Oconee River Land Trust

Thank you Jason Hedrick for some amazing drone photos of preserved land in Oglethorpe County frequented by herons, ducks and other wildlife. Oconee River Land Trust has partnered with landowners in Oglethorpe County to preserve several thousand acres that include extensive wetlands, hardwood forest and former quarries.

When you spend 5 days monitoring easements in Meriweather county and Coweta county, you sure will see a lot of life!

Just found this green fringed orchid (Platanthera lacera) blooming in a forested wetland on an easement in Jackson County!

https://www.oconeeriverlandtrust.org//designing-and-buildi Walt Cook is a doer, and we at Oconee River Land Trust have long been grateful for his love of the forest and a properly built trail. In addition to helping found ORLT and serving on the board for 24 years, Walt donated ORLT's first conservation easement, which protects 41 acres along the Middle Oconee River in perpetuity. In the early days of the land trust, he volunteered a great deal of his time and expertise to... ORLT by taking part in field work, visiting new projects, drafting baseline reports, and monitoring existing easements. We are beyond lucky that he somehow found the time to do this, especially in between building all those trails! We've benefited greatly from Walt's extensive knowledge about trail building, acquired through many years of hard work, and we now want to pass this knowledge on to you. See more

https://www.oconeeriverlandtrust.org/post/meet-the-beavers "Beavers sustain the health and function of riparian ecosystems by creating a mosaic of habitats in which a greater diversity of species can thrive than would otherwise be present."

A diversity of sedges, oxalis with striking leaf coloration, and a disjunct population of yellow buckeye (Aesculus flava) are growing along this stream on an easement in Oglethorpe County. The tiger swallowtails were out and about as well!

Winter can be a beautiful time in the Georgia Piedmont! Here are some photos of a stream with boulders and pools on an easement in Oglethorpe County, and a tree filled with sapsucker holes growing next to the stream.

We hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend! In light of the holidays we’d like to wish everyone a happy Giving Tuesday! If you are feeling generous on this lovely afternoon, the ORLT staff would greatly appreciate a financial donation so that we may continue the everyday work we do! We have attached our Paypal below! If not able to make a financial donation, the ORLT is also in need of a few items that would be extremely beneficial to the work that we do! ... These items include 2 New Computers Some snake boots for easement work A new first aid kit! We hope everyone continues to have a great week and any items donated would be greatly appreciated, thanks! https://www.paypal.com/donate

Happy Friday everyone! Here are some breathtaking photos from our Ellis Lake conservation easement in Newton County. Here we have a forest along the edge of the wetland with native river cane (a native species of bamboo), a wetland and Gum Creek.

Close to 100 acres of bottomland hardwoods and wetlands have been preerved on this easement in Washington County. Stepping onto the floodplain felt like entering an enchanted land!

this photo was taken on one of Oconee River Land Trust's 200 protected properties

Tossing pumpkins in the landfill generates methane gas, which is much more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2. Here is how you can compost at home without a bin!

Preserved wetland near Athens, Ga along Bear Creek (near the Reservoir) ---the water was so clear from being filtered by this extensive wetland full of native species.

Happy Tuesday everyone, let us introduce you to the Joro spider! The novel Joro spider was first spotted in North America in 2015 about 33 miles west of Athens in the city of Hoschton, Georgia. Normally native to East Asia, the Joro spider, or Nephila clavate belongs to a group of spiders known for their massive, complex and sturdy webs that radiate a brilliant golden-hue known as orb-weavers. These hard to miss spiders have bright yellow bodies and can be up to 3 inches long... with fully extended legs! In the orb-weaver family lies the Joros’ close relative: the banana spider, which can also be found in regions of Eastern Asia. Like the banana spider, Joro spiders display a distinctive striped yellow pattern on the back. Yet unlike the banana spider, Joros have a bluish-green striped mixed in with their yellow back and a vibrant red pattern located on their underside - two features distinctive from the banana spider. Joro spiders can be found scattered across regions of North Georgia, and even some parts of South Carolina. They reside in various places including urban regions, riparian areas, deep woods, and yes, around houses as well. They most likely arrived in North America via trade between an Eastern Asia country and some destination not too far away, most likely via shipping container. According to UGA entomologist E. Richard Hoebeke, There’s no indication that it will be invasive to the extent that it would be disruptive or economically costly. And no, the spider is neither venemous. Fun Fact: In Japanese mythology, this species is considered a deceptive shape-shifter that preys on young, handsome men. In Korea, the arachnid's name is mudang gumi, which translates to "shaman" or "fortune-teller" spider. Pictured: (left) A Joro spider at our Tallasee Forest easement (right) A Joro spider at an easement near Perry, GA.

Thank you all so much for the amazing turnout at our 3rd Annual Oconee River Belles Benefit Concert! It was so special sharing the night with you all, thank you to Alison Brown, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Cicada Rhythm for partnering with us to put this concert on! We also would like to send a huge thanks to the Classic Center for hosting the stream for us, the Riverview Foundation for underwriting the concert, as well as our sponsors for making this night happen:... Carson Advisory, Five Arrow Farms, Shiraz Wines, Half Shepherd Market, Walt Cook. Mark Huber, Madeline VanDyck, Dan and Ann Hope, Ken Jarrett and Joan Jackson, Richard and Susan Field, Ferdinand Seefried, Kathy and Al Parker, Smith Wilson, John and Judy Willis, John Pickering, Harriet and Dave Ike, Roger and Pat Nielsen, Larry Dendy, and Nat and Helen Kuykendall.

