The ACC Started the New Year at the Potts Mountain Biological Field Station in Marble Hill
The Atlantic Coast Conservancy sponsored Green Drinks on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at The Potts Mountain Biological Field Station (PMBFS). The event’s goal was to bring the community together for an engaging evening centered on one of today’s most pressing challenges: home affordability and growth. This free event invited guests to gather for meaningful conversation, connection, and insight in the scenic setting of Potts Mountain. The evening opened at 5:00 PM with an hour of complimentary beverages, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and casual networking.
Beginning at 6:00 PM, Jay Knight—host of the nationally recognized Build Baby Build podcast—explored the realities behind America’s housing affordability crisis. Drawing on conversations with builders, policymakers, economists, and housing innovators, Knight unpacked the forces driving rising costs and share perspectives on practical solutions that can help make homeownership and housing stability more attainable for the next generation.
Housing affordability isn’t just a market problem—it’s a community one. According to Knight, “70% of Georgians who would like to buy a house cannot afford one.”
Whether you’re passionate about the community, interested in housing policy, or simply looking to engage in thoughtful discussion in a beautiful setting, this Green Drinks event offered inspiration, education, and connection and thanks to Know Pickens, the video is available to view.
The evening was hosted by the Atlantic Coast Conservancy at its newest facility in eastern Pickens County. PMBFS sits on a 1,378-acre property that reflects intentional land management, from conservation easements to innovative ecosystem service projects including natural burials, Agrivoltaics, and sustainable forest use. Green Drinks is an informal, welcoming event designed to spark conversation, collaboration, and community.
About the Speaker & Host
Jay Knight is an industry veteran with experience spanning residential construction, on-site sales, brokerage leadership, land acquisition, and homebuilding management since 1978. He is the chairman and co-founder of the Georgia Residential Land Development Council, where he works to advance thoughtful land-use policy and housing solutions across the state. Currently a manager with Templar Development, Knight brings a practical, solutions-oriented perspective to conversations about how communities can expand access to attainable, sustainable housing, insights he shares as host of the Build Baby Build podcast.
The evening was hosted by the Atlantic Coast Conservancy at its newest facility in eastern Pickens County. PMBFS sits on a 1,378-acre property that reflects intentional land management, from conservation easements to innovative ecosystem service projects including natural burials, Agrivoltaics, and sustainable forest use. Green Drinks is an informal, welcoming event designed to spark conversation, collaboration, and community.
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The Atlantic Coast Conservancy (ACC) conducted a controlled burn on the 85 acre Potts Mountain Burial Ground located on Steve Tate Highway in eastern Pickens County this past weekend. The commenced at approximately 0900 on Sunday morning (23MAR25) and was concluded by 1130.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GaDNR) calls prescribed fire “a safe way to apply a natural process, ensure ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk on public and private lands”. Also called prescribed or controlled burning, these monitored events involve trained professionals who operate under a set of specific fuel and weather conditions called a “prescription”. Wind direction determines where smoke will go and atmospheric stability helps predict how well smoke will rise and clear the area. Following a prescription provides an opportunity to manage the smoke responsibly.
Prescribed fire is carefully planned and implemented to be as safe as possible. The Potts Mountain controlled burn was supervised by Certified SAF Forester John Stivers, whose company Tanyard Timber, provides landowners with forestry consulting services including prescribed burning, reforestation, and timber sales. Stivers serves as the President of the Central Alabama Prescribed Burn Association (CAPBA) and is registered to work in both Alabama and Georgia.
The ACC Staff, under the tutelage of Stivers, ran interior strips across the upland tract after blacking-in the perimeter. Stivers remarked, “These guys did really well, built great fire lines with dozer sweeping roads/trails and pushed new line on north and south end through some pine thickets, prepped around lots of snags, ate some smoke and walked the torches to advance the fire across the burn unit rapidly to get the smoke up in the air and sent it downwind all before noon.”
In keeping with the mission of the ACC “to provide 21st century solutions and sound scientific applications for conservation of critical natural resources in the face of a changing climate focusing on the Southeastern United States with specific utilization of geographic information systems applications in land conservation, ecosystem services, carbon sequestration and conservation biology”, the prescribed burn on a portion of the 1,400 acre Potts Mountain Biological Field Station property helps support the organization’s conservation objectives.
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Prescribed fire is used for a number of reasons including ecosystem restoration and maintenance, reducing wildfire risk, site preparation for tree planting, and enhancing the
aesthetics of and access to natural areas. Many plants and animals depend on fire. In fact, rare wildlife including gopher tortoises and red-cockaded woodpeckers depend on fire-adapted habitats. Studies show that the long-term use of prescribed fire can reduce tick populations along with tick-carried diseases that affect people.
