CUMBERLAND ISLAND An Ecological Survey of the Coastal Region of Georgia NPS Scientific Monograph No. 3

It is impossible to recognize all of those who contributed in some way to a comprehensive survey of this kind. We must gratefully acknowledge many of them with a few general statements.

The National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior provided financial support for much of the work through a grant to the Institute of Natural Resources of the University of Georgia.¹ Assistant Regional Director S. P. Weems and Ranger Eugene Phillips arranged for a visit to Cumberland Island and provided transportation and information.

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¹U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Contract No. 14-10-7:991-037.

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Much of the information presented in this report was derived from studies by others which we have appropriately recognized. We gratefully acknowledge the many individuals and organizations that so generously provided services and information and the individuals that extended hospitality during our visits to the coast while preparing this report and in previous years. We also thank those persons, too numerous to list, who shared their ideas and viewpoints with us and thus influenced the content of this report.

We owe special thanks to the following persons who contributed certain sections of the report:

Michael D. Dahlberg, for the "Annotated List of Fishes of the Georgia Coast," which he kindly allowed us to extract from a much longer manuscript based on his previous studies on the Georgia coast;

Hans N. Neuhauser and W. Wilson Baker for the "Annotated List of Mammals of the Coastal Islands Georgia"; and

John H. Hoyt for the section on the formation of barrier islands.

Appreciation is expressed to the following staff members of the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island for their assistance with sections dealing with marsh and estuarine ecology: V. J. Henry, A. G. Greene, F. C. Marland, and R. J. Reimold. Lorene T. Gassert, Institute Librarian, greatly assisted in the location of materials in the library.

Personnel of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, contributed useful information concerning national wildlife refuges on the Georgia coast. We are especially grateful to W. L. Towns, Deputy Regional Director; P. W. Lane, Manager, Savannah National Wildlife Refuge; and M. D. Spanel, Biologist, Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The Georgia Game and Fish Commission provided access to the R. J. Reynolds Wildlife Refuge on Sapelo Island and use of the commission's airplane permitted aerial surveys to be made of sea turtles nesting and wading bird rookeries. Special thanks are extended to J. A. Crockford, Assistant Director, and D. H. G. Gould, Supervisor of Coastal Fisheries. Gould and W. W. Anderson, Chief of Marine Research and Development, also provided useful information relating to coastal fisheries. J. Edenfield piloted the airplane and assisted with the aerial surveys.

Among the public and private organizations who cordially replied to our many requests for information relating to the coastal area are the Georgia Power Co., Georgia Ports Authority, Georgia State Highway Department, Georgia Department of Public Health, Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, Savannah Port Authority, and U.S. Geological Survey.

We are especially grateful for the invaluable assistance provided by the following students at the University of Georgia: N. L. Brunswig, P. H. Morgan, H. N. Neuhauser, J. E. Ranson, Jr., and Merry M. Tyler.

E. L. Cheatum, Institute of Natural Resources, and M. Reines, School of Forest Resources, reviewed portions of the manuscript and offered many constructive suggestions. L. B. Pomeroy, Department of Zoology, read sections of the manuscript dealing with primary productivity, energy flow, food webs, and nutrient cycling in the salt marsh and estuaries.

E. Chin, Institute of Natural Resources, contributed information on commercially important marine resources. P. M. Wilkinson, Biologist, South Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, shared some of his original ideas on coastal ecology. W. P. Baldwin, Land Management Consultant, Summerville, S.C., related his observations on the fauna of St. Catherines Island.

The many individuals and organizations that assisted in the vertebrate inventories are acknowledged in the appendices.

Typing and clerical assistance were ably provided by Nedra Johnson, Betty Marchinton, Barbara Maros, and Sue Vinson.

A. SYDNEY JOHNSON
HILBURN O. HILLESTAD
SHERYL F. SHANHOLIZER
G. FREDERICK SHANHOLTZER

September 1971