Miller Appoints 15-Member Panel For Preservation 2000 Effort

Back on April 26 at the Georgia Wildlife Federation Awards Banquet, Gov. Zell Miller outlined a plan he called Preservation 2000. The goal of the plan is to purchase 100,000 acres of Georgia’s environmentally sensitive areas.

Last Tuesday he appointed a 15-member panel and assigned them the job of making the plan work, a stiff assignment during a period of severe state budget problems.

The council’s first step is to devise rules and methods to acquire property. Don Carter, a Gainesville real estate broker and a Department of Natural Resources board member, is chairman of the new council.

Other members include Dr. Eugene Odom, the father of modern ecology and prof. Emeritus at the University of Georgia; Jane Yarn, former member of the Council on Environmental Quality; Rand Wentworth, director of the Trust for Public Land; Ivan Allen III ex-chairman of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce; Walter Jack, Director of forest resources for GA.-Pacific; and Tom Benson, V.P. of Atlanta Gas Light Co.

Other council members include Charles Smithgall, former owner of the Gainesville Times.

Also Jerry McCollum, executive VP of the Georgia Wildlife Federation; James C. Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cox Enterprises; Bill Murdy, dean and chief executive officer of Oxford College of Emory; and Hans Neuhauser, senior vice president of the Georgia Conservancy.

Other members are Jim Piette, retired vice chairman of Union Camp; Dublin Newspaper Publisher Dubose Porter, who also serves as Gov. Miller’s Floor Leader in the House; and Charles Warton, University of Georgia ecology professor.

This is an impressive and diverse group of business leaders, environmentalists, academicians and politicians. Still they face a challenge as difficult as spinning gold from hay.

The governor has said that he seeks a coalition of private and public funds to finance Preservation 2000. That process worked when an anonymous donor chipped in $1 million to allow the state to complete the purchase of Cabbage and Little Tybee islands.

There may be other cheerful philanthropists who will help to ease the struggle of the Preservation 2000 council, but the governor did say he expected to use public funds to help acquire lands.

Though the council has yet to meet, the governor has been talking about the project since his campaign days. The idea of increased hunting and fishing license fees has been suggested by some as a source of Preservation 2000 revenue.