The Nature Conservancy in Georgia

Contact Information

For more information about Wassaw Island, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at www.fws.gov/southeast/wassaw.

Located 14 miles southeast of Savannah, the 10,750-acre Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge protects ecologically important coastal habitat on one of Georgia’s 14 major barrier islands. Wassaw island is particularly rich because it has remained largely undisturbed and, unlike many of Georgia’s other sea islands, its forests have never been logged. This near-wilderness condition is the result of the island’s inaccessibility and protection efforts by The Nature Conservancy, private landowners, and the federal government. Approximately 20 percent of the island is high ground, a varied mix of rolling dunes, mud flats, white beaches, and virgin stands of live oak, slash pine, and cedar. The remainder is largely salt marshes and marsh hammocks interspersed with tidal creeks.

These diverse habitats are home to a wide range of rare, imperiled, and interesting species. Egrets, herons, and wood storks forage in the tidal marshes and waters, bald eagles nest every year on one of the outlying hammocks, and thousands of songbirds pause to feed on insects, fruit, and seeds on their way to and from their nesting grounds. In spring, loggerhead turtles nest on the beaches. The few freshwater pools sustain a small population of American Alligators, and the waters around the island are home to bottlenose dolphins and shortnose sturgeon.

Wassaw Island remained in total private family ownership until 1969, when The Nature Conservancy was able to purchase all but 180 acres of the island. Shortly after, The Nature Conservancy sold the island to the federal government for a dollar to be incorporated into the Savannah Coastal Refuge System, ensuring its continued protection. The remaining 180 acres is still owned and in the good stewardship by the original family who completed the bargain sale with The Nature Conservancy. The remainder is now managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Though Wassaw is accessible only by boat, it is open to the public for hiking, bicycling, wildlife photography, daytime beach use, surf fishing, and sea kayaking.