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Sanders came from Waycross on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and worked at a local pharmacy.

It gained momentum this year as Okefenokee Swamp Park, which operates boat tours and other concessions within the refuge, signed an agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service to raise money to fund the application.

They found that the worst fire by smoke exposure during this period was the 2007 Bugaboo Fire, which burned more than 130,000 acres in and around the Okefenokee Swamp, straddling Georgia and Florida.

As a boy, he had a pet alligator and enjoyed trips with his father to the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest wetland in the South.

For years, the Okefenokee Swamp has been warding off Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, which in 2019 filed for permits for a mining project just outside of the refuge.