Woman of Impact: Conservationist Leaves Tangible Legacy

by Patti Ghezzi

January 1, 2008

W hen Tavia McCuean looks back on her 20 years at the Georgia chapter of the Nature Conservancy, she can count at least 200,000 victories. That’s how many acres the organization protected under McCuean’s leadership. In November, McCuean handed the reins to her successor, Shelly Lakely. McCuean plans to spend more time with her husband and daughter, though she might continue working for the organization part-time. If she doesn’t return to the payroll, she will be a volunteer.

“Conservation will always have a piece of my heart,” she says. She left an organization leaders say could not have existed without her. “She has been everything to the chapter,” says Dwight Matthew, chairman of the Georgia Chapter’s board of trustees. “Her growth and the chapter’s growth have been rapid…She’s a great people person, a great motivator and just a great all-round package.”

The main role of the Nature Conservancy, a global organization, is to protect the habitats of endangered species and natural communities. By doing so, the organization also creates natural environments that serve as recreation areas. McCuean’s hallmark has been building partnerships with public agencies, businesses and private landowners for the common goal of conservation.

“We’re science-based,” McCuean says. “The places we have conserved, we do so for a reason. They are places of rare natural habitats …We tend to think ahead and protect.” Over the years, McCuean has sought to “understand the interconnectivity of the ecosystem with people.” For example, the Chattahoochee River is “the lifeblood of our state,” and conservation efforts helped protect the water’s quality not only where the habitat is being preserved, but also had an effect on the habitats downstream. “We tend to look at things from a landscape perspective,” she says. “Georgia has so much freshwater diversity.”

The conservancy was a founding partner in the original Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area that was established in the 1970s. Then in the late 1990s, working with the Trust for Public Land, the organization secured land along the river between Helen and Columbus. Millions of visitors have since hiked the scenic trails, fished for trout and canoed along the river. The area is home to plants rarely found so far south, such as beetleweed and umbrella magnolia as well as wildlife such as osprey, mink and fox.

One of McCuean’s proudest accomplishments is the conservancy’s extensive work on the Altamaha River, the largest free-flowing, intact river system on the Atlantic coast, with a mouth six miles wide. The river is home to more than 120 rare or endangered plant and animal species. Preservation efforts have saved habitat for endangered wildlife. And the work has kept the water clean, which has benefited the shellfishing industry. “For Georgia, it’s an economic engine,” McCuean says. McCuean’s upbringing taught her about the relationship between nature and industry. She was born in Florida and raised to appreciate the outdoors. She grew up on the beaches of Port St. Joe and Pensacola where she cultivated a “huge love for coastal areas,” she says. When she was a child, she could walk along the beach and not see another person, but over the years development changed the area dramatically, with condos and restaurants drawing throngs of vacationers. While she saw the benefits of development, the drastic transformation gave her an appreciation for leaving some natural habitats unspoiled.

“I think there’s a balance there that can be achieved,” says McCuean, who has worked with, rather than against, developers in Georgia. “I am a firm believer that man and nature can coexist, but we have to plan for it.”

An Auburn University graduate, she started her career in Florida with the Northwest Florida Water Management District and later led the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. She moved to Georgia in the late 1980s when her husband, Doug, was transferred. She responded to a newspaper ad for the job leading The Nature Conservancy’s Georgia chapter.

Today, the organization has nine offices around the state and 45 employees. Areas under protection include Dry Creek Swamp near Albany, a cypress-gum swamp believed to be the only place in Georgia where the endangered Cooley meadowrue, a spindly, white-flowered perennial, grows. The Williams Bluff Preserve in southwest Georgia protects almost 2,000 acres of sandy uplands, bluffs and floodplain forests. The conservancy does not protect an area solely for an isolated endangered species. “We use [an endangered species] as an indicator,” of a place that may need protecting, she says.
 
Over the past two decades, McCuean has seen an awakening in the general population with regards to protecting natural resources. “Studies show if you can live near a park or a forest, it increases the value of your home,” she says. “In the past couple of years, we have seen the local people stand up and want to protect the land in their back yard.” She praises Paulding County for its efforts to protect land even as development reached a fever pitch. Voters approved a referendum that increased property taxes so the county could buy land. The county paid $15 million, which was matched by the state of Georgia and private sources. The conservancy helped negotiate the deal and will close on part of the property, known as Paulding Forest. “If the county commission chairman hadn’t stood up, it wouldn’t have happened,” McCuean says. Complicated land deals like Paulding Forest make it to the closing table when agencies and people work together, she says. “We’re working with people who love their property … it can be difficult but fun… None of this can we do by ourselves.”

The Conservancy works closely with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and other government agencies as well as private landowners and businesses. Looking back on her tenure, McCuean takes pleasure in the tangible nature of the conservancy’s work. Success is measured not only in the organization’s growth over the years, but in the trails she can hike along with her family.

I can say, ‘I helped protect this piece of land,’ “she says. “We are protecting things we walk on and producing tangible lasting results.”