2020 has been a year of impressive organizing in Georgia. As a progressive Georgia resident, it was miraculous watching the state flip blue during the presidential election. But the remarkable organizing leading up to November has drawn focus from other important initiatives. In October, a crowd-solving group called Drawdown Georgia announced their goal of reducing Georgia’s carbon emissions by a minimum of one third in the next ten years. 

Emphasizing community collaboration on carbon reducing projects, Drawdown Georgia has outlined several initiatives that are good starting places to reduce the state’s carbon footprint. These initiatives range from reducing car travel, to encouraging Georgians to eat plant rich diets, to installing solar farms and rooftop solar. Drawdown Georgia also has a goal of increasing coastal wetland area as a carbon storage measure. Not many climate activist groups emphasize conserving and expanding wetlands, so this is an impressive and important goal. 

Around twenty percent of Georgia’s area is covered in wetlands. From 100 linear miles of coastal marshes to the Okefenokee Swamp, one of the largest swamps in the United States, the state holds a varied array of wetlands. 

An alligator rests on a log in Okefenokee Swamp, Source: One Tank Media

Georgia’s diverse wetlands provide benefits that residents often overlook. Wetlands shield our coasts as water levels rise due to climate change, filter pollutants out of our watersheds, and provide habitat for an abundance of species including birds, alligators, fish, otters, and black bears. 

Wetlands are also some of the most effective naturally occurring carbon storage systems in the world. They can store up to fifty times more carbon than the Earth’s rainforests. In the face of catastrophic global climate disasters, we need to protect wetlands more than ever. 

By the early 1990s, Georgia had lost 23% of its wetlands to non-wetland related development, especially agriculture. In an effort to regain some of the lost ecosystems, the state has largely overturned policies that historically promoted converting wetlands into other landscapes.

Georgia now encourages landowners to protect wetlands by offering tax breaks for keeping wetlands on private property from being drained and developed as agricultural or building space. The state has also established a project to re-marsh segments of the coast by creating “living shorelines,” spaces where coastal ecosystems are bio-engineered to fight erosion and rebuild habitats for native plants and animals.

Some of Georgia’s beautiful coastal wetlands, Source: GA DNR 

Despite these positive programs, it is difficult to see their success as Georgia has yet to introduce a formal tracking system or a state standard for wetland assessment and classification.

Georgia’s positive steps are not enough in the face of climate catastrophe. There are several areas where I see room for improvement. First, Georgia needs to implement a formal statewide plan to restore and protect wetlands. Without a comprehensive plan, it is difficult for individuals across the state to work together on this problem. 

Although the state champions their tax break for private landowners who keep wetland property out of development, they are missing a larger opportunity. The Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources should create and endorse scientifically based guides in the form of websites, books, or articles to explain the process of re-establishing and protecting wetlands. This would help private landowners know how to protect and expand wetlands on their property. 

Through long-term planning and alliances with local landowners, Georgia’s wetland policies could help the state rise to the forefront of climate action. With the help of climate organizers like Drawdown Georgia and others focusing on wetland and coastal conservation like the One Hundred Miles group, Georgia has the opportunity to transform its climate response.

In a conservative state, trying to pass environmental protections is discouraging. The term “climate change,” is not even used in wetlands protection measures. Mentions of climate change in policy have the potential to alienate voters as well as policy makers. It is my hope that projects like Drawdown Georgia will help create grassroots movements that acknowledge the importance of wetland protection as a bipartisan step towards combating climate change. 

It is exciting to see wetland-based climate action beginning to be prioritized by NGOs in my state. Ultimately, this goal is something we need not just in Georgia, but on a national scale. I do not doubt that Georgia can be a leader when that time comes. Hopefully, for the sake of our planet, it’s sooner rather than later.