Category: Uncategorized

by Joseph Colbert, JIA Wildlife Biologist & Yank Moore, JIA Natural Resources Manager

This winter, the JIA Conservation and Landscape Departments will be planting vegetation along a section of the Jekyll Island Causeway between the entrance towers and the first bridge with native flowers and grasses. This project represents a unique opportunity to meet some important stewardship objectives for conservation on Jekyll Island.

One of those efforts is to provide pollinators like bees, butterflies, and lovebugs, enhanced access to pollen year-round through the planting of preferred native plant food sources. Flowers and grasses have been methodically selected so they are native to Georgia and bloom spring, summer, fall, and even during the warmest parts of winter, to maximize their wildlife value. This ensures that resident insects, like bees, and seasonal migratory insects, like butterflies, have access to much-needed flowers that support their survival and journeys. The insects also provide their own benefit to the plant life by helping to spread pollen so the plants can subsequently produce seeds and replenish over time. The benefits of well-fed insects travel up the food chain for any bug-eating species that call the causeway home, including bats, birds, and lizards.  

In addition to increasing the pollinator diversity along the causeway, this project will also amplify the magnificent six-mile drive for visitors and residents as they make their way on and off the island. Several Georgia-native plant species will welcome travelers—blue mistflower, showy primrose, purple lovegrass, brown-eyed susans, smooth aster, blanket flower, spotted bee balm, and blazing star are just some of the species that will make up the seed mix and contribute to the array of colors, from blues, to yellows, to lavenders, sprinkled along the causeway shoulder.

This project affirms the  Jekyll Island Authority’s mission of responsible preservation, maintenance, and care of wildlife diversity, and thanks to the contribution of a generous donor to the Jekyll Island Foundation, it can be fulfilled in time for the arrival of spring. Not only will this contribution be celebrated through the welcoming sign of blooming flowers, but it will be appreciated beyond measure by the wildlife relying on it.

To contribute to the care of wildlife diversity and conservation efforts on Jekyll Island, click HERE.

Family-friendly. That’s the vibe that keeps Albany, GA-based Matt and Kelsey Reed coming back.

“One of our favorite things about Jekyll,” said Kelsey, Director of Patient Services at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, “is that it’s a true family experience where even our dog can join us on vacation.”

Matt—President and Chief Executive Officer of Georgia CEO/South Carolina CEO as well as chair of the Nominating Committee for the Jekyll Island Foundation (JIF) Board of Directors—has known Jekyll since youth, but Kelsey’s appreciation for the Island’s charm didn’t begin until a year after the two were married.

“My first time on Island we stayed at the (Jekyll Island) Club,” she said, “and I loved that we could park the car and not have to get back in it to explore.”

“We love the pace here,” said Matt, “and we love that it’s not overdeveloped.”

In fact, Matt was moved to Board service, in part, because of the Foundation’s funding commitment to conservation. “I really believe in our mission…in protecting the environment. And Jekyll’s mandate to do this makes it unique.”

He feels Jekyll is a “true gem for Georgia,” especially given the revitalization efforts of the past two decades. “The (Jekyll Island) Authority has really done such a good job” of enhancing amenities and overseeing efforts to optimize previously developed acreage without sacrificing that charm, he said.

“I joined the Board just as Mosaic (Jekyll Island Museum) was opening and COVID was shutting everything down,” Matt recalled, “so I’m excited to now have an opportunity to invite people to experience what Jekyll has to offer.”

As chair of the Nominating Committee, Matt’s platform is well suited to do just that as he seeks out and speaks with potential Board candidates. “One of the things that has been a welcomed surprise is that almost everyone we talk with has some sort of tie to Jekyll.”

He is particularly looking forward to leveraging the JIF’s involvement with the planned Georgia Sea Turtle Center expansion project. “It’s going to be transformational for the Center, but also for the Island and the state,” he said. “I think the impact of this project can help us explore and secure a variety of partnerships—certainly those focused on education and research—that support the Foundation’s goals.”

Kelsey and Matt are both hopeful that the future also holds more opportunities for JIF to engage Island residents and frequent visitors. “I’d love to see a time when everyone feels value in being a member of the Foundation,” said Matt.

For now, the current vibe for these parents of a three-year-old is just right. “Compared to other island destinations, Jekyll is so accessible, and everything is so clean and nice, so easy to get to quickly,” said Kelsey. “Even when it’s raining,” Matt offered, “there are plenty of activities other than the beach or the pool for kids and families to enjoy.”

