around the Southlands: selling the South
From a national wildlife refuge to an urban farm, Southern nature under threat. PLUS: where to view the eclipse
One of the hardest things to reconcile about living in the American South is how this region of extraordinary natural beauty, this still wild place of irreplaceable biodiversity, is mostly in the hands of politicians who will gladly sell it to the highest bidder.
So writes Margaret Renkl, in her latest op-ed for the New York Times, which takes up the cause of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge—a place that, as I’ve noted repeatedly in these roundups, faces a threat thanks to a planned titanium mine.
Renkl notes that within Georgia, the prevailing sentiment is that the refuge—“the largest ecologically intact blackwater swamp in North America and the largest National Wildlife Refuge east of the Mississippi River,” as Renkl notes—deserves better: “69 percent of Georgians supported permanently protecting the swamp from development, and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division received more than 200,000 public responses opposing the mine.” Nonetheless, two weeks after the state’s Environmental Protection Division fined the mining company, Twin Pines Minerals, for failing to have a geologist on site while collecting soil samples, the EPD issued draft permits. How could such an unpopular proposal be so near implementation? To answer that question, Renkl points toward a deep dive in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which delves into the lobbying conducted by Twin Pines.
Renkl published her piece last Monday, as the last week of the state legislative session commenced. There was some hope that a new law might emerge, pausing any permitting for mines using the technique proposed near Okefenokee. That would not have stopped this mine, but would have at least hemmed in Twin Pines, preventing its expansion until the issue could be better studied. But the bill never came up for a vote in the Senate (AJC).
The last best hope for Okefenokee, then, may be public comment on the plan—which is open until April 9. Here, from Renkl, is what you can do:
To comment on the proposed mine by April 9, email TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov or send a letter to the Land Protection Branch, 4244 International Parkway, Atlanta Tradeport Suite 104, Atlanta, GA 30354. It is not necessary to live in Georgia to comment.
🧑🏾🌾️ Saving the farm
Here in my hometown of New Orleans, there’s a different development threat afoot: a new masterplan for City Park, a sprawling public space that is privately owned and managed, calls for the removal of Grow Dat, an urban farm that provides urban youth a chance to experience farming. The farm stands in the way of a proposed roadway.
More than a hundred Grow Dat supporters showed up at a public meeting last weekend to voice their opposition (WWNO/Verite); the City Park Conservancy, which runs the park, sent out an email that suggested the farm owned “more than a quarter million dollars in back rent.” In their own Q&A, the farm’s leadership notes that they’ve “never received any formal communication regarding rent default.” Supporters have created a petition calling for preservation of the park.
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