We were in the magnificent Moody Forest Natural Area in Appling County in South Georgia last weekend to celebrate.
Ten years ago, the Nature Conservancy of Georgia, the state Department of Natural Resources and others pooled their resources to rescue -- at a cost of $8.25 million -- this 4,500-acre natural sanctuary from development and loggers. It has been hailed as one of Georgia’s greatest conservation feats.
“We knew we had to do whatever it took to protect Moody Forest,” said Steve Friedman of the Nature Conservancy, as we sat under some spreading oaks to celebrate the victory.
Adjacent to the Altamaha River near Baxley, the Moody Forest is an irreplaceable natural gem that harbors a wide array of flora and fauna -- including endangered species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker and the eastern indigo snake, and state-protected species such as the gopher tortoise, swallow-tailed kite, Bachman's sparrow and hooded pitcher plant.
The rich natural diversity is due to the preserve's myriad natural habitats -- bottomland hardwood forests, river swamps, longleaf pine and wiregrass woodlands, isolated wetlands, small stream forests, slope forests, bluff forests and loblolly flats. Many of the forested areas contain old growth, making them particularly significant.
In the preserve's sloughs and floodplain along the Altamaha grow some of the largest (10 feet wide at the base) and oldest (more than 600 years old) baldcypress trees in the South. In the uplands are longleaf and slash pines 200 to 300 years old, one of the nation's last remaining swaths of old-growth pines. Some contain red-cockaded woodpecker cavities. Post oaks more than 200 years old also grow in Moody Forest's uplands; 220-year-old overcup oaks live in its bottomlands.
Georgia has this splendid natural place because in 1952 three siblings, Causs, Wade and Elizabeth Moody, inherited from their uncle Jake Moody what local folk knew as Moody Swamp. Determined to abide by their uncle's request that the land not be logged or developed, the siblings protected it. The last surviving sibling died in 1999. Two years later the heirs sold 3,500 acres to the Nature Conservancy. Later, an additional 1,000 acres adjacent to the forest also were protected.
The Georgia DNR bought 1,700 acres of the tract and dedicated it as the Moody Forest Natural Area. The entire preserve is managed jointly by the DNR and the Nature Conservancy. Two public trails wind through it.
For more information: www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/georgia/placesweprotect/index.htm.
In the sky: The moon is in the last quarter this weekend, rising about midnight and setting at midday. It will be a new moon by the following weekend, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Science Museum. Mercury is very low in the west just after dark. Venus rises out of the east about two hours before sunrise and will appear near the moon on the morning of March 31. Jupiter is low in the west just after dark. Saturn rises in the east around sunset.
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