Many local governments support Georgia legislation to prevent mining near the Okefenokee Swamp, and you can, too.

Please ask your Georgia Statehouse Representative to support the two bills now in the Georgia House.

• HB 561: Okefenokee Protection Act; similar to a previous bill
• HB 562: a five-year moratorium on mining permits on Trail Ridge; this one is new

More about those bills here:
https://wwals.net/?p=67055

Here are all the Georgia State Representatives whose districts include any part of the Suwannee River Basin:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

Find your legislator:
http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/

Okefenokee Bills, city & county resolutions, GA House Committee, Natural Resources & Environment

Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do that. And you can contact those Representatives directly. Part of the Okefenokee Swamp is in Florida, and all of it is upstream from Florida, on the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.

Soon these bills will be heard in the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment (HNRE). Not this afternoon, despite an earlier rumor. Maybe as early as Monday.

Here is another place to register your support for the Okefenokee Swamp:
https://protectgeorgia.org/okefenokee/

GWC Flyer
PDF

Plus you can vote for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as #1 in the USA Today 10 Best poll. Poll ends March 10, and you can vote every day.
https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-national-wildlife-refuge-2025/okefenokee-national-wildlife-refuge-folkston-georgia/

Thirteen cities and counties in Georgia and Florida have passed resolutions supporting the Okefenokee Swamp and opposing the proposed strip mine too close to it.

Five of those local governments passed resolutions supporting a mining moratorium:

• Valdosta
  https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#valdosta
• Echols County
  https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#echols
• Clinch County
  https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#clinch
• Berrien County
  https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#berrien
• Atkinson County
  https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#atkinson

The Dekalb County resolution does not mention a moratorium, but it does cite Clinch and Echols:
https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/#dekalb

In addition, these cities have passed resolutions supporting the Swamp and opposing the mine: Homeland, St. Marys, Kingsland, Waycross, Nashville, and Savannah. As have Ware County, Georgia, and Hamilton County, Florida.

Links to all Okefenokee mining resolutions I know of are here, including signed copies where I have them: -jsq
https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/

 -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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