One of the largest mostly intact freshwater swamps in the southeastern United States, Chickasawhatchee Swamp is the primary recharge area for the Floridan Aquifer, which provides water to Atlantic coastal Georgia and Florida.  Along with the creeks and their associated wetlands, Chickasawhatchee Swamp forms the second largest wetland complex in Georgia.

Located near Albany in southwest Georgia, these ecologically important lands are home to thousands of acres of mature bottomland hardwood communities and a rich variety of rare and imperiled plants and animals.  The creeks provide vital habitat for fish like the redeye chub and endangered freshwater mussels like the shinyrayed pocketbook, oval pigtoe, and gulf moccasinshell.  Bald eagles and wood storks soar above the land, and gopher tortoises burrow under it.  Foliage includes such noteworthy species as awned meadowbeauty, blueberry hawthorn, swamp buckthorn, variable-leaved Indian plantain, and wild coco. 

Starting in 2000, The Nature Conservancy began a series of land purchases totaling more than 20,500 acres at a cost of more than $40 million to protect these important wetlands from development and agriculture.  The Nature Conservancy then transferred 14,200 acres to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to be used as a wildlife management area, and the remainder was sold to a private buyer and will remain protected through a conservation easement. 

The Nature Conservancy’s efforts will protect the wetlands themselves, as well as protect the flows into the Flint and Apalachicola rivers.  Aside from conserving the land for its own sake, the Conservancy’s efforts will provide future generations with recreational opportunities like bird watching, canoeing, fishing, hiking, hunting, and outdoor education.

Nature picture credits (left to right): Chickasawhatchee Swamp © TNC; Gopher tortoise © Nate Thomas.