Picture Postcards from the Swamp

Ready for an Okefenokee photo essay?

Weatherwise, August is a steamy time to visit the Okefenokee, but the swamp is super alive in the swelter. We only spent 2.5 days there, but I still ended up adding 50 images to the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge project page at iNaturalist.

With that in mind, here are 10 picture postcards highlights:

1. A Moving Moment in the Swamp.

Native Americans called the Okefenokee swamp the “land of trembling earth” because the unstable peat that cover most of the swamp floor moves when stepped on.

Click here to see: Trembling Earth Video on YouTube

Click the YouTube link above the postcard to see the action.

2. Never bored on the boardwalk.

I’m a big fan of boardwalks no matter where I find them. Well, they are not so great for biking, but pretty swell for everything else.

3. A Plant That Packs a Punch

Permanently saturated wetlands like the Okefenokee have acidic water and are good environments for carnivorous pitcher plants which have adapted to obtain minerals and nutrition from the insects they trap.

4. A Snake That Packs a Punch.

We saw two dusky pygmy rattlesnakes during our walking and driving time along Swamp Island Drive. The snake’s venom is hemotoxic, and although bites usually are not life threatening, they are said to be very painful. We saw one from the window of our car, and another one (pictured above) at the end of a boardwalk hike.

5. Dark & Quiet Summertime Night

The photo was taken with my regular old smartphone camera. That’s Jupiter in the middle.

6. Fertile Flush

Our guide suggested that purple pickerel blooms in places frequented by alligators who repeatedly return to the same places to use the “bathroom,” thereby fertilizing the soil and water in the area.

7. An Animal Who Believes It’s Nice to Share.

The gopher tortoise species is native to the southeastern U.S. and is a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide shelter for at least 360 other animal species. The gopher tortoise has been called one of the most neighborly animals ever because of the nice ways it shares. We were excited to see one on the east side of the park along the entrance road.

9. Hatchlings By the Boardwalk

This is gator hatching season. When we walked the boardwalk to the observation tower, we saw two little ones. This photo was taken by one of our guides, and to be clear, we were not holding these gators.

10. Getting a Good Angle on a Ten-Angle.

These eye-catching native plants, also known as hat pins or bog buttons, occur naturally in bogs, wet prairies, and freshwater marshes. These flowers exude a tough demeanor—-the “buttons” feel hard to the touch and the spiky stalks stand at attention along the roadside on Swamp Island Drive.

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The history of wetlands is the history of their destruction.

I read Annie Proulx’s book, Fen, Bog & Swamp this summer and found out about the many ways we’ve destroyed wetlands. I highly recommend the book, first published in 2022, which I borrowed from the library.

I’m hopeful the Okefenokee won’t be added to the list of destroyed wetlands, but it feels like they are trying. An Alabama company wants to mine for titanium dioxide three miles from the edge of the refuge, a project that researchers say will negatively impact water levels of the swamp for years in the future. I’m against the mining project, and hopeful that either the Georgia legislature and/or the Governor will stop the mining project once and for all. Plenty has been written about this situation if you want to learn more. Here’s a good place to start: “The Fate of the Okefenokee is in Your Hands.”

Currently, there is a bid to name the Okefenokee Swamp a UNESCO World Heritage site.¹ If that were to happen, it would be a good start on protecting the refuge long-term. The process, both slow and competitive, has been going on since 2007 when the swamp was placed on a UNESCO “tentative” list.

The United States has 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of these, ten are cultural, one is mixed, and twelve are natural sites — with the latter being primarily National Parks. These sites are places of importance in our country and represent the diversity of our people and landscapes. A complete list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United States is shown in this graphic: whc.unesco.org.

1. Okefenokee World Heritage Bid