The Clay Long Fund

In Memory of Clay Long, Distinguished Conservationist and former Georgia Conservancy Board Chair

The Georgia Conservancy is tremendously saddened by the May 29th passing of Clay Long, Atlanta attorney and founding partner and former co-chairman at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.

Clay Long, a supporter of the Georgia Conservancy for decades, was currently serving on the organization’s Advisory Council. A Georgia Conservancy Trustee from 1991-1998, Clay Long also served as Board Chair from 1994-1996. During this tenure, he oversaw the development of the Georgia Conservancy’s Blueprints for Successful Communities program, now in its 31st year of providing conservation-focused planning services to communities large and small across Georgia.

As an avid conservationist and supporter of smart growth strategies, Clay served on statewide councils focused on natural resources protection. His lifelong love of the Georgia Coast was evident in his support and advisement of Georgia Conservancy's coastal efforts and through his role as Chairman of the Jekyll Island Foundation, including the Georgia Land Conservation Partnership and Georgia Greenspace Commission. Additionally, Clay Long and his family’s generous philanthropic support for conservation continues to be of lasting benefit to the State of Georgia and beyond.

In recognition of his lifelong dedication to conservation, the Georgia Conservancy honored Clay Long as our 2005 Distinguished Conservationist.

Georgia Conservancy staff, Board of Trustees, and Advisory Council extend our heartfelt condolences to Clay Long’s family, friends and colleagues.

In the hopes of forwarding Clay Long’s conservation legacy, the family requests that any tributes in his honor be made to The Clay Long Fund at the Georgia Conservancy.

In honor of Clay Long’s interest in solving complex environmental challenges, as well as his passion for the coast, the Clay Long Fund at Georgia Conservancy will support our Georgia Now and Forever initiative and our coastal conservation work.

August 2022 Update - The Clay Long Fund

The Clay Long Fund at Georgia Conservancy aims to honor and embody Mr. Long’s passion for Georgia’s natural assets. Mr. Long understood that environmental challenges are fundamentally complex and that solutions to those challenges rely on a multitude of stakeholders and interests. His appreciation of fact-based discussions among diverse groups that strive toward a common goal of improving quality of life in Georgia is one shared by the Georgia Conservancy in our work to advance ecological and economic prosperity for our state’s people and environment.

As of August 2022, more than 100 donations have contributed to the creation of the Fund, reflecting the wide array of individuals inspired by Mr. Long. Georgia Conservancy staff has created an impact plan that will drive 3-4 years of work in the two action categories of greatest interest to the Long family: The Georgia Now and Forever Initiative and Coastal Conservation.

Georgia Now and Forever

Georgia Now and Forever (GNF) is a large-scale land conservation, land use, and stewardship initiative based on the understanding that the land hosts all of our resources, natural and manmade. Our decisions around use of the land, then, affect the state of natural assets, community vitality, and our greater ecosystem. Two years ago, the Georgia Conservancy began an unprecedented historical land cover analysis from 1974-2019 that revealed data as to how and where Georgia’s land cover has changed as a result of local land use decisions. These historical changes are documented at the county level and watershed level for the entire state over this multi-decade time period.

With multi-year support from the Clay Long Fund, Georgia Now and Forever’s eye-opening findings about land cover change and its ramifications on carbon sequestration potential, food production, and water quality (among other subjects) can move from paper and spreadsheets into more public venues: interactive communications, educational modules and presentations, and decision-making tools for government entities, commercial and industry leadership, civic leaders and individuals. Multi-year support will also allow us to envision possible futures for Georgia’s natural environment based on past land cover trends, and help those same leaders understand what must be done to safeguard our communities’ well-being.

Having created an online tool in 2021 that allows users to explore impacts of landcover change on various natural resources and geographies of Georgia, we have now begun to connect this tool with targeted decision-making groups. It is a testament to the need for such information (created in partnership with Georgia Tech’s Center for Spatial Analysis and Visualization) that a broad but related set of organizations are utilizing the information in their missions and work:

• Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will utilize GNF landcover change data in its update of the State Wildlife Action Plan, a science-based process to identify the highest priority lands in the state for protection of wildlife habitat and the strategy for protecting those habitats. The importance of this exercise cannot be overemphasized. The plan is updated only every 10 years, meaning years of influence on conservation policy, land stewardship, and fund expenditure at the state level depend on the content of each update. Without the support of the Clay Long Fund, an entire decade could have elapsed before the Georgia Conservancy might have been able to raise funds to create and share this influential data.

• Georgia Academy for Economic Development created a sustainable housing development curriculum based on GNF and using it is the basis for two courses given statewide through the program. The program is estimated to reach hundreds of local decision-makers and will continue to circulate until such time as it is updated by Academy leadership.

