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		The Nature Conservancy in Georgia Georgia Home Contact Places We Protect Field Trips & Events Press Releases Volunteer Ways of Giving Landmarks Publications How We Work

Animals At Risk Gopher tortoises Red-cockaded woodpecker Plants at Risk Pitcherplants Sandhill Angelica Ecosystems at Risk Longleaf pine forests Isolated wetlands Blackwater river swamp forests Contact Information Southeast Georgia Conservation U.S. Hwy 17 South - Butler Island Darien, GA 31305 (912) 437-2161

In southwest Georgia, the Conservancy is working with local landowners to protect some of the best remaining examples of pine-wiregrass communities, oak-wiregrass woodlands, swales, and ephemeral pond wetlands in the Red Hills region of the East Gulf Coastal Plain.  Once covering as many as 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas, less than 3 percent of the rapidly disappearing longleaf pine forests remain.

The outstanding habitat in the Red Hills is home to a number of rare and imperiled animals, such as gopher tortoises, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and Bachman’s sparrows. Notable flora includes yellow-fringed orchids and sandhill angelica.

Critical habitat has been fragmented and destroyed in the Red Hills region by development and incompatible forestry and agricultural practices, and fire suppression policies have disrupted the natural cycle of the fire-dependent longleaf pine ecosystem. Currently, The Nature Conservancy holds multiple conservation easements in the area around Thomasville and is working with private landowners and a number of partners to safeguard the region’s precious natural areas through easements, acquisitions, and conservation management.

Nature picture credits (left to right): Longleaf pines w/ blazing star flowers © Keith Lazelle; gopher tortoise © Brad Winn.