Though somewhat old news as I write this, it is extremely good news for those who fought the fight: Our Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has officially been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It happened a couple of weeks ago during a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
Our Okefenokee is in good company, joining such treasured U.S. sites as Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and the Statue of Liberty, to name just a few.
Experts say being designated a World Heritage Site should be an economic boon. Today, the Okefenokee attracts some 800,000 visitors a year, with more than $90 million pumped into the local economy. With World Heritage status, those numbers could rise to 1.5 million visitors or more over the next decade, according to projections from The Conservation Fund, one of the key players in helping protect, preserve, and promote the Okefenokee.
President John F. Kennedy once said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” This effort has had a lot of daddies (and mommas), and 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 this subject. The Okefenokee is up close and personal to you.
Most of the orphans are down in Charlton, Clinch and Ware counties, where the Okefenokee is located. They wanted nothing to do with UNESCO and its 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, Mont., near the entrance to the World Heritage site Yellowstone National Park, and they seem to be doing just fine. No U.N. takeover there.
Same with unincorporated Ochopee in the Everglades. No infringement on property rights reported.
Tusayan, at the entrance to the Grand Canyon, seems to be thriving, too. If the U.N. is imposing its agenda on the town, they seem blissfully unaware. And as far as I know, the Statue of Liberty is still proudly holding her torch on Liberty Island in New York.
The anti-UNESCO gang might have done its homework before issuing its poppycock statements.
Of course, their anti-World Heritage propaganda wasn’t really about the United Nations dictating the education curriculum in Clinch County schools. It was about the designation of our Okefenokee as a World Heritage Site potentially making it more difficult for local timber interests to lease their land on or near Trail Ridge to mine for titanium dioxide. Hence, the world never runs out of toothpaste whitener.
Roughly 8,000 acres next to the refuge, Trail Ridge acts as a dam, creating a huge rainwater basin. Both pro-mining and anti-mining forces have produced studies on the potential impacts 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, who said: “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 that while the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is now officially a World Heritage Site, the mining issue remains a present danger. It hasn’t gone away and likely won’t until legislation is passed to ban future surface mining permanently.
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. However, he hailed the UNESCO decision as “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.