Okefenokee Swamp

The Okefenokee Swamp is a large, peat-filled forested wetland in southeastern Georgia near the Florida border, protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The Okefenokee is one of the largest swamp ecosystems in the southern United States, and provides a home and breeding grounds for many bird species such as herons, egrets, cranes, and ibises as well as large populations of American alligators and black bears. The swamp has large expanses of marshes, upland pine forests and cypress swamps. For more information, visit the the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge website.

Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are large unfragmented forest ecosystems, at least 500 km2 in size, and without roads, logging, or other significant signs of human activity. These areas are large enough to retain all native forest biodiversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species.

The largest intact forest areas are in the tropics (Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia) and in boreal forests (Canada, Alaska, and Russia). Within the southern United States, only three intact forest landscapes remain: in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia, and in southwestern Florida.

Images: 

Category: 
Fragmentation