Okefenokee is now a UNESCO World Heritage site

Just a year ago, the future of the largest American wilderness area east of the Mississippi River was in question, as biologists and conservationists feared that a dragline mining project on its southeastern fringes would tragically lower the water table and change the Okefenokee Swamp forever. After a land purchase last summer, and the formal transfer of the would-be mining site to the state of Georgia, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge appears safe from industrial-grade development.