Update 2024-11-13: Pictures: Public Meeting about Okefenokee NWR expansion 2024-11-12.

The Public Meeting for the proposed expansion of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has been changed to Tuesday, November 12, 2024, still from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Charlton County Annex Auditorium, 68 Kingsland Drive, Folkston, Georgia, according to https://www.fws.gov/refuge/okefenokee

Here’s a facebook event to remind you:
https://www.facebook.com/events/556272616789217/

This part is unchanged: “The public has until November 18, 2024 to submit input via email to Okefenokee@fws.gov”

Okefenokee NWR Expansion Public Meeting 2024-11-12, Maybe including proposed TiO2 mine site

Also, the same day the proposed expansion was announced, the miners said they had not been contacted.

Russ Bynum, AP, October 18, 2024, Proposed Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge expansion could lead to buyout of mining project,

[…]

“If adopted, the proposed minor boundary expansion would enable the Service to work with willing landowners to explore voluntary conservation actions, including potential acquisition, that would further protect the refuge’s globally significant freshwater wetland system and wildlife habitat,” the agency said in a news release.

The proposal comes as Twin Pines awaits final approval from Georgia environmental regulators of its mining project less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the refuge’s current boundary.

Steve Ingle, Twin Pines’ president, said he had been unaware of the proposed refuge expansion before the agency’s announcement Friday.

“We have not spoken with the US Fish and Wildlife Service,” Ingle said in a statement, “and our plans to commence mining upon permit approval are unchanged.”

Map: South Okefenokee Swamp in the WWALS map of all public landings in the Suwannee River Basin.

The company, which first applied for permits in 2019, has insisted that it can mine near the Okefenokee refuge without harming it.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division issued draft permits for the project in February, after state regulators said their own analysis “concluded that water level in the swamp will be minimally impacted.”

Final permits are still pending that would authorize Twin Pines to mine on 773 acres (312 hectares). The company owns roughly 7,800 acres (3,150 hectares) outside the refuge boundary and has said it would likely seek to expand its mining operation in the future.

[…]

South from Okefenokee NWR HQ down Inner Perimeter Road towards the proposed mine site –Wayne Morgan for Suwannee Riverkeeper on a Southwings flight 2019-10-24

Maybe the expansion plan is just a wishlist.

Maybe USFWS is negotiating with the miners’ investors.

Or something else.

Scoping map for minor expansion proposal of okefenokee NWR
PDF

Go to the Public Meeting and ask. Maybe we’ll find out.

Shady gators on log, Minnie’s Lake, Suwannee River, Okefenokee Swamp, 2023-11-05, 11:28:03, 30.8616551, -82.3231197

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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