|
The State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) benefits all wildlife and should be supported by sportsmen as well as non-hunters. Even though the focus of the SWAP is on improving habitat for species that may become endangered, this pro-active plan also improves habitat for game species that share the same habitat. For example, the plan calls for an increased use of prescribed fire to manage habitat for species such as the Red Cockaded Woodpecker. Burning of the understory also benefits turkey, grouse, quail and deer. Through the SWAP private land owners will also be educated and encouraged to use prescribed fire as a habitat management tool.
The control of exotic invasive species, another priority of the SWAP, will also benefit all wildlife. Many invasive species, such as cogongrass, compete with and replace native vegetation that wildlife depends upon for food. Aquatic invasive species cause heavy losses in freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Streams, rivers and fish populations will also benefit from actions in the SWAP. These include the development of a statewide strategy for conservation of wetlands, conducting statewide assessments of fish communities to determine the biotic integrity of streams and reducing the impacts of ATV use on streams and other sensitive habitats.
The SWAP provides a connection between hunters and non-hunters and the connection is conservation. Both groups recognize that wildlife habitat is disappearing at an alarming rate. To be conducive to healthy wildlife, habitat must be sufficient and protected from conversion and development. Implementation of the SWAP is critical to clean water and protection of habitat for all Georgia wildlife. Hunters and non-hunters must unite to show support for increased funding for this vital program.
The Longleaf Legacy and the Power of Flight Programs are partnerships among Southern Company, its four operating companies — Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power — and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Launched in 2003, the goal of the Longleaf Legacy Program is to help restore the South's most famous and unique ecosystem, longleaf pine, as well as to sequester atmospheric carbon. Longleaf forests provide important habitat for bobwhite quail, red cockaded woodpecker, wild turkey, gopher tortoise, and a host of other plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. In 2006, the National Wild Turkey Federation received $1,088,620 to restore 7,000 acres of longleaf pine on private and public lands over the next three years.
The goal of the Power of Flight Program is to conserve birds characteristic of the southern U.S. through habitat restoration and environmental education. In 2006, Quail Unlimited received $165,000 to address goals of the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, including habitat restoration on Alabama's Bankhead and Talladega National Forests and on private lands in 15 targeted counties in Georgia. Other species, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, will benefit from this project, now in its third year of funding through Power of Flight. Power of Flight has funded GWF’s Urban Conservation Education Initiative for three years.
|
