A Climate Farm Oasis
The Johnny Appleseed Organic Climate Farm sits at the entrance to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, an UNESCO World Heritage site.
Our Climate Farm Partner
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, our neighbor, is one of the world's largest naturally driven freshwater ecosystems with a diversity of habitat types, including 21 vegetative types.
The Refuge's fauna is also renowned worldwide for its diversity of amphibians and reptiles, mammals, birds, fishes, and invertebrates and perhaps as many as 1,000 species of moths. Unlike many other significant wetland areas, the swamp is the source of rivers rather than their recipient, as in a delta, and therefore escapes most disturbances to natural hydrology and water flow. The Refuge's undisturbed peat beds store valuable information on environmental conditions over the past 5,000 years and are a significant source of information related to global changes.
Visit the refuge
2700 Suwannee Canal Road
Folkston, GA 31537
Phone
912.496.7836
Email
okefenokee@fws.gov
Wildlife at the Refuge & Climate Farm
Black Bear | Photo Credit: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
White Egrets | Photo Credit: Deborah Ferrin
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Florida Panther on Alert | Photo Credit: Jo Crebbin
An Otter Wading in the Lily Pads at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Sunset | Photo Credit: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Barred owl at Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge in Georgia | Photo Credit Deborah Ferrin
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Water Moccasin at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Red-shouldered Hawk fledgling at Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: Deborah Ferrin
Turtles Sunning on a Log at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Eastern Screech Owl | Photo Credit: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo Credit: George Gentry
Great Blue Heron Okefenokee Swamp Georgia | Photo Credit: Brian Lasenby
Gopher Tortoise | Photo Credit: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Sandhill Crane | Photo Credit: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Woodpeckers at Okefenokee Swamp Park | Photo Credit Deborah Ferrin
No place on earth like Okefenokee
In contrast to the Everglades and many other wetlands around the world, Okefenokee is hydrologically much more intact. This is mainly because it is the origin of waterflows, rather than their destination; in this critical respect, it is unlike Everglades. The Dismal Swamp in North Carolina and Virginia has similar habitats but has been significantly influenced by human activity that changed its waterflows and essentially destroyed half of it. Brazil's Pantanal (on the World Heritage List) is larger and has more nutrients but is in a delta. The other principal peat deposits around the world such as the Flow Country of Scotland, Kapuatai Peat Dome in New Zealand, and Indonesia's Berbak Nature Reserve are different in character and in their collection of species; they have also been more impacted by human activity.