Letter from the publisher

Built for Hard Seasons

When we relaunched South Georgia Magazine this summer, I hoped the publication would find an audience. I did not expect it to find one so quickly. We have heard from readers across our South Georgia communities, from other Georgians who are just now discovering us — even from readers in other states. To everyone who subscribed, shared an issue, or sent us a story idea, thank you: You are proving what this magazine was built on, that South Georgia is a community that offers a myriad of stories to share.

This issue asks something harder of us. Two years ago this fall, Hurricane Helene tore through the heart of our region. In “After Helene,” we hear from the people who were there, who cleared roads and fed families. The recovery is real, but so is what remains — blue tarps on roofs, families who haven’t come home, and farmers who lost what took generations to build and who won’t get it back in their lifetimes.

For our timber families, Helene compounded an existing problem. In Part II of our forestry series, we report on a pulpwood market that one legislator says has “evaporated,” then hit again when the storm took 1.5 million acres of South Georgia timberland.

I won’t pretend those are small things. But I was reminded of something while reading these stories side by side. South Georgia has been here before.

Nearly a century ago, Charles Herty figured out how to make paper from pine trees too narrow for lumber, and within a generation the landscape and economy of this region were transformed. Today the same trees are being looked at for new uses, including clean energy solutions. The people who know this industry best aren’t wringing their hands. They’re working the problem. The same is true in the Helene story, where communities didn’t wait on rescue. They organized, rewrote disaster plans, and are more prepared today than they were before the storm.

Not every story in this issue has its ending yet. In “King Cotton,” we report on the state’s No.1 row crop. After enduring years of prices below the cost of production, farmers may have to drastically change manufacturing practices just to stay in business. Relief may be on the way, but growers are closer to the edge than most people realize.

These stories matter beyond our region. The relief dollars, tax credits, and forestry innovation funding described in these pages happened because people in Atlanta and Washington realized what was at stake down here. That’s not by accident. It happens when our stories travel past the county line.

So keep them coming. Tell us about the business that rebuilt, the community that found a new path, the challenge nobody is talking about yet. And to our Founding Partners, who believed in this before the first issue went live, thank you for making it possible.

South Georgia has always been built for hard seasons. We’re here to make sure everyone knows it.

With gratitude and purpose,

Matt Seale
Publisher, South Georgia Magazine