8 
Georgia includes approximately 393,000 acres of coastal marsh, a total 
exceeded only by South Carolina when comparing the Atlantic Coast States. 
These vast and highly productive marshes have been under less developmental 
pressure for housing, recreational, industrial, and agricultural needs than 
coastal marshes to the north or south--e.g., New Jersey, Delaware, or Florida. 
The remoteness of urban centers combined with private ownership and relative 
inaccessibility of the barrier islands has no doubt slowed development. It 
has been estimated that between 1954 and 1968 only 2,000 acres of coastal 
marsh were destroyed. However, pressure for development is increasing rapidly, 
and justification for strong regulation is clear. 
The Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act of 1970 as amended was 
passed to ensure that Georgia's coastal marshlands are used in the public 
interest for the benefit of all citizens. The jurisdiction of the act 
includes any marshlands or salt marsh in the State of Georgia, within the 
estuarine area of the State, whether or not the tide waters reach the 
littoral areas through natural or artificial water courses. "Estuarine 
area” means all tidally influenced waters, marshes, and marshlands lying 
within a tide-elevation range from 5.6 feet above mean tide level and 
below. Mean tide level, also called half-tide level, is a plane exactly 
midway between mean high water and mean low water and therefore can be 
readily determined from the high- and low-water tabulations. The marsh 
is a low, relatively flat area which is regularly flooded by the tide 
either all or part of the time and which commonly contains considerable 
water surface, supporting a cover of a few characteristic grasses and 
other plants. The act continues to define marshlands as those areas upon 
which grow one, but not necessarily all, of the following: 
Saltmarsh grass (Spartina alterniflora) 
Black grass (Juncus gerardi) 
High-tide bush (Iva frutescens var. oraria) 
Saltmeadow cordgrass (Spartina patens) 
Big Cordgress (Spartina cynosuroides) 
Saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) 
Coast dropseed (Sporobolus virginicus) 
Needlerush (Juncus roemarianus) 
Bigelow glasswort (Salicornia bigelovii) 
Woody glasswort (Salicornia virginica) 
Saltwort (Batis maritima) 
Sea lavender (Limonium nashii) 
Marsh elder (Iva frutescens) 
Sea Oxeye (Borrichia frutescens) 
The occurrence and extent of salt marsh peat at the undisturbed surface shall 
be deemed to be conclusive evidence of the extent of a salt marsh or a part 
thereof. 
The species composition of a coastal marsh reflects the salinity, soil 
characteristics, frequency of inundation, and elevation. The Georgia marshes 
are generally typical of those along the Atlantic coast, with exceptions such 
as mangroves found abundantly in Florida and Juncus gerardi which replaces 
Juncus roemarianus north from New Jersey. Saline marshes contain Spartina 
alterniflora in three growth forms, the largest up to 10 feet high. Other