Carter called my dad at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, back in the days before cellphones, and said, ‘I want you to put a stop to this.’
“And my dad said, ‘What law are we operating under?’ And Carter said, ‘Put a stop to it and we’ll figure out the law later.’”
Tanner called the colonel in charge of the dredging project, and it was shut down by 6 a.m. Sunday, his son recalled.
But conservation groups sometimes criticized parts of Tanner’s later work.
“Every time he did what Jimmy Carter wanted done, that’s his legacy as an environmentalist,” said Neill Herring, longtime lobbyist for the Georgia Sierra Club and other conservation groups.
“When he was no longer being guided by Jimmy Carter, his record became much more mixed,” Herring added.
In 1997, Tanner took early retirement and founded Joe Tanner & Associates, an Atlanta lobbying firm.
“A lot of environmentalists made him out to be one of the bad guys,” said Charles Seabrook, a former environmental reporter for the AJC.
Tanner caught flack for moves such as pushing $4.5 million in state money for a well to primarily serve privately run Lake Lanier Islands Resort in 2012. He also lobbied for local governments to build a number of dams to create small reservoirs.
“It’s frustrating and very troubling when an {Environmental Protection Division] director who may have made a decision or issued a permit that we have concerns about leaves the public job, moves into the private sector and then represents the people he gave the permit to,” then-Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Sally Betha told the AJC in 2012.
Earlier this year the DNR named him the recipient of the 2024 Rock Howard Conservation Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to ecological stewardship.
In October he was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had already spread. “He chose not to seek treatment because of his age and how advanced it was,” Scott Tanner said.
He began receiving hospice care at home and was still mentally sharp and not showing symptoms after his diagnosis, his son said.
“All his friends and DNR people were able to connect with him. It was like Grand Central Station at his house for a while,” Scott Tanner said. “Normally everyone gets together and shares stories and laughs and cries after the person is dead. But my dad got to experience all that while he was still alive.”
Tanner is survived by his sons Blake and Scott (Dawn); his longtime partner, Rebecca Gibbs; her daughter, Jamie Gibbs Teal (Brad) and other family.
A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, followed by a public State Honor Ceremony at Liberty Plaza adjacent to the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Foundation.
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