Lend your voice in support of Georgia’s salt marsh!
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Coastal Resources Division (CRD) has issued revised draft rules for private recreational dock construction and is now soliciting public comment. Those comments are due by September 30, 2026. Read the Georgia Conservancy’s comment letter posted below.
Click here to read answers to frequently asked questions.
Click here to learn more about the draft rules and the public comment process.
Click here to read GA DNR CRD’s revised draft rules.
The decisions of GA DNR will directly impact the future of our coastal marshlands and the way private recreational docks are permitted and built in coastal Georgia.
Why The Rulemaking Process Matters
Currently, there are no formal rules governing the design, placement, or approval of private recreational docks in Georgia’s coastal marshland, only internal guidance. CRD is now preparing to formalize these guidance policies, and the decisions made now will shape the future of our coast for generations to come.
While some docks serve a legitimate, water-dependent use, our organization believes that stronger protections are necessary to preserve the ecological, scenic, and public value of Georgia’s marshlands.
Georgia Conservancy’s Concerns with Private Dock Proliferation
- Marshfront Does Not Equal Waterfront: Owning property on the marsh does not guarantee a right to build a dock to access deep water. That access is a privilege, not a right, as the marsh the dock must cross belongs to the people of Georgia and is managed by the state.
- Public Trust and Water Access: Outside of historic King’s grants, no private individual owns the marsh. It is public land held in trust, and any encroachment on it must be carefully considered.
- Water-Dependent Use Only: Docks should exist only to support water-dependent activities, such as boating or fishing.
- Viewshed and Aesthetic Impacts: The spread of oversized or “party docks” disrupts the scenic beauty that draws people to the coast and can negatively affect neighbors’ quality of life and viewshed.
- Marine Debris and Structural Resilience: As storms become more frequent and severe, poorly built or maintained docks are breaking apart, leaving marine debris in our marshes. Currently, dock owners bear no responsibility for cleaning up the debris; that burden rests on the State and Georgia taxpayers.
- Habitat Fragmentation: Docks can erode the integrity of the marsh ecosystem. Unbroken stretches of marshland provide exponentially greater habitat value than areas divided by crisscrossing docks, walkways, and platforms.
- We Must Protect What We Love: Our marshes are vast, healthy, and beautiful because of decades of protection, not because they were left to chance. If we relax the standards now, we risk undermining the very thing that makes our coast so special.
Your Voice Is Needed! CRD has issued revised draft rules, but those are not final. Public feedback at this stage can make a real difference in how the rules are written.
Need more information about the impact that docks can have on our marsh? Watch this webinar from our partners at One Hundred Miles, featuring Georgia Conservancy Coastal Director Courtney Reich.
Together, we can ensure Georgia’s coast remains a thriving, healthy environment for future generations!
Questions? Please reach out to Courtney Reich at creich@georgiaconservancy.org.
Georgia Conservancy’s September 21 Comment Letter to Georgia DNR Coastal Resources Division
RE: Proposed amendments to Subject 391-2-1 of the Rules of the Department of Natural Resources to establish rules for private docks located over state-owned tidal water bottoms, dated August 26, 2026.
Dear Ms. Andrews:
On behalf of the Georgia Conservancy, we are submitting the following comments on the proposed Rules for Private Recreational Docks (Rules), issued by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Coastal Resources Division (CRD) on August 26, 2026. We appreciate the opportunity to provide comments and recognize the challenge that DNR faces regarding the development and adoption of the Rules. Furthermore, Georgia Conservancy continues to support DNR’s efforts to adopt Rules to regulate private recreational docks constructed over public trust tidal waters to ensure safety and consistency for the public and to protect our coastal marshlands.
We are truly appreciative of the Board of Natural Resources’ decision on August 25, 2026, to prohibit spanning creeks wider than 20 ft, and limiting variances in deck length to 10%. This is a dramatic improvement that will prevent significant impacts to our coastal marshlands. However, Georgia Conservancy continues to be troubled by the erosion of protections for our coastal marshlands in this updated version of the Rules. Considering the numerous questions asked by Board Members at the August 25th meeting regarding the impacts of what they were being asked to adopt, we are offering the comments below in an effort to be clear regarding our concerns.
