The Nature Conservancy in Georgia

Animals At Risk

Loggerhead sea turtle
Wood stork
West Indian manatee
Piping plover

Plants at Risk

Florida privet
Tiny-leaved buckthorn
Green fly orchid
White spikerush
Swamp hibiscus
Ball moss

Ecosystems at Risk

Coastal marshes and beaches
Barrier islands and estuaries
Maritime forests
Depressional freshwater wetlands

Contact Information

Southeast Georgia Conservation Office
U.S. Hwy 17 South - Butler Island
P.O. Box 484
Darien, GA 31305
(912) 437-2161

Along Georgia’s approximately 100 miles of coast, five rivers empty into the Atlantic: the Altamaha, Ogeechee, St. Marys, Satilla, and Savannah. The region is home to vast salt marshes, tidal creeks, and barrier islands -- some of the most threatened habitats in the United States.

The Nature Conservancy began working on Georgia’s coast in 1969, when it protected Egg, Little Egg, and Wolf islands. Since then, the Conservancy has worked with a number of partners to help protect more than 46,000 acres on five of Georgia’s major barrier islands: Little Tybee, Wassaw, Ossabaw, Wolf, and Cumberland. Most recently, the Conservancy secured 24,120 acres of coastal habitat from International Paper and is now working with federal, state and private partners to safeguard this land.

Spanning more than 500,000 acres, Georgia’s tidal marshes comprise one-third of tidal marshes along the East coast. Four to 6 miles offshore, the barrier islands, protect the coast from the force of the sea. There are 14 major barrier islands: Tybee, Little Tybee, Ossabaw, Wassaw, St. Catherines, Sapelo, Wolf, Blackbeard, Sea Island, St. Simons, Little St. Simons, Jekyll, Little Cumberland, and Cumberland.

Expansive tidal salt marches full of smooth cordgrass run along the islands’ western sides. These marshes abruptly give way to maritime forests of pines, cabbage palms and live oaks draped with Spanish moss. The understory of the forest is home to many shrubs and smaller trees like American holly, cherry laurel, red bay, saw palmetto, and wax myrtle. Freshwater ponds dot the forest interior, some filled year-round. Along the beaches run dune systems of hard-packed white quartz sand grown over with sea oats, pennyworts, and morning glories.

The estuaries and islands are home to a staggering diversity of animal life. The Altamaha River Sound alone is visited each year by more than 55,000 shorebirds such as red knots, Wilson’s plovers and American oystercatchers. Alligators inhabit the rivers, swamps, and marshes, as do a wide range of fish and shellfish. Mostly undeveloped, the barrier islands’ beaches are important nesting sites for loggerhead turtles.

The Georgia coast – specifically the estuaries between the Altamaha and Ogeechee rivers and between the St. Marys and Satilla rivers – has been identified as globally significant by The Nature Conservancy. These estuaries are part of a larger conservation region, extending from the coast of North Carolina to Cape Canaveral, Florida, which the Conservancy is working to protect as part of its Marine Initiative.

We strive throughout the region to protect these beautiful and imperiled ecosystems through community planning, acquisitions, easements and collaboration.