5 groups have it in their care
Wildlife refuge in Georgia, 402,000 acres, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, designated in 1937.
The defenders
5 groups are on the record for Okefenokee, each tied to it by a source our editors read, in the order they carry the weight. Give directly; nothing routes through us.
On the ground
Legal · Charlottesville, VA
Filed the 2022 lawsuit against the Army Corps over wetlands decisions enabling the Twin Pines mine on behalf of four national groups, and its senior attorney chaired the Okefenokee Protection Alliance executive committee.
267 staff + 43 volunteers83¢ to the workFounded 1986
Advocacy · Washington, DC
Sued the Army Corps in November 2022 over the Twin Pines project, helped found the Okefenokee Protection Alliance in 2020, and produced the 2021 documentary Sacred Waters: The Okefenokee in Peril.
11 staff + 20 volunteers61¢ to the workFounded 1975
Land Trust · Arlington, VA
Purchased the Twin Pines mine site and its mineral rights on Trail Ridge in June 2025 for about 60 million dollars, ending the mining threat to the refuge.
243 staff + 21 volunteers95¢ to the workFounded 1985
Also in the fight
Legal · Tucson, AZ
Joined the November 2022 environmental lawsuit challenging the Army Corps decisions that cleared the way for the Twin Pines mine beside the refuge.
242 staff + 19 volunteers88¢ to the workFounded 1989
Advocacy · Washington, DC
Founding member of the Okefenokee Protection Alliance and a plaintiff in the 2022 wetlands lawsuit against the Army Corps over the Twin Pines mine.
165 staff + 80 volunteers71¢ to the workFounded 1947
On the ground in Georgia
The situation
The oldest and most pristine blackwater swamp in North America, where alligators glide through cypress-dark water and sandhill cranes nest by the thousands. A $60 million buyout stopped the immediate mining threat in 2025, but there is no permanent law protecting Trail Ridge. The fight is won for now. The Okefenokee is not permanently safe.
Source: The Conservation Fund
No public comment window is open on Okefenokee right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.
Your move
Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.
Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representativesA ready call script on Okefenokee, plus any comment window as it opens.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapBuild my lineup around Okefenokee: the leading group here opens it, and the other seats fill from this record.
5 groups on the record, Southern Environmental Law Center with 267 staff + 43 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.
