Why is the Okefenokee Swamp important to GA?

Why is the Okefenokee Swamp important to GA?

The swamp is considered the headwaters of the Suwannee and St Marys Rivers. Habitats provide for threatened and endangered species, such as red-cockaded woodpecker, wood storks, indigo snakes, and a wide variety of other wildlife species. More than 600 plant species have been identified on refuge lands.

How does the Okefenokee Swamp affect Georgia?

Many visitors enter the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge each year. The swamp provides an important economic resource to southeast Georgia and northeast Florida. More than 600,000 visitors from as many as 46 countries travel to the Okefenokee refuge each year to enjoy its unmatched wilderness.

Why is the Okefenokee Swamp an important physical feature?

It is a source of drinking water for Savannah and Augusta. It is also used to generate hydroelectric power.

How does the Okefenokee Swamp help Georgia’s economy?

From an economic perspective, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge provides a variety of environmental and natural resource goods and services used by people either directly or indirectly. The use of these goods and services may result in economic effects to both local and state economies.

What is the importance of the fall line to Georgia?

Throughout Georgia’s early development as settlers moved inland from coastal towns on the Atlantic Ocean, a number of trading posts grew along the Fall Line, which was a natural boundary for boat traffic traveling upstream. Cities on the Fall Line became trade centers that were important to the state’s economy.

What happened at Okefenokee Swamp?

The Honey Prairie Fire, a massive wildfire in the Okefenokee Swamp, is pictured on April 30, 2011, two days after a lightning strike in the swamp ignited the blaze. The fire burned more than 300,000 acres in the swamp over the next three months.

What is the history of the Okefenokee Swamp?

The Okefenokee Swamp, called the “Land of the Trembling Earth,” is geologically about 10,000 years old. Its oldest inhabitants were the Native Americans who occupied the area during the late Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods of prehistory.

What is the most important physical feature of Georgia?

The main geographical features include mountains such as the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in the northwest, the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northeast, the Piedmont plateau in the central portion of the state and Coastal Plain in the south.

Why is water important to the state of Georgia?

Healthy rivers, streams, wetlands, aquifers, and estuaries are vital to all life, as well as to the state’s economic prosperity and quality of life. Each of Georgia’s 14 major river basins is culturally and ecologically unique and significant, with many containing aquatic species occurring nowhere else in the world.

What is the Okefenokee Swamp used for now?

The Okefenokee Swamp covers nearly 700 square miles, almost all of which is in Georgia. It has a long history as a wilderness, a public common, and a refuge. Since 1937 most of the Okefenokee has been a National Wildlife Refuge.

What is an important factor of the Fall Line in Georgia history?

The line dividing regions 4 & 5 on this map is known as the “Fall Line.” Which of these represents an important factor of the Fall Line in Georgia history? It was the first boundary of the Georgia after it became a state. It was an important source of power due to a change in elevation.

What is most associated with the Okefenokee Swamp?

A high ridge of sand known as Trail Ridge forms the eastern edge of the swamp. Wildlife abound; more than 400 species of vertebrates, including more than 200 varieties of birds and more than 60 kinds of reptiles, are known to inhabit the swamp.

Where did the Okefenokee Swamp get its name?

In 1937, 371,445 acres (150,319 hectares) of swampland, almost all in Georgia, were set aside as the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, with headquarters at Waycross, Ga. The swamp’s name probably is derived from the Seminole Indian word for “trembling earth ,” so-called because of the floating islands of the swamp.

Which two states is the Okefenokee Swamp in?

At the Okefenokee Swamp in the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida , the land is so soggy that the trees do not have a stable hold in the ground and shake, or tremble, when people trod heavily nearby. Ancient swamps are a source of the fossil fuel coal.

What does Okefenokee Swamp mean?

Okefenokee Swamp. Okefenokee is a Native American word that means “trembling earth.”. At the Okefenokee Swamp in the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida, the land is so soggy that the trees do not have a stable hold in the ground and shake, or tremble, when people trod heavily nearby.