By Nicole Thomas,
GSTC Education Program Manager

As we settle into winter, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) Education team is looking forward to summer Wildlife and Ecology tours. Our favorites: Evening Turtle Walks and Sunrise Walks. From June to July, there is nothing more exciting than the chance to take our patrons out on the beach, tingling with anticipation, to possibly see a nesting Loggerhead sea turtle. Thanks to the vast number of video-streaming services, learning about sea turtle lifecycles and conservation is readily accessible from the comfort of your home. But there is no replacement for seeing the nesting process in person. It is impossible to fully appreciate the size of these mamas or the magnitude each nest holds for the species’ survival and recovery. While it is never a guarantee to witness such a magical event, Evening Turtle Walks are always a memorable experience.

In August, Sunrise Walks replace evening tours as nighttime activity winds down. Jekyll Island’s loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings, the size of your palm, make their way from sand to sea. Sunrise Walk guests often have the opportunity to watch a nest inventory. As nests are emptied of their turtle treasures, nest inventories are performed to collect vital information used to track our progress towards state and federal recovery goals. What might have been hours of labor by a female sea turtle, is dug from the sand within a matter of minutes by a permitted sea turtle researcher. The contents of the nest are documented with care and usually consists of empty shells and/or unhatched eggs. Every so often a straggler hatchling is pulled up among the debris. Guests and GSTC Staff alike are captivated watching a hatchling’s second chance to scuttle down the sand and through the breaking waves. It is a moment like no other as we stand side-by-side, softly offering words of encouragement and waving goodbye as a young turtle slips from our view headed for the horizon.

Living in the moment and experiencing conservation first-hand is an unforgettable experience. The GSTC Education team eagerly looks forward to sharing their time and passion with all our visitors, but we especially love those special summer nights and mornings.   

Check the GSTC Website for current and future Wildlife and Ecology Tours.

To support the ongoing work of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, visit jekyllislandfoundation.org/donate and add “GSTC” into the comments.

By Ben Carswell,
JIA Director of Conservation

Most wild animals, especially those that make their homes on land, need to move about in order to make a living, survive, and thrive. Some animal movements span very short distances, while others roam many acres or even migrate across whole regions of the Earth.

The concept of “wildlife corridors” is a hot topic in the conservation field because habitats with well-connected natural features, such as forests, grasslands, or waterways, better sustain diverse wild animal populations than those than are fragmented by unnatural features such as roads, parking lots, or manicured turf grass. Unfortunately, this idea is sometimes poorly explained and consequently, misunderstood.

Effective wildlife corridors do not simply allow for unobstructed movement – most animals are of course theoretically capable of crossing a road, parking lot, or a golf course fairway. Rather, what makes a wildlife corridor is not just its ability to physically accommodate movement, but also to safely meet the other needs of wild animals while they are on the move.

Imagine yourself surviving primitively in the wilderness. How would you move? Why? And what would you need from the landscape to help you do so? You probably would not choose to swim across a pond with alligators in it, even if you theoretically could. Like us, wild animals aim to avoid being preyed upon. For prey species, this often means avoiding moving through landscapes where they cannot easily hide, like a golf course fairway. When you travel across the state or the region, you may choose your route based on a familiar stop with a restaurant you’ve enjoyed. Likewise, effective wildlife corridors need to provide forage and prey. Put simply, wildlife corridors are strips of functional wildlife habitat connecting other, larger habitats.

All sorts of wild animals on Jekyll Island benefit when their habitats are connected, from small mammals like mice, rabbits, and mink to larger fauna like bobcats. The movements of many snake species are especially constrained by developed landscapes.

Wildlife corridors can also provide excellent opportunities for us to view wild animals on the wing, such as birds and butterflies, or to photograph secretive or nocturnal creatures. These corridors don’t need to be purely natural – they can be designed, engineered, and managed landscapes that accommodate other infrastructure – provided they meet the habitat needs of the local wildlife community. Powerline rights-of-way, for example, can be excellent wildlife corridors if managed appropriately.

The phrase “habitat connectivity” is used by wildlife professionals and describes the benefit achieved by protecting or creating wildlife corridors. The importance of habitat connectivity and wildlife movement are emphasized in the newly updated Jekyll Island Conservation Plan.

