Georgia and the American Experience Chapter 2: This Place We Call Home

Georgia and the American Experience

• Chapter 2:

• This Place We Call Home

• Study Presentation

Georgia and the American Experience

• Section 1: Georgia’s Flora and Fauna

• Section 2: Georgia’s Natural Resources

• Section 3: Georgia’s Waterways

Section 1: Georgia’s Flora and Fauna

• Essential Question:

• What are Georgia’s flora and fauna?

Section 1: Georgia’s Flora and Fauna

• What geographic terms do I need to know?

• -- flora

• -- fauna

• -- tides

• -- watershed

What is Flora?

• Flora: Plants, flowers, and trees

• 180-day growing period in north Georgia

• 270-day growing period in the coastal region

• 23 million acres of forested land

• Rome’s Marshall Forest: Only virgin forest within a city limits in the United States

• State known for giant live oaks, pines, peach trees, pecan trees, dogwoods, and cherry blossoms

What is Fauna?

• Fauna: Animals, reptiles, birds, and sea life

• White-tailed deer, squirrels, opossums, bats, rabbits, hares, raccoons, and gray foxes

• State marine mammal: Right (Baleen) whale

• State bird: Brown thrasher; other birds include quail, doves, hummingbirds, and woodpeckers

Georgia’s Reptiles and Amphibians

• Snakes include Copperheads, cottonmouths (water moccasins), and rattlesnakes

• American alligators live in the Coastal Plain region

• Endangered loggerhead sea turtles live along the barrier islands

• 24 types of frogs, four species of toads, and 36 kinds of salamanders

Georgia’s Fish and Sea Life

• Trout fishing is popular in north Georgia

• Large-mouth bass found across the state in ponds and lakes

• Blue crabs and pink shrimp popular along the golden isles region

• Shad, a fish delicacy found in the Ogeechee River near Savannah, has a short harvesting season

Section 2: Georgia’s Natural Resources

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION

• What are the natural resources of Georgia?

Section 2: Georgia’s Natural Resources

• What words do I need to know?

• stones and mineral resources
• kaolin and fuller’s earth
• gold

Georgia’s Natural Stone Resources

Kaolin and fuller’s earth

• Clay products; very profitable

• Fuller’s earth: Mined in Decatur, Grady, Jefferson, and Thomas counties

• Fuller’s earth is an absorbent used in kitty litter, for oils and grease, and in soaps and medicines

• Kaolin: Mined in Fall Line counties in east-central Coastal Plain

• Kaolin used in paper coating, paint filler, plastics and rubber, as base for porcelain products

Section 3: Georgia’s Waterways

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION

• How have waterways influenced Georgia’s exploration, settlement, and economic development?

Section 3: Georgia’s Waterways

• What words do I need to know?

• -- Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway

• -- Semidiurnal tides

• -- Estuaries

• -- Reservoir

• -- Aquifer

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway

• 1,000-mile inland waterway that runs from New York to Miami, Florida

• Between Georgia’s barrier islands and the Georgia coast

• gives commercial and recreational boating traffic safety from storms, strong currents, and waves of ocean routes.

• Savannah and Brunswick are Georgia’s two deep water ports

Georgia’s Tides

• A tide is a rise or fall of the sea level caused by gravitational pull of the sun and the moon

• Georgia’s coastline has six-foot to

• 9-foot tides

• Georgia has semidiurnal tides (two high tides and two low tides daily)

• Spring tides (tides at highest) and neap tides (tides at their lowest)

Coastal Waterways: The Saltwater Marshes

• Four- to six-mile band of saltwater marshes are between barrier islands and the mainland

• These marshes cover about 500,000 acres

• Cordgrass makes up 95 percent of the saltwater marsh vegetation

• Sand fiddlers, mud fiddlers, snails, and crabs are common

• Provide food for herons, egrets, ibis, sandpipers, and the endangered wood storks

Coastal Waterways: Sloughs and Estuaries

• Freshwater sloughs (pronounced “slaws”) are small ponds, swamps, and freshwater marshes

• Develop from marsh creeks that lose tidal flow

• Provides fresh water for forest animals

• Estuaries occur when freshwater rivers and salt water mix; include tidal rivers, sounds, and marsh creeks

• Crab, shrimp, fish, and shellfish thrive in these waters

Georgia’s Rivers

• Twelve principal river systems

• Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha (which combines Oconee and Ocmulgee), and Satilla rivers flow into Atlantic Ocean

• Chattahoochee and Flint rivers become part of Gulf of Mexico

• Oostanaula and Etowah rivers form the Coosa River, which flows through Alabama to the Gulf.

• Alapaha, Suwannee, and St. Mary’s form the Georgia-Florida border

Georgia’s Lakes

• No large natural lakes, but network of lakes formed from river system

• Many large lakes created by U.S. Corps of Engineers and the Georgia Power Company

• Carter Lake, Lake Lanier, Walter George, West Point, and Seminole generate hydroelectric power

• Thurmond Lake, Lake Oconee, and Lake Hartwell provide fishing, recreation, and boating opportunities

Georgia’s Ports

• Bainbridge and Columbus harbor two inland barge terminals

• Savannah’s port, the nation’s fifth largest container port, focuses on containerized cargo

• Brunswick’s port handles auto shipping, heavy equipment, farm machinery, and luxury tour buses

Reservoirs and Aquifers

• Little groundwater in northern half of Georgia

• Manmade Reservoirs (holding tanks) provide much water for northern Georgia

• Georgia major aquifers (natural water storage tanks) are in Coastal Plain

• Augusta features a nine-mile canal; today it is a National Park Heritage Area