Dixon Memorial State Forest is a state forest in Brantley and Ware counties, located 10 miles southeast of Waycross, Georgia bordered by the

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is a 402,000‑acre (1,627 km2) National Wildlife Refuge located in Charlton, Ware, and Clinch Counties of Georgia, and Baker County in Florida, United States. The refuge is administered from offices ...

to the south. The forest is approximately 35,000 acres and is the largest state forest owned and managed by the

Georgia Forestry Commission This is a list of Georgia state forests. In the state of Georgia, all state forests are managed by the Georgia Forestry Commission. All state forests are operated under a multiple-use Forest Stewardship management plan. This takes into account the ...

. The forest is mostly made up of pine plantations consisting of slash pine, longleaf pine, and loblolly pine as well as wetlands consisting of

pondcypress ''Taxodium ascendens'', also known as pond cypress, is a deciduous conifer of the genus ''Taxodium'', native to North America. Many botanists treat it as a variety (biology), variety of bald cypress, ''Taxodium distichum'' (as ''T. distichum'' va ...

, swamp blackgum, sweetbay magnolia, loblolly bay, and other various hardwoods.

History

In 1937, the U.S. Resettlement Administration purchased distressed farm and pasture land northeast of the Okefenokee Swamp under a federal land utilization program authorized by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act. The land purchase was for the Georgia Coastal Flatwoods Upland Game Conservation Project. The following year in 1938, the land was leased to the state of Georgia to manage and was renamed the Waycross State Forest. In 1955, a wildfire burned approximately half of the forest causing catastrophic damage. Later that year, the federal government deeded the forest to the State of Georgia. The Waycross State Forest was renamed in 1974 to Dixon Memorial State Forest in honor of longtime Georgia Forestry Commission board member, Hugh M. Dixon. The 2007 Sweat Farm Fire, which was part of the Georgia Bay Complex, catastrophically burned a significant portion of the southern and western parts of the forest. Then in 2011, the Racepond wildfire burned a path through a large amount of the southeastern state forest. Many of the areas on the state forest that burned in the 2007 and 2011 fires were reforested in longleaf pine.

Current Forest Management

Currently, Dixon Memorial State Forest is managed for multiple uses with timber management as the primary objective. The pine plantation and wetland hardwood forests also provide benefits for

wildlife habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s, soil conservation,

water conservation Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Populati ...

, and aesthetics. The forest is also used for research and educational opportunities.

Dixon Memorial State Forest Wildlife Management Area

Dixon Memorial State Forest is also a Wildlife Management Area that provides hunting opportunities for

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, dove,

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

, and small game. The area is jointly managed between the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Georgia Forestry Commission. The Dixon Memorial Shooting Range is also located on Dixon Memorial State Forest.

Leased Areas

A few entities lease portions of Dixon Memorial State Forest from the Georgia Forestry Commission. These include the Okefenokee Swamp Park,

Laura S. Walker State Park Laura S. Walker State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located near Hoboken and the Okefenokee Swamp, the park is named after Laura S. Walker, a Georgia writer, teacher, civic leader, and naturalist (she is most famous as ...

, and the Georgia Lions Camp for the Blind.

References

External links