If you want to experience one of the most pristine American Alligator habitats in the world, I highly recommend making the trip to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia. One of THE best destinations for gator watching and a feast for bird and plant enthusiasts as well. Five minutes into a boat tour you’ll stop counting how many gators you see because there’s simply too many to count!

It's not a done deal yet, but USFWS has greenlit the acquisition of more land for Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Among other things, it would be the nail in the coffin of a proposed mining project that threatens the ecological health of the wetlands nearby.

As I've mentioned previously, habitat loss is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction, and the best thing we can do for other living beings is to preserve and restore their habitat to the best of our ability. Wetlands are a particularly important biome. Not only are they excellent carbon sinks, but they help mitigate the effects of hurricanes and flooding, as well as acting as natural water filters. Plus they host incredible amounts of biodiversity on land, in water, and in the boundaries between.

Obviously the remaining hurdles toward land acquisition need to be successfully surmounted, which is no mean feat in the current state of things. But it's a hopeful sign that the entity in charge of a large amount of our public lands is amenable to adding to the protected areas around the great Okefenokee Swamp. (Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator, and Walt Kelly would agree.)

🎥 1941: Swamp Water stars Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Ann Baxter, Virginia Gilmore and John Carradine (film noir)

A local man, Ben (Andrews) encounters a fugitive Tom Keefer (Brennan) from a murder charge while hunting in the Okefenokee Swamp looking for his dog. The two form a partnership in which Ben sells the animals hunted and trapped by both until townsfolk become suspicious. Also, Ben helps Julie (Baxter), Keefer's daughter, who is living in straitened circumstances clean up and look more decent.

Keefer is accused of murdering Deputy Shep Collins, but it was really the Dorson brothers who did so and then perjured themselves in evidence against Tom Keefer, assisted by Jesse Wick (Carradine) Ben makes Wick confess so that Keefer will not be blamed anymore. He tries to take Keefer back to town where he can live a normal life, but they are shot at by the Dorson brothers. One of them sinks in a mudhole, and Keefer talks to the other man, saying he wants a normal life, and lets him go into the swamp. Ben and Keefer are found by the townsfolk. Once back in town, Keefer cleans up, and goes to the dance with Julie instead of Mabel…smiling. (20th Century Fox)

This is some of the fallout from Trump's first four years in office. The Navigable Waters Protection Rule (which removed protections from wetlands) only lasted 16 months, but it was more than enough time for companies to swoop in and take advantage of it.

The public can submit input until November 18. If you don't want to use the Sierra Club's form, you can email them directly at Okefenokee (at) fws.gov. More info below, if you need it:

The 354,000-acre Okefenokee Wilderness makes up almost 90 percent of the wildlife refuge and is one of the largest Wilderness areas in the East. The Okefenokee Wilderness, part of one of the world’s largest still intact blackwater swamp ecosystems and important habitat for native wildlife such as black bears, American alligators, and red-cockaded woodpeckers, is a National Natural Landmark, a Wetland of International Importance, and is listed as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The Okefenokee is one of the last pristine Black Water Swamps in America. This strip mine will spell disaster for the wildlife and the people in the swamp.

Please please please leave a public comment about this and please visit this website for a list of things you can do to save the swamp.