Private Landowner Works with The Nature Conservancy to Protect 1,010 Acres in the Altamaha River Floodplain

ATLANTA— January 27, 2007— As 2006 came to a close, The Nature Conservancy received a generous year-end donation of a 1,010-acre conservation easement in Wayne County, Ga., from landowner Dink NeSmith. Fronting four miles of the Altamaha River, the property will protect a variety of forested swamp and bottomland hardwood community types, as well as oxbow lakes within the floodplain, historically one of the most productive habitats in the Altamaha basin for game fish such as largemouth bass, as well as non-game fish, waterfowl, aquatic mammals, reptiles and invertebrates.

“By donating this easement to The Nature Conservancy, Mr. Nesmith is contributing to the long-term conservation of the Altamaha River basin, a natural resource that Georgians rely on for clean drinking water and recreation,” said Tavia McCuean, vice president and state director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “His generosity and commitment to conservation will endure for generations to come.”

"It's important to our family to know that the integrity of the Altamaha River swamp is being protected and preserved, said NeSmith. "By working with The Nature Conservancy to place a conservation easement on this property, we are leaving a legacy to our grandchildren's grandchildren. For these reasons, we plan to continue adding conservation easements to other properties."

A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on a piece of property now and in the future, while protecting the property’s ecological or open-space values. For more than four decades, The Nature Conservancy has used conservation easements to protect landscapes from development. In Georgia, The Nature Conservancy holds 26 conservation easements, protecting a total of 23,154 acres of land.

The conservation easement on NeSmith’s property includes all development rights and protection of the bottomland hardwood forest swamps. Timbering, hunting and recreational uses will be allowed in a limited capacity as outlined in the easement.

About the Altamaha River
A conservation priority for The Nature Conservancy since 1969, the Conservancy has helped to safeguard approximately 70,000 acres in the Altamaha River basin. Unhampered by dams, the Altamaha River winds 137 miles from the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers to its coastal terminus near the historic fishing town of Darien. Encompassing 1.2 million acres and spanning 10 rural south Georgia counties, the Altamaha River watershed is one of the three largest river basins on the Atlantic Seaboard, draining approximately one-quarter the state of Georgia and expelling approximately 100,000 gallons of freshwater into the Atlantic Ocean every second,

The Altamaha River watershed ranks among the most biologically rich river systems along the Atlantic seaboard. With a floodplain up to 5 miles wide at some points, the watershed sustains globally rare natural communities and supports at least 120 species of rare or endangered plants and animals - the largest documented cluster of globally imperiled plants and animals of any watershed in Georgia.

The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.