A potential expansion of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge boundaries in Georgia to include the site of a proposed titanium mine opens up several possible futures for both the project and the continent’s largest black water swamp.
Most dramatically, the Fish and Wildlife Service notion floated last Friday to add 22,000 acres to the Georgia refuge would give Twin Pines Minerals a chance to sell off the land it has long planned to mine. Although the Fish and Wildlife Service did not explicitly discuss the possibility in its public announcement last week, it’s top of mind for some mine skeptics.
“Refuges are always trying to protect the integrity of the public lands,” Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Bill Sapp said in an interview. “In this case, they explicitly [include] Twin Pines, which indicates to me that they view the proposed Twin Pines mine as an imminent threat, and they feel that acquiring that land is the way that they’re going to protect the refuge.”
The privately held company indicated it is still collecting information about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to solicit public comments about a potential refuge expansion.