You can help! The Jekyll Island Authority offers many opportunities for public input from townhall-style Q&A sessions to formal planning projects. Through these opportunities, you can voice your support for plans and decisions that make Jekyll Island the best it can be as a home for wildlife.

By Michael Scott, Director of Historic Resources
Research provided by Andrea Marroquin, JIA Museum Curator

While talk about the Jekyll Island Club era often revolves around the Club members and guests, there is an entire other side to the club’s history – a side that prepared the meals, stocked the game, maintained the lawns and spent their time at the Jekyll Island Club not in a state of leisure, but in labor. A group of people that were here in the service of others. Thanks to the dedication of descendants, researchers, and volunteers, JIA Historic Resources staff can connect stories and families, and tell the history of the people who made Jekyll such a haven for Club members.

By the 1930s, over 77% of Club employees were African American. Of those employees, Charlie Hill was at the heart of their working world of relationships. Hill, the oldest of the original employees of the Jekyll Island Club, brought the first group of millionaires to the Jekyll by way of a rowboat to inspect the island for possible purchase. Hill worked as an island employee for 51 years – almost exclusively for the Maurice family of Hollybourne Cottage. Angie Hill, Charlie Hill’s wife, was a laundress for the Maurice family and their daughter, Anna, became the schoolteacher for the African American children living on the island.

Other local workers consisting of an extended network of friends and family, were also hired to work at the Jekyll Island Club through Charlie Hill’s connections. His nephew Ray remembered, “We were mostly related by blood or marriage on Jekyll Island. The Hills were pretty much the linking family. They either married into other Jekyll families while on the island or had married into them before they arrived on Jekyll.”

A large number of the Club staff’s descendants still live in the area today and have been an invaluable resource to the Museum, providing information about Club members, landscaping, the appearance of the buildings, and life in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Stop by the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum in February and learn about Charlie Hill, his family, and their many contributions to the island’s history. Every Saturday and Sunday in February a special 90-minute tour – In the Service of Others – is your chance to walk through some of the spaces where Charlie and his relations worked and built a community legacy, and explore the lives of the men and women who worked behind the scenes to keep the Jekyll Island Club running. Click HERE to purchase tickets online.

The Mosaic Museum is open daily 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information, call Mosaic Guest Services at (912) 635-4036.

Through a generous gift from an anonymous donor, Jekyll Island Foundation (JIF) funded the materials necessary for Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) to improve Major Horton Road, now a multi-use trail closed to vehicle access that crosses the island and connects the Horton House colonial site to the Horton Pond wildlife-viewing area – building upon the success of that prior JIF project.

While installing the final element of this project, a water control structure that will allow JIA conservation staff to manage water levels and prevent saltwater intrusion in the freshwater wetland crossed by the trail, Conservation Land Manager Yank Moore made an exciting find. Knee deep in mud below the base of the trail, his shovel struck an object as hard a concrete.

Once pulled from the mud and carefully transported to JIA Historic Preservationist Taylor Davis for cleaning and inspection, the object revealed itself to be a large piece of pre-1870 lime tabby originating either from the Horton colonial-era or DuBignon plantation-era of the island. The piece had been coated on one side with more modern, Portland cement indicating that it may have once been part of an early Jekyll Island Club era restoration effort of the Horton House.

So, how did it end up 2,000 feet away from the Horton House site? No one can say for certain, but its presence gives an important clue to narrow down the age of the trail/road. Long a matter of speculation, it had been thought that Major Horton Road may be one of Jekyll’s oldest routes – a tempting theory due to its direct connection to the island’s oldest building. However, the road does not appear on maps until 1918, during Jekyll Island Club days. The tabby recovered from the wetland crossing is a strong indication that road may have been built by the Club.

A more compelling narrative now suggests that the tabby piece, having been rejected for whatever reason as a component of the Club’s Horton House restoration, was repurposed as a component of the original Major Horton Road construction to stabilize the wetland crossing.  At that time, the tabby would likely have been seen only as a convenient piece of debris.

Today, it helps reveal the history of a road that, though perhaps not as old as might have been imagined, is nonetheless over 100-years young and, thanks to philanthropic support through JIF, is once again an attractive way for visitors to cross the island and visit two popular and interesting destinations, one cultural and the other natural.

To learn more about conservation and historic research, or to donate, click here.