Wolf Island Wilderness

Established in 1930 as a sanctuary for migratory birds, Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge includes Wolf Island, Egg Island, and Little Egg Island. All of the refuge has since been designated Wilderness. Large expanses of marshes, marshy hammocks, and tidal creeks separate the Wilderness from the mainland. More than 75 percent of it is saltwater marsh where birds hide, feed, and nest. Scaup, scoters, mergansers, and bufflehead are the most common wintering waterfowl. The endangered piping plover winters on the islands, and the threatened loggerhead sea turtle is an occasional nester. A portion of Wolf Island is "upland," standing an average of 10 feet above the sea and including a narrow, four-mile strip of oceanfront beach where sea oats, sandspurs, and other beach-dune perennials grow; the rest of the island is salt marsh dominated by cordgrass. Egg Island contains a little less upland, including 1.5 miles of beach, and sports a dense growth of cedar, greenbrier, and blackberry, with salt marsh covering the remainder. Little Egg Island, a low salt marsh, goes completely underwater at high tide. The saltwater regions are open to recreation, primarily fishing, but the marshes, beaches, and uplands are closed entirely to human visitation. The Wilderness is in Georgia, is managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and was designated in 1975.