Atlanta high schooler learns to love the swamp

By Zain Khemani, student at The New School

Every year, the Okefenokee Swamp receives more than 600,000 visits from Georgia and beyond – all from people looking to experience the wonders of the Swamp. Those tourists prop up local businesses and keep a steady flow of income for the locals. But the Okefenokee is far more than just a tourist destination. It’s a sanctuary for endangered species, a home and way of life for its residents, and, currently, an environmental battleground.

Twin Pines Minerals is an Alabama-based mining company. In 2019, they applied for a permit that would give them the rights to mine titanium dioxide in Trail Ride, which is the eastern border of the Okefenokee Swamp. At its closest point, the mine will be less than 3 miles from the edge of the swamp.

None of these facts were known to me when, sometime in early December 2022, I discovered that my entire high school, The New School in Atlanta, would be taking a trip down to the Stephen C. Foster State Park near the heart of the Okefenokee in February 2023. To say that I’m not outdoorsy by nature would be a wild understatement, but the idea of a school trip sounded fun.

Part of the preparation was showing us Sacred Waters, a documentary produced by the Okefenokee Protection Alliance about the area’s natural beauty, and the negative effects of the mining plan.

A few weeks after watching the documentary, some other students and I went to the Georgia State Capitol for Okefenokee Day. There, we heard a half dozen different descriptions about what would happen to the swamp water if the mining went through, ranging from complete destruction to nothing at all. I brought this up to a local forester who was there for the event, and he said something that stuck with me. “Why risk it?” If we don’t know what will happen, why would we risk the swamp to mine for a reasonably common mineral? I’m not a hydrologist; if the people who…