The Garden Tutor: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

‘Way down upon the Suwanee River’

A very interesting stop off I-75, east of Valdosta Georgia (southern Georgia) is the Okefenokee Swamp!

More correctly called the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, approximately 400,000 acres! The site now sets between i-95 to the east and I-75 to the west. The name Okefenokee is thought to be Cree Indian for “land of trembling water” or "quivering earth" in that there exists many floating islands which are really large peat beds.

Of course, all the customary creatures live here! Wildlife species include wading birds, ducks, alligators and other reptiles, a variety of amphibians, bobcats, raptors, white-tailed deer, black bears, and songbirds.

Dominated by Pond Cypress and Bald Cypress because of the nature of the tree’s habitat, growing in water, the cypress were in such availability as to have had wholesale harvesting in the early 1900’s by private industry, in excess of 400 million board feet complete with railroads and saw mills! I have seen Cypress tree trunks in excess of 12 feet in diameter, heights today can attain 120 ft. high!
There are also Black Gum, Magnolias, Willow, Birch, native Pine and Swamp White Oak.

Of interest in the nature walk I took was the abundance of ‘spanish moss’, an epiphyte covering many of the deciduous and evergreen trees and markers indicating ‘carnivorous’ plants such as pitcher plants which find the environment to their liking.

I was disappointed to find the access from the west to be only to the park perimeter and a canoe or boat of some sort was really required to truly see the nature of the ecosystem. I presume this to also be true from accessing the park from the 1-95 (east) side. I did discover this swamp is considered the headwaters of the Suwannee River made famous by the Stephen Foster song, “Way down upon the Suwanee River”.

Did you know Stephen Foster never saw the Suwanee? True!

A WOW FACT: Eight habitat types occur in the Okefenokee Swamp: