Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge's Boletim

Arquivos de periódicos de junho 2021

17 de junho de 2021

Okefenokee NWR: A Letter Preserved a Treasure

It was a 1933 letter from Jean Harper to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt which lead to the protection of the Okefenokee Swamp as a National Wildlife Refuge. The efforts and studies of Harper and her husband, Francis, have preserved a treasure for generations:

Alligator swimming in dark swamp water
© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 35508091 American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, swimming in tannin stained black water swamp of Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, USA. March 6, 2017.

​Dear Mr. Roosevelt: there is a matter that needs your immediate attention - the preservation of the Okefinokee Swamp. Perhaps you may recall that a few years ago, Francis sent you some of his reprints on the swamp. For twenty odd years naturalist and nature-lovers have been working for the preservation of this marvelous wilderness; unique in its nature not only in this country, but in the world. The character of its fauna, its flora, and its human life is unsurpassed.

Two years ago the Senate Committee on Wild Life Resources visited the Okefinokee and submitted the report recommending its purchase as a national wild-life refuge. But because of the depression, nothing further has been done.

We now learn of the project to put a ship canal through the swamp. You will know what this would mean to the beauty of the area to the wild life. The destruction that would thus be brought on is unthinkable. Our hope lies in you to stop the project before it goes farther, and spend the money in the purchase of the swamp for a reservation, where beauty and scientific interest may be preserved for all time.

Sincerely, Jean Sherwood Harper

Posted on 17 de junho de 2021, 04:45 PM by williamwisephoto williamwisephoto | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

23 de junho de 2021

Imagine Pristine Okefenokee

Cut cypress stumps from logging operations in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia
© Photographer: William Wise | Stumps of Cypress trees remain throughout the Okefenokee Swamp from extensive logging operations and clearcuts from the Hebard Logging Company in the 1920s. Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. Paddling north on the Suwannee River Middle Fork red trail.

As beautiful as the Okefenokee Swamp is today, I can only imagine the grandeur of the pristine beauty prior to the logging of the early 1900’s. It has been nearly 100 years since the logging took place, but the scars of wide scale timber removal remain to this day. Many of the cypress have been growing back since the saws were silenced, but I do not think we see what the early explorers and swampers saw in the 1800’s.

In his book Mammals of the Okefinokee Swamp published in 1927, naturalist Francis Harper wrote, “This was doubtless one of the most magnificent stands of cypress in the country, many of the trees towering to a height of about 100 feet, and having a diameter of more than a yard above the swollen base.”

If the post-exploitation Okefenokee can hold such magnificence today, one can only imagine what it would have been to step foot in the towering cypress cathedrals of yesterday. But as long as we continue to preserve this national treasure, future generations won’t have to use their imagination. Cypress grow slowly, but they do grow! One day.

Posted on 23 de junho de 2021, 06:30 PM by williamwisephoto williamwisephoto | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário