An Overview of Human and Natural Interactions in Jekyll Island, GA

Ginny Loeffler, Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.

April 11th, 2017

Introduction and Background

Jekyll Island is situated within the southern half of Georgia’s barrier island chain, with only

Cumberland/Little Cumberland Islands separating it from the Florida coast. Similar to its southern

neighbor, Jekyll is dominated by the presence of humans for leisure, housing, and natural

recreation. The Georgia barrier islands provide critical human and wildlife resources as well as

recreation area and preserved habitat. The extent of human presence on Georgia’s sea islands is

variable on an individual basis; Jekyll is considered by many to be a “tourist” island, reflecting the

perceived level of human manipulation of the island (Rodgers and Parker 2003).

More broadly, the Georgia barrier islands are a North-South oriented chain of coastal

islands that are almost all in composite pairs (Pilkey 2003). These pairings consist of one larger

island formed in the Pleistocene epoch and a thinner, seaward island formed in the Holocene. The

spatial relationship between these islands, as well as accretion ridges on the islands themselves,

reflect the long-term widening of these islands toward the sea during the Pleistocene. This

geological information informs barrier island users and visitors the rapid rate and widespread

nature of geological and ecological change in their environment.

The island its self is relatively small (5,700 acres) with a distinct spit, or peninsula of

accreted sand, on the southern end. Of that 5,700 acres of land, 1,300 is marsh that surrounds a

significant portion of the western (landward) shore. Human features are scattered across the

majority of the island, evident in satellite imagery by the presence of three eighteen-hole golf

courses and an aircraft landing strip. The northern portion of the island contains a large amount of

the island’s current maritime forest despite being the site of heavy logging and commercial
 development in the early 19th century (Ford 1960). Jekyll is an island that is characterized by

complex interactions at a distinct human-wildlife boundary. Human presence on Jekyll has a

variety of effects, some harmful and others positive. The island is a site for Loggerhead sea turtle

research and conservation, as well as an important site for studying the effects of human

disturbance on invasive species

Area Overview
Jekyll Island, like all barrier islands, is

subject to the stresses of being the first line of

defense for sea level changes and storm impacts.

Jekyll experiences both erosion and accretion at

high levels, but on distinct areas of the shore.

Figure 1 is the most current shoreline image.

What can be noted aerially is 1) the human

manipulated shoreline and inlets, 2) the extent

of development on the interior of the island, and

3) the stark contrast between the northern and

southern halves of the island.

Using current GIS technology, researchers have

Figure 1. Jekyll Island, note accretion ridges on
southern end and nearly absent beach sand to outlined shoreline change patterns over time for
the north. Human manipulation is highly
Jekyll and other GA islands (Jackson et al.
visible, concentrated historically to the north
end, beginning with pre-colonial logging of 2012). A majority of the island’s total shoreline
Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) and continuing
to leisure, tourism and fishing industries today. experienced net erosion from 1855 to 2006, with

the largest portion of that erosion along the

northern half of island. The island has historically (and within its development) been divided into

two distinct north\south halves due to their experience of opposing sand transport trends. The

southern end is entirely composed of accretion ridges, indicating this process long-term. Shoreline

retreat is prevented to some extent by a system of seawalls.

Figures 2 and 3 shows images of the north and southern tips of the island in four years (1988, 1999,

2013, 2016). These images show a direct comparison of both the shoreline and the relative amount

of beach sand that exists on these ends from 1988 to today.

Figure 2. Close-up shoreline comparison between 1988 and 1999. Note the seawall impacts
and prominence of that shore “line” in the image from 1999, in contrast to the wider,
uninterrupted beaches of the 1988 image. These images are helpful to visualize the
differences between the two halves of this bisected island; ridges from sand accretion and
less human presence is indicated on the southern half while the northern half experiences the
erosive effects of longshore drift, shifting sand southward.

