State has cash, needs land

It's been five years since Georgia acquired 1,200 acres near Millen, Ga., - known as Big Dukes Pond - for a public hunting area that doubles as a conservation site for endangered wood storks.

This year, thanks to a 52-2 vote by Georgia's Senate last week, the Wildlife Resources Division might have new opportunities to expand its list of wildlife management areas that offer many sportsmen their only opportunities to fish or hunt.

"Certainly, this has wonderful potential," said Assistant Game Management Chief Carroll Allen of Gov. Sonny Perdue's effort to establish a $100 million fund to help cities, counties and state agencies buy or protect important outdoor areas.

The Georgia Land Conservation Act, first unveiled in January, creates a revolving loan program and trust fund with $100 million in state, federal and private funding.

Those dollars will be available to local governments - and the Department of Natural Resources - to buy conservation lands.

Public agencies often have problems acquiring lands. They can be outbid - or they sometimes have to forego opportunities simply because there is no money.

"Land purchase depends on both availability and on funding," Allen said. "Now that funding is available, we can look for land."

Wildlife lands available to the public are always in short supply. In recent years, many tracts leased to hunting clubs by major timber companies have been parceled out and sold, leaving some hunters without places to go.

The most significant recent acquisition by the state, Allen noted, was the purchase two years ago of 19,700 acres near Albany, Ga., now known as the Chickasawhatchee WMA.

"That was a public-private partnership thing - we used a grant, non-game funds, wildlife license tag money and other sources," Allen said.

"The state, obviously, didn't have the money to go out and just buy the whole thing."

In the east Georgia counties surrounding Augusta, there is an abundance of public lands, stretching from the 12,000-acre Clarks Hill WMA near Thomson all the way to Tuckahoe WMA along the Savannah River in Screven County.

Allen believes the Legislature's willingness to fund further acquisitions will create opportunities for outdoorsmen all across Georgia.

"I would definitely say it's good news for the sportsmen of the state," he said.

ECOLOGY LAB CLOSING? Just as Gov. Perdue's Land Conservation Act was gaining approval on the Georgia side of the river, the U.S. Energy Department's budget-cutting ax was being sharpened at Savannah River Site, where an important South Carolina outdoor resource is in jeopardy of closure.

Savannah River Ecology Lab, an affiliate of the University of Georgia, learned last week that virtually all of its funding has been eliminated from DOE's fiscal 2006 budget.

If approved as written, the 51-year-old lab - and its 180 jobs - would vanish within a year.

Although the lab was conceived as a research tool to study the impacts of nuclear production on the vast expanse of wilderness within SRS, its scientists have generated countless benefits to the hunters, anglers and outdoorsmen of Georgia and South Carolina.

Studies of whitetail deer movement, breeding habits and mortality have shed new knowledge about the popular game animal. Other studies of feral hogs, coyotes, wood ducks and other wildlife have helped manage and preserve resources in many areas outside SRS.

SREL director Paul Bertsch has promised to lobby for the reinstatement of more than $7 million in operating funds.

CAMPGROUNDS OPEN: One of the annual harbingers of spring is the announcement that the Army Corps of Engineers is ready to open its camping areas at Thurmond Lake. On March 1, gates will open at Broad River, Clay Hill, Mount Carmel, Petersburg, Raysville and Winfield campgrounds.

Day use recreation sites including Clarks Hill Park, Parksville, Gill Point, Cherokee, Amity, Big Hart, Lake Springs and West Dam will open April 2.

Reservations can be made by visiting www.reserveusa.com or by calling 1-877-444-6777. For lake specific information, the local office is at 1-800-533-3478.

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.