Somewhere in a photo book there is a picture of me standing with my grandparents by the back bumper of their seventies model Ford LTD wearing striped tube socks, a tank top and sporting a bowl haircut.
Outside of going to visit relatives across South Georgia, it was the only daytrips out of Wayne County I ever took with them. We were not heading too far, but grandmother packed us egg salad sandwiches for lunch, plenty of snacks and glass bottles of ice cold Coca-Cola.
After an hour or so on the road, we pulled into the Okefenokee Swamp, and I found it harder and harder by the second to keep calm. All I could think about was seeing the alligators as I slid from window to window in the massive back seat. However, the first priority was for Grandaddy NeSmith to find us a picnic table. And when he did, Grandmother laid out quite the spread.
After lunch, I finally got to see alligators up close, go for a boat ride, take a sip of fresh swamp water and watch a snake presentation from Okefenokee Joe. I might not have been in heaven, but I sure thought I was.
Though I cannot put my hands on the photo, I know exactly where the cooler the picnic lunch was packed in is stored. But, unfortunately, I can only dream about enjoying another one of my Grandmother NeSmith’s egg salad sandwiches again.
Today, I sit concerned about the almost 402,000-acre Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge God blessed us with.
Did you know it is the largest black water swamp in America?
Did you know a company out of Alabama wants to surface mine titanium oxide along the Trail Ridge near the Okefenokee?
Did you know the Okefenokee is federally protected?
Did you know House Bill 71, a bill that would protect Trail Ridge and the Okefenokee from surface mining, failed to make it out of the House before Crossover Day?
Wait. What?
Yes, there is a company out of Alabama named Twin Pines Minerals who wants to surface mine near America’s largest blackwater swamp that is one of the seven natural wonders of Georgia. Twin Pines says the surface mining will not hurt our Okefenokee, but is this a risk we can take? Absolutely not!
Monday, March 20 is the deadline for us to make comments to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to reject Twin Pines Mineral’s Draft Mining Plan. Please send an email to twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov and let them know you do not support anything that could damage our Okefenokee.
Because some things are better left alone.
Alan NeSmith is the chairman of Community Newspapers Inc. Reach him at 706-778-4215 or anesmith@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.