These Rules, as proposed, significantly increase the allowable length and marsh coverage for dock boardwalks, diverging from DNR’s previous focus on marsh protection and public access. Based on the numerous comments received by the GA DNR during the last public comment period supporting protections for our marshlands, and the lack of scientific foundation upon which this version of the Rules is based, we find it difficult to understand why the Board of Natural Resources would consider approving the Rules as written.
The current framework for dock regulations came through GA DNR’s own robust stakeholder process in the late 2000s that was initiated because of the concerning proliferation of docks during the housing boom. At that time, GA DNR commissioned its own scientific research and convened stakeholders to develop a regulatory framework that was protective of the coastal marshlands, based on sound science, and consistent with neighboring states.
Now that we stand on the precipice of another housing boom, these Rules would significantly weaken private recreational dock regulations, allowing dock boardwalks of up to 1,500 feet (1,650 with a 10% variance). This is more than 50% longer than currently allowed by GA DNR policy, and, with no limit on square footage, would allow docks to directly cover 9,900 sq feet or 0.2 acres of coastal marshlands for private development. This amount of marsh coverage substantially exceeds the definition of a minor impact (0.1 acres or 4,356 sq ft) in the Coastal Marshland Protection Act and would be allowed without any requirements for property owners to mitigate the negative impacts on public resources. Furthermore, this significant increase in direct marsh shading impacts doesn’t even consider the additional impacts to the habitat in the buffer areas surrounding the dock, which studies have shown are also degraded by dock construction.
While we understand the need for a limited 10% variance process that considers hardship cases, the process as proposed has no standards by which the variance should be judged or an objective and science-based process to consider how variances would be granted. The proposed process is highly subjective and could place an undue burden on DNR staff, potentially subjecting the agency to lawsuits if variance requests are rejected. We suggest that these Rules be updated to provide more clarity on what situation qualifies for a variance, and under what conditions a variance should be granted.
The Board should also consider that current policy allows private property owners to receive a revocable license from the State to impact public resources for free. There is no acknowledgment of the cost to taxpayers for the permitting services provided by GA DNR staff, nor of the impacts on public resources for which the citizens of Georgia are not currently compensated. It costs more to get a license to fish in Georgia than it does to get a license to build a dock over coastal marshlands. This lack of revenue limits the ability of GA DNR staff to administer this program including review, inspections, and enforcement. The lack of resources also affects waiting times for revocable license applicants, making them unnecessarily long.
Georgia Conservancy is also concerned that significant changes are being made despite the fact that there is no complete inventory of existing docks either at the State or Federal level. Furthermore, these rules do not appear to be based on any scientific report that has been accepted and made public by GA DNR, nor were these rules based on any clear legal premise for private water access beyond State-owned marsh. Without knowledge of what currently exists, and what the impacts of additional docks will be, how can the Board reasonably be expected to make a judgement about dock regulations and how changes to that framework will impact the resources it is charged with protecting?
Water access is a way of life in coastal Georgia. Residents and visitors are drawn to our coastal marshlands for the fishing, boating, and scenic views. GA DNR has long worked to provide access to these resources held in public trust for all of us by the State of Georgia. However, significant expansion of the size of private docks allowed over our marshlands is not a way to “facilitate reasonable access” to the public. It does, however, provide an expanded private right to certain marsh front landowners despite the impact (known and potential) to our coastal marshlands. If the Board adopts regulations that apply statewide to satisfy the request of a few individual marsh front property owners, then what stops the next request for a significant alteration to GA DNR policy that benefits only a few individuals?
We Must Protect What We Love: Our marshes are vast, healthy, and beautiful because of the adoption of the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act in 1970, not because they were left to chance. GA DNR has been a dedicated steward of our coastal marshlands since that time, and we ask that the Board remain vigilant in its protection of our public marshes now and in the future. If we relax the standards now, we risk undermining the very thing that makes our coast so special.
We encourage DNR to maintain the current policy limiting dock size and adopt stronger regulations governing their construction and maintenance. These protections are necessary to preserve the ecological, scenic, and public value of our coastal marshlands now and for future generations.
We appreciate the efforts of the Board of Natural Resources and the GA DNR CRD in seeking input on this important topic, allowing Georgia Conservancy to participate in the Private Recreational Dock Stakeholder Committee, and considering our comments and concerns on the proposed Rules.
Sincerely,
Courtney Reich
Coastal Director
Katherine Moore
President