Early American settlers found Native Americans using fire in virgin pine stands and adopted the practice to provide better access, improve hunting, and to remove brush and timber for
farming. Land managers have used fire since the early 1900s.
Without fire, trees and brush grow too thick, shading out plants on the forest floor and limiting which animals and plants can thrive there. Prescribed fire also consumes downed limbs, dead trees and
Green Drinks Returns at The Conservancy at Potts Mountain
An Evening of Conversation, Inspiration, and Conservationism
Marble Hill (Jasper), GA – Green Drinks makes a triumphant return at The Conservancy at Potts Mountain, inviting community members, conservation advocates, and students to a memorable night celebrating environmental resilience and victory. Join The Atlantic Coast Conservancy on Thursday, September 18, 2025 for this free event which opens at 5:00 PM with an hour of complimentary beverages, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and casual networking in the serene landscapes of Potts Mountain.
Veteran environmental attorney and President of Georgians for the Okefenokee, Josh Marks, takes the stage at 6:00pm to unpacks the multi-decade campaign that successfully stopped the Twin Pines strip-mining threat to the swamp—a story of determination, strategic advocacy, and regional pride.
Whether you’re inspired by environmental triumphs, eager to spark new collaborations, or simply seeking quality conversation in a beautiful setting—this event delivers all that.
About the Speaker & Host
Josh Marks is a distinguished environmental attorney and current President of Georgians for the Okefenokee, a nonprofit group devoted to safeguarding the Okefenokee Swamp through legal action, policy advocacy, and public education. With deep roots in environmental advocacy, Marks played instrumental roles in two landmark campaigns: the successful legal and public fight against DuPont’s mining plans in the late 1990s, and more recently, the drive to thwart Twin Pines Minerals’ mining proposal. His leadership has illuminated how law, media, grassroots engagement, and accountability can combine to protect Georgia’s most treasured ecosystems.
The venue, The Conservancy at Potts Mountain, stewarded by the Atlantic Coast Conservancy, stands as a model of sustainability in practice. Its 1,400-acre property reflects thoughtful land management, from conservation easements to innovative ecosystem service projects including natural burials, Agrivoltaics, and sustainable forest use. This event is not just a gathering—it’s an invitation to experience conservation in action. Green Drinks is a popular informal network connecting individuals interested in environmental issues. Emphasizing conversation, collaboration, and community, these gatherings are welcoming, adaptable, and grassroots by nature.
Event At-A-Glance
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Venue: The Conservancy at Potts Mountain, 695 Whitley Rd S, Marble Hill, GA 30148
Cost: Free
Doris Wigington Jasper City Park opened to the public on June 28, 2014. Since then the 60 acre property has been little used as a park. In fact, the 3.5 miles of trails with entrances on Gennette Drive and Lumber Company Road had become known as a hot spot for unsavory activity.
In 2018 Atlantic Coast Conservancy’s Robert Keller proposed adding features to the park to attract birds and birdwatchers, walkers and hikers, and the families, all while discouraging unwanted activities. One such project is the construction of Chimney Swift Towers.
Chimney Swifts are cigar shaped birds which spend summers in North Georgia. Their acrobatics may remind people of swallows, but Chimney Swifts are more closely related to Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. They have adapted to a life among humans, finding a home in chimneys after their preferred old-growth trees began disappearing.
The conservation status of the Chimney Swift was recently updated to Vulnerable on the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Stating that ““In recent times, the number of available chimneys has decreased as a result of the demolition of old buildings, the capping of old chimneys, and through chimney sweeps removing nests from chimneys (despite the species being protected by federal law). Even though a scarcity of chimneys may not be limiting the numbers of Chimney Swifts yet, the rate of habitat loss is increasing and possibly developing into a severe threat.”
The ACC is supporting conservation by building Chimney Swift Towers in Doris Wigington Park. Chimney Swift Towers mimic actual chimneys, serving as roosting and nesting habitat for the birds. Much like a real chimney, the central tower and interior walls provide nesting and roosting opportunities for these birds. Specially adapted claws allow the Chimney Swifts to cling to the inside of the tower, where they build saucer-shaped nests made out of twigs glued together with the birds’ saliva. Chimney Swifts will not allow other birds (including other swifts) to use “their” tower while they are nesting, but in late summer, hundreds or event thousands of individual birds may roost in one large chimney creating a spectacular site overhead as they flock into the chimney near dusk.
