• 3 reasons to see Ohoopee Dunes … now
• ’Tis the season for superstition
• From ditch to bog to classroom
• Funding the battle for bats

3 reasons to see Ohoopee Dunes … now

   On Tuesday morning near Swainsboro, a crowd will gather at Ohoopee Dunes Wildlife Management Area to celebrate the completion of educational and recreational improvements at the WMA, features such as an interpretive trail and small-craft boat ramp.
   The public is welcomed, and short tours will follow the ceremony at the McLeod Bridge Tract (details).
   But if you can’t attend, here are three reasons you should visit Ohoopee Dunes. Soon.

1. Columnist Charles Seabrook was right: Ohoopee Dunes is one of Georgia’s natural wonders you “must see” before you die. Featuring ancient riverine sandhills -- some rising 120 feet above the Little Ohoopee River -- and rare ecological communities, the site is a blend of unique plants and animals in a Spartan setting. Seabrook, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, included the area as number 10 on a list of 35 (along with George L. Smith State Park, also in Emanuel County.)    2. The new 1.9-mile trail offers an easy and enlightening hike, looping through habitats varying from xeric dunes to pocosin wetlands. Signage designed to fit the area's stark nature explains the surroundings; a sandhills pond, lichens and spikemoss, the role of fire in these natural systems, a rosemary bald, “cat-faced” pines that harken to the turpentine industry, and more. A trail spur leads to the floodplain. “It’s all of the different communities that are part of the Ohoopee Dunes,” said Dr. Mincy Moffett Jr., a botanist with DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section.    3. Fall is a prime time to see Ohoopee Dunes. Temperatures are cooler, insects are fewer and many wildflowers are in bloom. Moffett, who has led restoration work at the WMA, said the visual appeal includes scarlet calamint, woody goldenrod and blazing star species. But, not surprisingly for someone sold on conserving and appreciating this area, he also said, “There’s something there any time of the year.”

Ohoopee details

• The WMA is made up of three tracts on the upper Little Ohoopee River. The DNR also cooperates in managing an adjacent tract owned by The Nature Conservancy and another nearby owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The five tracts make up a nearly 3,000-acre conservation area.
• Like to fish? When the water level is right, fishing can be good on the Little Ohoopee for everything from redbreast sunfish to largemouth bass and pickerel. The new boat ramp on the Hall’s Bridge Tract is sized for johnboats, canoes and other small crafts. Efforts also continue to create a canoe trail section on the river stretching from the WMA’s middle tract at Ga. 80 to the Hall’s Bridge Tract.

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Out my backdoor

’Tis the season for superstition

By Terry W. Johnson
   Most folks enjoy having wildlife living just outside their backdoor. But that hasn’t always been the case. In times past, people often either took their wildlife neighbors for granted or honestly believed that many of them were imbued with frightening magical powers.
   Worse yet, some thought they were cavorting with witches and ghosts.
   Many of these superstitions and myths have been handed down for generations and linger on to this day. This is especially true of a handful of animals that are doomed to be forever linked to Halloween.
   Here is a small collection of some of the bizarre myths and superstitions that concern some of our most familiar backyard residents … from owls to crows and spiders to snails.

Read the rest of Terry’s column for an amazing look at how owls and other common wildlife used to cast a shadow of fear, particularly at this time of year.

Terry W. Johnson is a former Nongame program manager with the Wildlife Resources Division and executive director of TERN, the Nongame Conservation Section’s friends group. Column archives.

Don't fear the creature

• Listen to the calls of a great-horned owl, a barred owl and an eastern screech owl.
• Crawly, not creepy: Learn about other “spooky” creatures such as grass spiders and copperhead snakes on the “Talking Nature Tuesday” segments with Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center’s Berkeley Boone. Here's the full album of videos.

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From ditch to bog to classroom

Savannah teacher earns $1,000 grant for wetland plan

   Thanks to a financial boost from DNR’s $1,000 Teaching Conservation grant, a Savannah science teacher will see his vision of an outdoor bog classroom come to life.
   Bill Eswine, a science specialist at Savannah Country Day School, was recently awarded the grant for his “Bog Diversity – An Outdoor Classroom” project, which will turn a large drainage ditch on the school campus into a bog habitat where students can learn about wetland wildlife.
   "Since we already had bullfrogs, leopard frogs and a lot of native plant species in that area, we thought it would be great if we could turn it into a bog – a site that would be an outdoor classroom,” said Eswine, who has directed a coastal ecology summer camp in the Savannah area since 1982. 

The grant, which has been met with a matching private donation, is provided by The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, friends group of the Nongame Conservation Section. The section awards the grant annually to a third- through fifth-grade public or private school teacher in Georgia who demonstrates exceptional energy and innovation in teaching life sciences.    Although the ditch may not look like much now, Eswine says the future site will allow his students to observe the diverse wildlife in a bog habitat, as well as study hydrology and the potential effects of pollution, climate change and other threats to natural bogs, a fragile and often-overlooked ecosystem.    “Most people see (the ditch) as an ugly site and would fill it in, but it really is a unique habitat and we wanted to highlight that for our kids. They’re the stewards of the future and we want them to look at things appropriately.” Back to top.

Wildlife tags at work

   From the editor: Many of you know that Georgia’s eagle and hummingbird license plates provide more than half of the funds raised to conserve nongame wildlife. And that the DNR Nongame Conservation Section receives no state funding for our mission to preserve and restore nongame animals, plants and their habitats. But do you know what these efforts look like; in short, what wildlife tags do? Starting in this issue, we'll provide a series of snapshots that answer that question. If you have questions or comments, please email me.

Rick Lavender

Georgia Wild is free, sent twice monthly (except December through March) and focused
on rare, endangered and other nongame wildlife. Nongame includes wildlife not legally fished for or hunted,
plus Georgia's native plants and natural habitats.

Volume 7, issue 14         Georgia Wild archives

Georgia Wild copyright © 2014. Wildlife Resources Division Nongame Conservation Section. All rights reserved.