Figure 3, a temporal comparison between the shoreline in 2013 and three years later in 2016

provides a stark example of the rate at which Jekyll beach area is disappearing. What little beach

width appears on the northern tip in 2013 is nearly erased by 2016. The southern tip had added
vegetation to more ridges, and added more dune ridges themselves. The islands surrounding Jekyll

are affected by similar processes, especially sea level rise and the subsequent erosion impacts.

Figure 3. Close-up shoreline comparison between 2013 and 2016. Note the thinner northern
beaches (overall, and relative to 2013) and newly added accretion ridges to the southern end.
The impacts of beach erosion, due to their potential influence on tourism, have long been
managed with hard structures such as seawalls, but rates of beach loss are increasing.
Increasing rates of erosion, wave and storm activity, and new beachfront development
impacts the rate of change.
Human History and Development
In the pre-colonial period, the Guale native people were the occupants and users of the

island (Ford 1960). As the Guale people used large Pine and Oak-species for dugout canoes, the

value of the timber within Georgia’s barrier islands was demonstrated visually to the Europeans

within their first interactions with the Guale people.

Colonial exploitation of timber and paper milling began the first extensive development on

Jekyll Island. While the Spanish first laid European claim on Jekyll, they quickly were trapped by

the competing claims of France and England, both with more military power. Eventual defeat of

the Spanish in 1702 allowed the English to concentrate on the resources within the island, both for

profit and leisure.

Like most of the developed barrier islands (and some fully restricted ones, such as St.

Catherine’s), a “opportunistic” individual, Christophe du Bignon, with the ability to invest in labor

and resources, soon built a functioning plantation based on African enslavement on Jekyll Island.

After markets began to decline and the soils became overworked, the du Bignon family deserted

the island in time to avoid the American Civil War. Descendants of the du Bignon family are

considered the creators of the climate of wealth and leisure on the island, especially within the

nineteenth century. The Jekyll Island Club, an exclusive sports and social club on the island,

dominated the travel lists of the worlds’ wealthiest, before being evacuated for World War II and

eventually bought by the state in 1947.

Since then, the history of the island’s human residence has focused on their potential harm

to the wildlife and natural areas of the island. Preserving tourism functionally is key, so

maintaining beach aesthetics (hopefully concurrent with health), protecting maritime forests, and

conserving the most distinct natural wonders of Jekyll are all focal points of ongoing policy.
However, beachfront development, land conversion, and other impact issues are still massive

concerns for residents, visitors, and wildlife (“Welcome to Jekyll Island”). Property development

on primary dune structures and the management of the north end for commercial development

have already impacted the ability of Jekyll to “bounce back” from disturbance.

Ecology
The array of natural habitat on Jekyll is just as broad as any Georgia barrier island,

including maritime forest, back-dune meadows, and freshwater ponds (Lenz 1999). This array

supports a diverse set of plant and animal communities in all areas of the island. Due to the extent

of human development, much of the island is disturbed, with invasive plant species present in the

maritime forest and dunes.

More specifically, the level of human development may impact the presence and

dominance of these invasive species, especially in hospitable areas of the island like shady, rich-

soiled maritime forests. The broad hypothesis of Rodgers and Parker’s 2003 vegetation study was

to confirm or challenge the notion that invasions are somehow related to the level and areas of

human disturbance. Our disruption of a system in habit readily creates newly available areas for

invasive colonization and facilitates the further introduction of these species by encouraging

transportation around the island. Human disturbances impact plant communities by “severely

reducing native species that previously excluded alien colonization, by selectively eliminating

long-term relationships between organisms, by creating vacant niches, and by changing the natural

disturbance regimes.”

Rodgers and Parker observed Jekyll as a tourist island, tying that label to their results. They

observed the largest number of invasive species on Jekyll than the three other studied islands, as

well as a significant relationship between increased human disturbance and alien species presence.
The largest impacts of alien species are in the maritime forests, where soil conditions and salinity

levels are more broadly accommodating than the dunes. In these areas, the most threatening species

is Tallow Tree (Sapium sebiferum), a hardy tree species that causes massive changes in forest

structure when introduced by growing through existing canopies and spreading vegetatively.

