Contact Us

Southeast-
Georgia

The Georgia Land Trust’s Southeast Georgia Office began its life as the Coastal Georgia Land Trust (CGLT) in 1994. CGLT operated independently until 2003, when it merged with the Georgia Land Trust. CGLT had helped place around 1400 acres under easement prior to the merger and has since recorded another 5000+ acres of easements.

Among the easements are two large tracts in Camden and Pierce Counties that have been set aside as Wetland Mitigation Banks. Mitigation banks create credits that are purchased to be applied to offset the loss of wetlands in the same watershed that the mitigation bank is within. By placing the mitigation banks under conservation easements, the banks receive a multiplier on the number of credits they produce.

Easements in Vernonburg, a township near Savannah, help protect the character of the National Register District that is the core of the community. The large expanses of traditionally landscaped or undeveloped wooded areas preserve the lush greenness of the community. The undeveloped land also provides a buffer to the sensitive marshlands around the area. Another 13 acres were protected in Vernonburg in 2007.

Other easements in Chatham County protect acreage along the Forest River and another on Tybee Island offers a look at how the island had been developed before the recent explosion of high density condominium development changed its look and feel.

In 2004, the first easement was recorded in Effingham County, with the same donor recording a second CE in 2006. Effingham is experiencing tremendous growth pressures—its population growing almost ten percent from 2000 – 2003. and the large tract of bottomland hardwoods, which was deeded over to Effingham County after the easement was put in place, will provide a lasting look at how much of the county appeared in the past.

The Southeast Georgia Office is also a subcontractor of the Trust for Public Land in its efforts to protect lands around Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Air Field as part of the Army Compatible Use Buffer (ACUB) program, ACUB. The program’s goal is to protect lands in order to avoid development encroaching on the installations boundaries in a way that reduces their ability to prepare and deploy on their critical missions. The effort also helps protect the viability of a workplace that has an estimated $2 billion a year economic impact along the coast.

Other significant CEs recorded in our Southeast region include nearly 2000 acres in Camden County, which features extensive swamp tupelo and cypress bays and over five miles of Satilla River frontage protected. A thousand acre plus CE in Jefferson County protects extensive bottomlands along the Ogeechee River.

With the coast being the second fastest growing area of the nation’s third fastest growing state—some demographic projections say that population along the coast will more than double in the next twenty-five years—the coast will see more and more pressure on its remaining undeveloped lands. If you are interested in working to protect lands in Southeastern Georgia please contact Frank McIntosh at the Southeast Georgia Office, (912) 231-0507, toll-free (866) 656-LAND [5263], cell (912) 247-0255.