Oconee River Land Trust

06/04/2026

Thank you Atlas Spine and Balance for choosing us as your May charity and for supporting Oconee River Land Trust's mission for so many years! 🌳

06/02/2026

https://www.oconeeriverlandtrust.org/event-info/member-hike-in-oglethorpe-county

Join us this Saturday 6/6 for the last Oconee River Land Trust member hike of the Spring!

For this hike, we will be visiting a recently conserved property on Saturday, June 6th near Crawford in Oglethorpe County. We will hike approximately two miles along a clear-flowing tributary of Clouds Creek and through beautiful mesic and bottomland forests containing a canebrake and an abundance of ferns. We hope to find some of the diverse wildflowers found on this property in bloom. The owners have invited hikers to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a picnic after the hike.

Register at the link below 🌳

You're invited to our final hike of the spring! For this hike, we will be visiting a recently conserved property on Saturday, June 6th near Crawford in Oglethorpe County.

06/01/2026

"As has largely been the theme for my monitor visits this year, the weather truly couldn’t have been better visiting five ORLT conservation easements last week in Meriwether, Coweta and Spalding counties. Between meeting a new landowner, hiking a very sweaty 7 miles on a sprawling 700-acre property, and falling into a stream on two separate occasions, I observed many beautiful sights and species on these permanently stewarded lands. Summer is on the way!"

- Hadrien Turner, Oconee River Land Trust Director of Engagement & Senior Land Steward

05/28/2026

https://www.oconeeriverlandtrust.org/post/importance-of-protecting-land-water-and-forest-resources-in-the-oconee-river-watershed

"It was with these benefits in mind that I (Ken Cordell) and my wife (Babs McDonald) are willing some of our land to the Oconee River Land Trust. Through easements and land donations granted to government and land conservation entities, owners can protect their land against development with binding, long-term agreements.

Our wills identify the Oconee River Land Trust as beneficiary with binding agreements on two forested tracts, one, a 55 acre tract in Madison County and another for 22 acres in South Jackson County. We purchased these tracts to use and enjoy in their natural state. We believe that conservation of these undeveloped, natural lands is a crucial component of sustainable communities."

We are so thankful to Babs and Ken for their generous gift, Oconee River Land Trust will proudly steward these properties in perpetuity.

by H. Ken Cordell, PhD, Senior Scientist Retired, USDA Forest Service ResearchUndeveloped land and water resources contribute greatly to sustaining local economies and the environment. Citizens must actively participate in protecting undeveloped land by taking on activities that contribute to land s...

05/11/2026

https://www.wuga.org/local-news/2026-05-09/local-land-trust-hosts-frog-walk-in-northeast-georgia-wetland

Thanks to WUGA FM's Emma Auer for attending and covering our Frog Walk last month led by Wildlife Resources Division - Georgia DNR's Erin Cork at our CE in Jackson County that we cohosted with Jefferson City Schools .

The community turnout was fantastic, kids and adults had an evening to remember, and we heard/saw a lot of frogs! In addition to all the fun, the event served as a powerful reminder of how vital it is to protect wetland habitats in our rapidly developing region.

Frog calls are a common sound in Georgia and across the South during the spring and summer. Usually, these vocal amphibians are heard and not seen.

05/06/2026

Join our friends Jefferson City Schools this coming Saturday for Nature Fest to celebrate the 20 years of outdoor education!

05/04/2026

Last week, ORLT's staff attended the Land Trust Alliance 's Southeast Land Conservation Conference in Greenville, SC. This annual gathering for land trust professionals offers an opportunity to network, learn from one another, attend educational sessions on topics ranging from how to effectively engage conservation landowners to the latest innovations in land-based mapping technologies.

We came back inspired to get to work conserving and stewarding important places across Georgia, and proud to be just one of countless organizations working to protect land and water in perpetuity. As stated by the key-note speaker at the conference, Dr. J. Drew Lanham, author of "The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature" our connection to land is what grounds us, and as conservationists we must ALL be activists.

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day!

Today is a reminder of how deeply connected we all are to the land and water that sustain us, and how important it is to protect the natural places that make Georgia such a special place to call home.

Membership and donations directly help the Oconee River Land Trust protect and steward more than 200 miles of streams and rivers and over 45,000 acres of critical farms, wetlands, and forests across Georgia. These conserved greenspaces enrich our communities and our lives by providing beauty, wildlife habitat, clean water, and local food, forever.

Because of your support, ORLT is able to conserve working landscapes and wild places alike, ensuring that future generations will be able to experience Georgia’s rivers, forests, and open lands as we know them today.

Thank you for being part of this work. 🌎💚

Photo by Jason Thrasher Thrasher Photo & Design LLC

04/07/2026

Monitoring in early March can be tricky. One day it may be nearly 75 and sunny, and the next 45 and rainy. You can really cycle between “Fool’s Spring”, “Second Winter”, “Spring of Deception,” and “Third Winter,” before it starts to more reliably feel like actual spring. But not without “The Pollening” for all those afflicted with seasonal allergies! The fluctuating conditions make it hard to plan monitor visits in advance, especially if it involves meeting conservation easement owners on their properties. You try to look ahead and trust the forecast, but many visits have been cancelled and rescheduled in my nearly 7 years as a land steward at ORLT. I may enjoy a few hours outside in a deluge wearing the right gear, but it turns out that many do not…

But sometimes, you just luck out. I was treated to delightful climactic conditions for five straight days of monitoring properties in Heard, Coweta, and Meriwether Counties earlier this month. None of my rain gear, muck boots, numerous warm layers, or the variety of other weather-related paraphernalia that inevitably takes up most of the space in my trunk (BE PREPARED) was needed. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing!

hiked nearly 35 miles monitoring 12 easements and saw magic everywhere on these somehow always surprising permanently protected tracts of land. While sometimes a ride on a UTV or in a truck at the end of a long day of walking easements (or in lousy weather!) is welcome, it’s impossible to take in and truly notice the environment around you over the sound and speed of an engine. You can’t hear the brown-headed nuthatch scolding for your proximity to its nesting cavity in an old snag, see the glint of the morning dew on a spider web, or have a fencepost lizard mistake the lifted ball of your boot as shelter on a granite outcrop.

Some might say that the devil is in the details, but so is the beauty.

- Hadrien Turner, ORLT Director of Engagement (& Senior Land Steward)

01/08/2026

We are SO grateful for your gifts to ORLT during our month-long matching campaign.

With your donations, we raised over $50,000 to support ORLT's mission to conserve forests, farms, and waterways across Georgia.

Your generosity ensures ORLT is able to protect these special places for future generations. We can't wait to get started on protecting more land in 2026!