Major deal completed to protect endangered forest near Alabama-Georgia border

Drew Kann, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec 16, 2025

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ATLANTA — Conservation groups and their state and federal partners cheered the completion of a deal Monday they say will protect more than 10,000 acres of ecologically valuable and endangered forests straddling the Alabama-Georgia border.

The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit specializing in acquiring at-risk lands, announced it has finalized a project called the Stateline Forest, aimed at safeguarding habitat for bats, rare plants and aquatic species in parts of both states.

The protected territory in Georgia’s Haralson and Polk counties and Alabama’s Cleburne County sits within a larger, wildlife-rich area known as the Dugdown Mountain Corridor. Stitched together like a mosaic of public and private land, the Dugdown region stretches from the western edge of metro Atlanta all the way to Alabama’s Talladega National Forest.

On Monday, The Conservation Fund said it had transferred all 10,035 acres and 45 miles of waterways to their respective state agencies, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Alabama Forestry Commission. Putting the land in state hands “guarantees permanent public ownership and long-term stewardship,” the group said.

“This project is a rare opportunity to permanently protect a landscape that is both biologically rich and increasingly threatened by development,” said Stacy Funderburke, The Conservation Fund’s vice president for the central Southeast region.

The land includes large tracts of endangered longleaf pine forest — one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. The forests once covered 90 million acres stretching from Virginia west to east Texas, but since the 1800s, an estimated 97% of the ecosystem was claimed by development and other forces, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Through its Longleaf Pine Initiative, the federal government is working with state and conservation partners to restore the ecosystem.

Beyond the rich forests, the Stateline Project lands are crisscrossed by creeks that are home to rare and endangered freshwater fish, mussels and crayfish.

The Stateline Project land was first acquired by The Conservation Fund in 2019 with financial support from the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program and the Alabama Forever Wild Program. But the deal to ensure public ownership was aided by a grant from the U.S. Forest Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. The program is funded with federal money raised from offshore oil and gas leasing.

Members of the Congressional delegations from both states, including Georgia’s Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and Alabama’s Republican Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, pushed for funding for the project.

In a statement, Ossoff said the acquisitions “will help secure high-value timber resources, expand opportunities for public recreation, and protect streams, rivers and other public lands.” Warnock added that they will “protect against wildfires, and preserve one of the South’s most endangered ecosystems for decades to come.”

As development spreads out from the Atlanta suburbs, Funderburke said his group will try to ensure the largest remaining chunks of the Dugdown Corridor stay wild.

“A lot of it has already started to be fragmented or broken up,” he said. “Trying to keep that corridor intact and protect as much of those waterways as possible is the key focus.”