Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River

Gratitude

Gratitude In memory of Charley Joe Ray, 1900–1977 William G. Haynes Jr., 1908–2001 Carolyn Kuebler Hodges, 1938–2000 and Milton Newton Hopkins, 1926–2007 I thank Christa Frangiamore Hayes for petitioning me so many years ago to write this book. I am grateful for her wonderful ideas and lasting friendship. Many thanks to Craig and Diana Barrow of the Wormsloe Foundation for their support of this volume. I thank the good folks of the University of Georgia Press, especially Laura Sutton and John Joerschke, who oversaw the project; Nicole Mitchell and Dorinda Dallmeyer, whose support was boundless; John McLeod, who marketed it; Sydney Dupre; Kathi Morgan; and Judy Purdy, who got it all going. Molly Thompson’s brilliance as a copyeditor is evident on every page of this book. Deborah Reade is a fine mapmaker. I thank colleagues John Tallmadge and Lauret Savoy for their thorough and wise edits to the manuscript. Photographer Nancy Marshall took on the project of photographing the river with elegance and aplomb. I thank her very much for her spirit of collaboration and for her inspiring work. I am grateful for the chance to work with her. I am in gigantic debt to the following people, who assisted, guided, or inspired me, or shared their studies and stories: Dennis Blanton, Phyllis Bowen, John Bozeman, Bob Brannen, Dave Brown, Jackie Carter, Susan Cerulean, Crawfish Crawford, Scott Coleman, Sharon Collins, Lisa Crews, Robert DeWitt, Meredith Drury, Ann Singer Eason, Giana Eden, John Eden, Charlie Ford, Mac Herring, Neill Herring, James Holland, Dorset Hurley, Christine Griffiths, Christa F. Hayes, Stacia Hendricks, Hugh Joiner, Martha Joiner, Philip Juras, Eugene Keferl, Ann Ingerson, 236 gratitude Shelly Lakly, Christi Lambert, John Lane, Brent Martin, Chuck Martin, Alison McGee, Winton Miles, Carlton Morrison, Dink NeSmith (a gracious host at Whaley Lake), Carol Nourse, Hugh Nourse, Delma Presley, Carlin Joshua Ray, Dell and Rita Carter Ray, Franklin and Lee Ada Ray, Stephen Ray, Constance Riggins, Alan Roach, Jack Sandow, Patti Sandow, Deborah Sheppard, Frankie Snow, Leta Mac Stripling, Betsy Teter, Chris Trowell, Jane Walker, and Tommie Williams. Matt Elliot, Jason Wiesniewski, Shan Cammack, Tim Keyes, Tom Patrick, and all the fabulous people in the Nongame Conservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources put all their resources at my disposal. The chief, Mike Harris, was vital. I thank them for studying wild Georgia and for educating us about the needs of our wild creatures. They are holding the line. It is an immense job and I am grateful to them. For over a decade I have been associated with a community of colleagues in the Altamaha Riverkeeper, whose devotion to this river system and its people is evident in long hours spent organizing, planning, and executing. This group includes Taylor Barnhill, Bryce Baumgartner, Bruce Berryhill, Sally Bethea, Chandra Brown, Don Carson, Richard and Elise Creswell, Robert DeWitt, Ben Emanuel, Wright and Dusty Gres, Gabriel Hamon, Len Hauss, Neill Herring, James Holland, Cecil and Sandy Hudson, Christi Lambert, Marilyn Lanier, Sandy Layton, Susan Murphy, Constance Riggins, Gordon Rogers, Jack and Patti Sandow, Deborah Sheppard, Albert Way, Dianna Wedincamp, Jon Wilson, Mary Ellen Wilson, and Whit Wright. I thank the landowners, up and down the watershed, who are not cutting the river swamps that they own, who are leaving the big trees, which will keep us alive in the hot times to come. Thanks to Hank and Wendy Paulson, for falling in love with Little St. Simons. I thank those who are putting conservation easements on their land, in order both to get tax credits and to preserve this beautiful and beleaguered country of ours. I thank everyone who is cutting water consumption, so that we lighten pressures on this most precious of elements; and I thank everyone who is not simply working toward sustainable sources of energy but also laboring to use resources more efficiently and carefully. My deep and lasting gratitude goes to Michael Cichon, M.D.; Susan Ganio, R.N.; and their staff, who devoted themselves to helping me heal from chronic Lyme disease. I thank Elaine Cichon and the Clinic of Angels 237 gratitude for financial support. Lee Arnold and the entire staff of Vidalia Medical Associates are to be highly commended. Their warmth and kindness sustained me through some rough days. Inaddition,Iamvery,verygratefultoStephenKing,MargaretMorehouse, and all at the Haven Foundation; and Lisa Collier Cool and Trustees of the American Society of Journalists and Authors...