Dunes are dominated by sea oats (Uniola paniculata) and other creeping vines that hold

sand in place. The back-barrier systems are extensive salt marshes, impacted by the industrial use

of shipping channels in the western area of the island and tourist boating traffic. In the interior,

abundant Whitetailed-deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and other game animals make for sport

hunting in the maritime forests. Raccoons are common, as on many Georgia sea islands, but here

their indiscriminate appetite for eggs is a specific threat to the threatened Loggerhead sea turtle

population (Caretta caretta).

Jekyll is home to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, a facility that works to increase turtle

nesting outcomes, decrease human waste and debris, and rehabilitate stranded turtles. Recently,

the Sea Turtle Center conducted a study and cleanup on the impacts of plastic waste on the island,

a large concern for conservationists and tourists (Martin 2013). Their results indicate that almost

30 percent of all retrieved plastics were from cigarette waste, which could impact island policy

regarding tobacco use. Loggerhead populations are the only sea turtle species that nest extensively

on Jekyll, and their continued health and presence is of great cultural and ecological importance

to Georgia and its coast. Because of this unique location for nesting and adjacent research facilities,

a multitude of studies on Loggerhead biology, population ecology, and the impacts on human

disturbance are conducted by marine biologists nationwide.

On the shore, evidence of ghost crabs (sand aproned- burrows to the water table), mole

crabs, horseshoe crabs, and shorebirds indicate the beach as a zone of increased faunal diversity.
Georgia ghost shrimp (Biffarius biformis) form deep, reinforced, pillar-like burrows that can be

preserved easily in place as a past shoreline indicator (Martin 2013). Along piers, shorebirds have

been observed lifting and dropping live bivalve to break there shells on hard surfaces, usually

human supplied (Martin 2015). Within the freshwater pond environments, including those on the

central golf courses, Alligators are the largest environmental engineers, creating wide dens and

protecting nesting birds from crafty raccoons.

Geological Processes
Due to the composite nature of the island, the soils and the communities supported by them

are different on the two halves of the island. Pleistocene soils are richer, and support a broader

diversity of flora and fauna, as well as nourish maritime forests that fuel human industries like

timber and paper. Holocene soils accumulated in dune ridges is exposed through erosion and allow

for observation of plant community succession. The Holocene soils are actively eroding on the

shoreline, exposing older sediments near the shore that can be observed for past habitat indicators.

The geology of Jekyll is influenced by sand supply, wave energy/activity, and sea level

changes over time (Vernon 1986). Barrier islands form with sea level change, exposing sediment

deposits to drops that strand them, accumulation of sediment builds up in spit formation or other

processes. Multiple methods for predicting shoreline change and climate effects on the island,

including predictive software to indicate areas of future storm impacts have been demonstrated on

the island (Jackson et al. 2012, Yang et al. 2012). Most studies on Jekyll have observed shoreline

changes, particularly rates of change and erosion along the northern, seaward shore.

Conclusion
While the future of Jekyll is unknown due to climate change impacts and future policy

changes, the past indicates an island rich in opportunities for human-natural interaction that can be
preserved for use for decades to come. The diversity of island wildlife and the variation within the

island from north to south are excellent examples of how rapid change is within a barrier island

system. The unique impacts of coastal development can be seen historically on Jekyll island, and

as impacts of climate change progress, Jekyll will serve as a key observation destination for

adoption. Using predictive analysis and drawing from other coastal systems can help managers

and inhabitants determine the extent of possible adoption, and minimizing harm and associated

cost. Jekyll Islands complex history of human disturbance, conservation, and cultural prominence

situates it within Georgia’s uniquely active coast.

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