From a conservationist angle, Mark Powell speaks

Former Oconeean Mark Powell’s fondness for the outdoors led him to author a magazine piece based on the venture that he and family took late last year to a remote, but beautiful part of the county adjoining Lake Tugaloo and northeast Georgia.  “It’s absolutely a beautiful watershed…an absolute ecological hot spot”, as Powell put it this week in a 101.7/WGOG NEWS interview.  He and other conservationists are following a Georgia Power application to “FERC” — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — to determine whether the power company’s Tugaloo dam is re-licensed and modernized, having been built 99 years ago.  They want to see the application rejected and the river and lake corridor return to a natural state.