Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area
Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area.
Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Natural Resources
The nearly 8,400-acre Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area sits in the southwest corner of Georgia, near Bainbridge. The Fund purchased this property in 2007 from International Paper, which had managed it as part of a private forestry research site for more than 50 years. The state purchased the property from the Fund in three phases and created this new state wildlife management area in 2009. The land is now open to the public for fishing, hunting and other outdoor recreation and is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The property features numerous critical habitats identified in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan. Most prominently, Silver Lake contains one of the finest examples of a mature longleaf pine forest. This highly imperiled habitat type supports a host of threatened and endangered wildlife including red-cockaded woodpecker and gopher tortoise. It also provides valuable habitat for white-tailed deer, wild turkey, waterfowl and the declining northern bobwhite quail.
Creation of this wild management area was made possible with funding assistance from Decatur County, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and a variety of other local, state, federal and nonprofit partners.