Good afternoon, we hope everyone is having a great day! We wanted to fill you all in on some awesome volunteer events the ORLT hosted this past weekend alongside some wonderful organizations. On Saturday, we partnered with our good friends of CaribSA and the Stello Initiative to remove both elaeagnus and privet plants off of some of our protected land. Although both plants are utilized for their qualities in different parts of the world, they are quite invasive here in the state of Georgia. CaribSA was at our Orange Twin easement and Stello served at our Tallassee easement. Both CaribSA and the Stello Initiative have been working with the ORLT since last year and we want to give a huge thanks to both organizations for their continuous help!

Join us for another amazing concert with Alison Brown and guests.

Meet our new Conservation Outreach intern Benji Holmes! Benji is an Environmental Economics and Management major here at The University of Georgia pursuing an Environmental law minor and a Certificate in Sustainability. He plans to one day collaborate with entertainment companies to achieve environmental compliance such as providing methods to divert waste from landfills, implementing efficient transportation strategies, and reducing the overall footprint of high-density even...ts. We are so grateful to have him on board!

Greetings fans of ORLT! Don’t forget to (virtually) join us on October 15th at 7pm for a fun night of bluegrass and folk music at our third Oconee River Belles Benefit Concert! Join by typing this link into your browser (clicking on it may produce an error): ClassicCenter.com/OconeeRiverBelles We’re excited to bring back Grammy-award winning Alison Brown as our returning headliner, with featured guests Beth Nielsen Chapman (artist and songwriter for artists like Faith Hill, W...illie Nelson, Martina McBride, and more), and local band Cicada Rhythm! Due to concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19, we will be hosting this year's event fully online! The link can be found online on the Classic Center’s website, and will be provided here as it becomes available. The concert will be free to stream, but we would greatly appreciate a suggested donation of $10 per viewer to keep our work going for many generations ahead.

Tune in today at noon EST!

The latest from Association of Georgia Land Trusts on how land trusts are coping with COVID-19: "In Georgia, COVID-19 started small. Isolated cases in Albany and metro Atlanta quickly ballooned into outbreaks, which then traveled across land and sky, eventually appearing in every one of our 159 counties. Stay-at-home orders were established and federal and state offices closed. Left with little to do in their free time, Georgia families sought the outdoors as an escape, only...Continue reading

This ORLT boundary sign has been happily posted since the 2001 establishment of this conservation easement in Barrow County. Through an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the landowner worked to create a wetlands mitigation bank in which wetland conditions were reestablished by blocking existing ditches, encouraging flooding of the area, and planting native trees and herbaceous species, among other activities.

This week’s #SpeciesSpotlight is the Banded Pennant (Celithemis fasciata)! These small skimmers in the largest dragonfly (Libellulidae) family has dark eyes, a blue abdomen and a unique spotted wing pattern. They can often be found close to marshy ponds hovering low, or in the case of the males, perched on grass stems away from the water’s edge waiting for a female to approach.

This patch of Lizard’s Tail (Saururus cernuus) on one of our easements in Oconee County is the largest patch we’ve encountered in the Georgia Piedmont. Also known as water-dragon, dragon’s tail, and swamp root, S. cernuus grows in wet areas or shallow water and serves as an important food source for many wetland animals, including beavers. Its medicinal properties have been used to treat swelling in the body by Cherokee, Chocktaw, and Seminole Native Americans.

Cinabar-red chanterelles (Cantharellus cinnabarinus) grow on a hardwood slope below an abandoned quarry on a conservation easement in Oglethorpe County. Despite not being as well-known or celebrated as their golden counterpart, they are just as edible and delicious!

This Juneteenth, celebrate diversity in the outdoors by supporting the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society’s fund to purchase binoculars for young Black birders and local classrooms!

This week's #SpeciesSpotlight is the Green Treefrog! The green treefrog is a medium-sized frog with long limbs, long digits, and sticky toe pads. They typically have a white, yellow or iridescent stripe along both sides of their bodies. As with many frog species, female treefrogs are typically bigger than males. Green treefrogs are found throughout the Southeast, but generally stay near the Coastal Plain. They are found in high numbers congregating in swamps and near weedy... ponds and lake margins. These frogs generally spend much of their lives in trees, as their name suggests. They are frequently seen and encountered near porch and patio lights throughout the south during warm, wet weather. This is partially due to the amount of insects that these lights can attract for treefrogs to eat.

White wildflowers for your Wednesday The first flower is called an Atamasco Lilly, which is commonly found in the bottom lands of the Georgia Piedmont. The second flower is called a Wood Anemone, and was captured on one of our easements in Elbert County.... The third flower, captured blooming on one of our Watkinsville Easements, is called the Lizards’s Tail Flower. The last photo was taken while looking up at flowering dogwoods, blooming in a pine-hardwood forest. Which wildflower is your favorite? Comment down below and let us know!