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By Sara Gottlieb
My role with the Conservancy as conservation information manager involves preparing and analyzing maps and aerial photos that enable us to plan and study our work from a distance.
On a recent trip to Savannah for some planning meetings, I had an opportunity to visit Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge and see the biological richness of the Georgia coast up close and personal.
To the Top of the Tower
I have created many maps of the Georgia coast in the area surrounding Harris Neck, located between the South Newport and Sapelo rivers. Development pressure in this area is intense, and the Conservancy is working to protect fragile habitat for species and the people who rely on the natural resources found there for their livelihood and recreation.
Early in the morning, Chris Depkins, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist, met us at the Harris Neck office. After a quick look at the painted buntings at the office feeder, we headed out to the bird observation tower. The raucous calls of hundreds of nesting birds greeted us.
We climbed several hundred feet to the top of the tower where we looked down on the messy stick nests occupied by adult and fledgling wood storks. Chris explained that the nests are observed by biologists throughout the nesting season to determine the success or failure of each nesting pair.
Wood storks live for around 20 years and mate for life. This year (2008), about 500 nests were started, but after tornado-spawning storms hit the area in the spring, about 380 nests remain.
This refuge is truly a haven for a species whose wetland habitat is being destroyed elsewhere. Recent news accounts from coastal Georgia media have highlighted the importance of the area for the recovery of the wood stork. These endangered birds have begun to favor coastal Georgia over their historic nesting site around the Everglades in Florida due to marshland conversion and development there.
Mapping the Future
The Georgia coast is prime real estate for wood storks, but it is also prime real estate for people, as evidenced by the steady sale of large tracts to developers. Gazing at the maps of parcels for sale around Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, I have a new perspective on what the development of those areas would mean for birds seeking refuge here.
On aerial images, it is easy to see where forested bottomlands abruptly give way to marshland. On the refuge’s maps, blobs represent places where birds are known to nest or fish are known to feed or breed. But there’s much more to it than those neat lines and colored blobs.
In the observation tower at Harris Neck, I saw wood storks, egrets and blue herons standing on their nests and feeding their young while alligators fed in the standing water below. On the ground, the smell of the salt marsh reminded me of the interconnectedness of the water, the land and the living things that depend on this delicately balanced ecosystem.
As I sit in my office now, looking at the green, brown and blue pixels on a map that represent the land and the stark outlines of parcels for sale all around the refuge, I have a new appreciation for the threats we face in conserving life on the Georgia coast.
Sara Gottlieb is the conservation information manager for The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. She is based in Atlanta and can be reached at sgottlieb@tnc.org.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Marc Del Santro (Wood storks at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge); Photo © Marc Del Santro (Wood stork at Harris Neck NWR); Photo © Chris Depkin/USFWS (Sara Gottlieb); Photo © Marc Del Santro (American alligator).
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