Well, it is somewhat old news as I write this but to those who have fought the fight, it is extremely good news. Our Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has been officially designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It happened a couple of weeks ago at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
Our Okefenokee is in good company, joining such sites as Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and the Statue of Liberty, to name a few.
Experts say that being a World Heritage site should be an economic boon. Today, our Okefenokee gets some 800,000 visitors a year and a resultant $90-plus million pumped into the local economy. With World Heritage status, those numbers could rise to some 1.5 million visitors or more in the next decade, according to projections from The Conservation Fund, one of the key players in helping protect, preserve and promote our Okefenokee.
President John F Kennedy once said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” This effort has a lot of daddies (and mommas.) That includes you, dear readers. Not much I have opined on over the years has generated as much response as I received from you on the subject. It is obvious that Okefenokee is up-close-and-personal to you.
Most of the orphans are down in Charlton, Clinch and Ware counties, where our Okefenokee is located. They wanted nothing to do with UNESCO and their sinister World Heritage takeover.
Ware County even passed a resolution affirming the county’s commitment that “it shall not adopt, implement, or enforce any rule, regulation, policy, or mandate originated by, or traceable to, the United Nations or a subsidiary entity of the United Nations which infringes upon or restricts private property rights without due process in violation of the U.S. Constitution or Georgia Constitution.” Bless their hearts.
If it will make the Ware County commission feel better, I checked on Gardiner, Montana, near the entrance to the World Heritage site, Yellowstone Park, and they seemed to be doing just fine. No U.N. takeover there. Same with Ochopee in the Everglades. No infringement on property rights reported. Tusayan at the entrance to the Grand Canyon seems to be thriving. If the U.N. is imposing its agenda on the town, they seem blissfully unaware. The Statue of Liberty is still proudly holding her torch on Liberty Island in New York. This is closing the barndoor after the horse has bolted advice, but you and your anti-UNESCO friends might have done your homework first before issuing such poppycock statements.
The anti-World Heritage propaganda wasn’t about the United Nations now being able to dictate the education curriculum in Clinch County schools. It was about the designation of our Okefenokee as a World Heritage site making it more difficult for the local timber barons to lease their land on or near Trail Ridge to mine for titanium dioxide so that the world never runs out of toothpaste whitener.
Roughly 8,000-acres next to the refuge, the trail acts as a dam, creating a huge rainwater basin. Both pro-mining and anti-mining forces have produced studies on the potential impact of mining Trail Ridge, good and bad. I will go with Charles Seabrook, the longtime environmental writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose opinions I highly respect, “Without Trail Ridge, the Okefenokee would cease to exist in its present magnificence.” In other words, leave Trail Ridge alone. We can always whiten our teeth with baking soda.
It is important to pause here and say while our Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is now officially a World Heritage site, the mining issue is a still and present danger. It hasn’t gone away and likely won’t until legislation is passed to permanently ban future surface mining. Past efforts to get even a moratorium couldn’t get out of a legislative committee, despite bipartisan support.
Gov. Brian Kemp has remained largely silent on the issue, although he hailed the UNESCO decision “a fitting recognition for the Okefenokee that will further strengthen rural communities that surround it.”
Whether Rick Jackson or Keisha Lance Bottoms becomes our 84th governor in November, in my opinion the optics favor a fresh look at a ban on mining. Jackson doesn’t need the timber barons’ money and Bottoms likely doesn’t want it. Mining opponents are energized and ready to make their voices heard. The silliness about a United Nations takeover is just that – silliness. Our Okefenokee is now a World Heritage site. Pogo the Possum says thank you.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139
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