Wild Georgia: Giving thanks for nature's splendor

On Thanksgiving Day this Thursday, we will pause with friends and family to give thanks for the goodness of life. I am thankful for many things, but, as a proud treehugger, I am especially grateful for:

• Our state parks and the dedicated people who run them. Their devotion to our state's crown jewels is much appreciated in the face of severe funding cutbacks that threaten to close some parks. Instead of fewer state parks, we need more of them.

• The nongame office of Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division, whose biologists strive to protect our songbirds and other wildlife in spite of a shoestring state budget. Buying a nongame wildlife license plate for your car helps their mission.

• Our national forests, the Chattahoochee and the Oconee. Remember, the most important product from a healthy forest is clean water. We must protect the land to protect our water.

• Georgia's coastal salt marshes, which stretch to the horizon as if never-ending. Georgia has more salt marsh than any other East Coast state. The marshes are nurseries for countless marine creatures. They filter pollutants from water and help protect the mainland from storms blowing in from the sea.

• All of Georgia's other green spaces -- national parks, wildlife refuges, wildlife management areas, nature preserves, and city and county parks. We need such places to refresh weary minds and revive the human spirit.

• Georgia's great rivers, including the Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Flint, Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ogeechee, St. Marys, Satilla, Savannah and Suwanee. Praise to those who protect them, and shame on those who pollute them.

• The "birds that sing" and a "world so sweet." As children, many of us were taught in a simple prayer to express our thanks for these natural gifts. Why, then, as adults, do we stand for our air, water and soil to become so sullied?

• Magnificent natural vistas, such as that from atop Brasstown Bald, where on a clear day you can see Atlanta's tall buildings some 80 miles away; or the view from the Sapelo Island Lighthouse, where you can see the vast salt marshes interspersed with sparkling tidal creeks flowing into a broad estuary and the sea beyond.

• The changing seasons -- spring, summer, fall and winter -- and the beauty they bring.

• All of Georgia's native plants and animals, big and small, beautiful and not so beautiful, because they all serve a purpose and deserve a right to live.

• The Okefenokee Swamp. Every time I visit it, I am amazed that Georgia has this magnificent wild place famous around the world.