Download the Georgia Department of Natural Resource's 2010 Landowner's Guide to Conservation Incentives in Georgia here.

Georgia is one of the fastest growing states in the country – a trend that is expected to continue through 2030 – and the Georgia Conservancy is working to help guide the state’s growth in a planning and responsibility. Unsustainable development that degrades and destroys natural habitat is one of the most significant factors contributing to the decline of clean water and plant and animal species across the state.

From the mountains through our river basins and out to our coastal marshes and beaches, Georgia has been blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. The state has more than 200 species of plants and animals that are protected by state or federal law and more than 70,000 miles of creeks, streams and rivers that help provide us with drinking water and offer unparalleled recreational opportunities.

Rooted in land conservation

The protection of land has been at the heart of the mission of the Georgia Conservancy since its founding in 1968. Our founders were inspired by the work of The Nature Conservancy in some the northern states and believed that an organization was needed in Georgia to protect environmentally sensitive land.

The first action of the new board of trustees was to personally sign an option to purchase Panola Mountain in Rockdale County. Gov. Jimmy Carter authorized the State of Georgia to buy the land and make it a state park, protecting a 100 acres granite monadnock that has never been mined for granite and harbors many rare plants.

In 1969, the Conservancy convinced Gov. Lester Maddox to preserve Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County. The park protects a long stretch of Sweetwater Creek, an important tributary of the Chattahoochee River, and it harbors many rare plant species.

In these early years, the Georgia Conservancy also led the fight to give the Okefenokee Swamp wilderness status, and we fought successfully for passage of a bill by U.S. Representative Ed Jenkins (D- Jasper) to protect portions of the Chattahoochee National Forest as wilderness.

Because of our long tradition of protecting land in Georgia, our new strategic plan, adopted by the Georgia Conservancy Board of Trustees in March 2010, makes land conservation a major part of our mission. We will protect land by advocacy for land conservation by state and local governments, and we will act as a resource for direct landowners who wish to preserve their land by directing them to great land conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust or the State of Georgia, which holds conservation easements.

The conservation of the land is at the heart of our work.

Through its land conservation program, the Georgia Conservancy is working to:

Protect wildlife: In conjunction with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Georgia Conservancy helped create the State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP), now hailed as one of the best plans in the country to protect rapidly disappearing wildlife habitat. Now, the Georgia Conservancy is educating audiences around the state on the importance of biodiversity in Georgia.

Promote the value of alternative fuels: The Georgia Conservancy is a founding member of the Pine 2 Energy Coalition (P2E), a diverse group of organizations, including forest landowners, energy producers, conservation organizations, government agencies and academic institutions who promote the conversion of pine to energy, particularly to pine ethanol.

Educate landowners: Over the last several years, millions of acres of land have been put on the market by private companies as development pressures rise. The Georgia Conservancy is working to educate landowners about voluntary legal agreements, known as conservation easements, through the distribution of our “Your Land, Your Decision” booklet.

The Georgia Conservancy also supported the creation of the Georgia Conservation Tax Credit, which makes Georgia one of only eleven states to offer an income tax credit to individual or corporate landowners who voluntarily choose to permanently protect their land as greenspace.

Preserve greenspace: The Georgia Conservancy has collaborated on a regional greenspace strategy, working with the Atlanta Regional Commission and The Trust for Public Land, to create a protected lands inventory, a greenspace priorities map and a green infrastructure toolkit for the 20-county metro Atlanta area.