The Greening of Georgia Harold Brown Professor Emeritus University of Georgia Georgia’s environment is the best it has been in one-hundred years. Its air is clearer, its streams cleaner, its land safer, its forests more splendid, and its wildlife more plentiful than when the 20 th century was young. Its people ought to celebrate!

Yale University Poll – 2005 (national) “…quality of the environment is getting better, staying about the same, or getting worse? Worse or same83% Better15%

Augusta, Georgia – 1909 Library of Congress

ASTHMA IN GEORGIA ( ) Hospitalizations per 100,000 residents Highest counties State Av.Metro counties* Calhoun Douglas139 Dooly373 Fulton137 Pulaski395 Dekalb119 Seminole360 Paulding113 Cook327 Clayton107 Candler326Coweta96 Berrien314 Cobb90 Wilcox311 Henry83 Lanier304 Gwinnett82 Laurens289Rockdale75 Ben Hill270Cherokee74 Tift268Forsyth73 Screven267Fayette45 Average32595 *Ozone Non-Attainment area GA Dept Human Resources

Georgia’s Air is Still Improving “…a $400 million upgrade at Plant Bowen in Cartersville completed last summer is equivalent to taking about 2.8 million cars off the road.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 10, 2004

Soil Erosion in Heard County, Georgia, 1939 (Library of Congress)

Erosion And Sedimentation A Major Problem? Erosion Rates on Cultivated Land: 1920s & 1930s - ~20 tons/acre/year on 8-9 million acres ~5 tons/acre/year on 3 million acres. Sedimentation Rates: Morgan Falls reservoir (built ) – 3 - 4% per year. Morgan Falls reservoir (built ) – 3 - 4% per year. West Point Lake (built ) % per year. West Point Lake (built ) % per year.

Erosion and Sedimentation – A Declining Problem “The National Resources Inventory found …erosion …in Georgia declined 38 percent, from 3.1 billion tons per year in 1982 to 1.9 billion tons in This suggests that the source of sediment in many of the impaired streams in the Chattahoochee River Basin may be the result of past land use practices.” GA EPD, 2003

EROSION RATES IN GEORGIA, 1992 Land Use Erosion rate Cropland (tons/acre/ year) Cultivated5.5 Noncultivated0.6 Pastureland0.4 Urban*0.0 Forest land0.0 Other0.5 Total0.8 *Includes small and large built-up areas. U.S. D. A Nat. Resources Inventory

Georgia Wetlands during the 20 th Century

National Audubon Society

(Global ) Warming in Georgia?