• American Planning Association – GNF was part of a national presentation with the Manager, Historic and Cultural Preservation Department of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, which identified how landcover change data can be utilized by, and in support of, First Nations to monitor and track threats to culturally significant lands, especially through a climate change perspective.

• Georgia Now and Forever data and maps have been provided to the research and development team for Chuck Leavell’s PBS series America’s Forests. Two Georgia episodes are planned to educate viewers on the importance of forest lands and sustainable forestry within the state. Some may recall that, like Mr. Long, Chuck Leavell was honored as a Distinguished Conservationist by Georgia Conservancy. Others may recognize Mr. Leavell’s name as the long-standing keyboardist for the Rolling Stones.

Additionally, due to an enhanced understanding of land conservation needs from GNF, the Georgia Conservancy was successful in seeing a reauthorization of the Georgia Land Conservation Tax Credit program during the 2022 legislative session. This program has required a nominal investment by the state ($16M) for over $100M in land conservation value permanently protecting more than 100 tracts of land in Georgia.

The Clay Long Fund is also at work supporting advocacy and conservation efforts along the Ocmulgee River. As one of Georgia’s iconic natural landscapes inclusive of thousands of years of human history, the Ocmulgee River corridor between Macon and Hawkinsville has long been identified as important for national recognition beyond the current designation of some acreage as Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. While a local effort was already underway, investment of the Clay Long Fund in state conservation efforts permitted significant Georgia Conservancy staff time to support efforts in Macon. As of this writing, Georgia Conservancy is contributing research that will be utilized in the U.S. Senate for legislation to be initiated in September in an effort to Georgia’s first National Park and Preserve around the Ocmulgee Mounds and Ocmulgee River corridor. Not insignificantly, the Georgia Conservancy is serving as a communication bridge between the variety of interests supporting the new designation and state leadership and agencies uncertain about the new designation, seeking to educate and dispel misunderstandings around what a change in National Park Service status will mean.

Coastal Conservation

Coastal Conservation in Georgia is one of the highest priorities for those wishing to support ecological diversity in our state and preparedness for impending sea level rise. Georgia’s iconic marshes comprise 1/3 of the remaining marshlands on the eastern seaboard. These marshes serve as critical nurseries to abundant marine life inhabiting Georgia’s shoreline and seas. Further, the marshes serve necessary ecological functions of cleaning water from inland watersheds and buffering the mainland from harsh impacts of storm surges and sea level rise.

Though Georgia’s coastal habitats are widely prized, they have faced ongoing threats to their integrity and viability as critical ecosystems for coastal health. Increased development pressure from new industry and population growth, as well as gradual degradation thanks to atmospheric carbon and other pollutants, have raised questions about the marshes’ fate. The Clay Long Fund has invested in the protection and resilience of coastal landscapes through the Georgia Conservancy in several ways:

• South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative – a group of scientists and coastal policy thought leaders utilizing a voluntary, collaborative, non-regulatory approach to coastal lands protection for the East Coast has tasked Georgia Conservancy with utilizing GNF and other existing data to prioritize coastal areas for marsh migration and marsh restoration. This project will deliver results (March 2023) in the form of conservation funding packages for the federal government and national philanthropic community, as well as the prioritization of Georgia property for conservation.

• Visible and quiet efforts of Georgia Conservancy continue in pursuit of long-term resolutions for the threats to the Okefenokee Swamp. Most notably, the Clay Long Fund supported a private swamp tour by Georgia Conservancy’s Coastal Director for the prominent Biodiversity Funders Group this spring. Our Coastal Director was further invited to provide a presentation on the Swamp to this same group convening on Jekyll Island for their annual Funders Forum. This is a formal group of national conservation-focused philanthropic organizations which seek to align and leverage their grant investments for maximum environmental impact across the US. The Swamp is high on its list of priorities.

• The Georgia Conservancy has been selected as one of 5 statewide Climate Innovation Centers by the Geos Institute. This is a pilot effort that Geos Institute hopes to roll out nationally over time. The other states in the pilot cohort are Nevada, Utah, Indiana, and New Hampshire. This designation will position Georgia Conservancy to serve as a primary convener of the numerous endeavors already pursuing climate resilience in the state—academic, private sector, government, and nonprofit—as well as a connector of projects and programs making a difference in the area of climate. The designation does not come with funds, although the strategic plan is to pursue those for long-term viability of the Innovation Centers. We would not have been able to commit to this role with the Geos Institute and the other states without the Clay Long Fund supporting the additional work of our staff and direct expenses associated with serving as a Climate Innovation Center. While the effort will focus on climate resilience statewide, we report this activity under the Coastal Conservation section as our initial concerns are to apply focus on our coast. Georgia is the only pilot state with a coast, which is especially vulnerable to myriad climate impacts. What we learn can assist future coastal states that join the Climate Innovation Center network.

Click here to read a tribute to Clay Long published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Thank you to those who have generously supported
The Clay Long Fund