DuPont has agreed to donate to the Conservation Fund approximately 16,000 acres adjacent to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area in Georgia. DuPont had acquired the land in the mid-1990s with the intention of mining it for titanium dioxide used as a white pigment in a variety of household products. This is fantastic news for a very special place.
The formal announcement on August 27, 2003, came nearly five years after DuPont, and a collaborative group of stakeholders the company had established to review the mine, agreed instead to an alternative future for the region. The Wilderness Society participated in the collaborative group and helped craft the "no-mining alternative" which called for DuPont to relinquish its mineral rights, for a portion of the land to be added to the refuge, and for the various stakeholders to work together to secure funding for construction and staffing of an Okefenokee Education and Research Center in the small gateway town of Folkston, Georgia. The center will open in December 2003.
DuPont could have held out for a sizable payment of federal and state sources to purchase its holdings next to the Refuge, but the company instead made a better choice and donated the land to the Conservation Fund.
The Wilderness Society invested significantly in the campaign to save the Okefenokee. Our staff in Georgia and Washington, DC, spent countless hours speaking with local citizens as well as officials from DuPont. The campaign received significant media exposure through our communications department, among others. In addition to our advocacy and communications efforts, our Ecology and Economic Research Department conducted a community economic workshop in Folkston, Georgia, which helped local leaders realize that they could improve the economic condition of the community without the mine.
About a third of the donated lands will be added to the Okefenokee Refuge, rounding out the boundary line to an existing dirt road. The Conservation Fun will evaluate various options for the remaining acreage but at this point is inclined towards donating the land to create a new state or local park or wildlife area.
Because International Paper (originally Union Camp) retained timber and hunting rights to the 16,000 acres it sold to DuPont, the Conservation Fund did not receive those rights. International Paper will continue to hold those rights for decades to come (until 2080) so there may be some management tension. But we are hopeful that the timber company will agree to modify its practices and help restore more natural forest composition on the land. (The vast majority of this area has been under short rotation timber management for many years).
An additional 22,000 acres that DuPont had hoped to mine is still privately owned by a separate, smaller timber company (Toledo Manufacturing). That tract is contiguous with the Refuge and south of the Conservation Fund tract. It is possible, but most believe quite unlikely, that Toledo could try to find another company to mine its land.
