Twin Pines might get a permit for its controversial mining plan to dig 50 feet into 582 acres into Trail Ridge, on the border of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge — but there’s another threat. Mining tens of thousands of acres on the Toledo Manufacturing property, which lies at a lower elevation and closer to the swamp than the Twin Pines’ proposed mine site south of it, would also harm the one and only Okefenokee Swamp. Digging 50 feet deep for titanium and other valuable heavy minerals on Toledo’s property would bring mining operations to the edge of the swamp and to depths actually below the water table of the swamp.
Joe Hopkins, chief executive of the family-owned Toledo Manufacturing, has said he would prefer a different company than Twin Pines mine the area. That doesn’t matter. He does not have the private property right to harm others’ properties and especially so if it is property owned by all citizens of our United States of America as a National Wildlife Refuge. A decision to mine his property would diminish forever his hometown’s future as an international travel destination.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge attracts visitors from around the world and is expected to double tourism visitation to the surrounding communities when it becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mining that steals water from the Okefenokee, Georgia’s grandest public property, should not be allowed. Mining that lowers the water table — causing drought conditions across Trail Ridge, drying up waterlogged peat in the swamp — sets the stage for unnaturally severe wildfires that damage others’ private properties such as valuable tree farms.
The Okefenokee is fire adapted, burning frequently on its own schedule. Natural fires keep the swamp in natural flux, rejuvenating the mosaic of habitats, retarding its conversion to a completely forested bog. Primarily, surface fires sweep over the landscape, hardly touching the waterlogged peat layers storing carbon below. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Greater Okefenokee Association of Landowners recognize the importance of fire to the swamp and work together to suppress fires on the edge of the swamp before it damages the commercial timber on private lands. Everyone is working together to preserve the natural functioning of the irreplaceable Okefenokee Swamp — everyone except the mining companies that propose to dig along its hydrogeological dam, Trail Ridge.
The water-holding properties of the Okefenokee benefit everyone from local residents to the world’s populations as a huge carbon sink that remarkably has retained its ability to sustain itself via fluctuating water levels and periodic fire occurrences. Mining that decreases the swamp’s ability to hold water will change the swamp’s natural dynamics and send it spiraling into unnatural conditions that would no doubt include greater occurrences of longer lasting droughts and high-intensity wildfires. The unnaturally severe fires would damage wildlife habitat and private property, and burn peat, sending carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The Okefenokee is the largest, most intact freshwater peat wetland remaining in the subtropical climate zone worldwide. How can we even entertain activities that would threaten the existence of the Okefenokee Swamp? Unlike the minerals within Trail Ridge, the value of the Okefenokee Swamp is priceless.
Rena Ann Peck is executive director of Georgia Rivers.
About the Author
