Heated debate surrounds state recommendations for private docks

Georgia’s grassy mane may just be pageant-perfect: 100 miles long and half a million acres of marshlands thick, the state’s coast harbors the second-largest salt marsh in the country.

But its iconic hairline is receding, and its roots are thinning.

In June, researchers found underground biomass has declined across 72% of Georgia’s coastal marsh since 2014. And it's also getting patchier. “We have seen over time what looks like marsh fragmentation,” said Skidaway Institute of Oceanography Director Carl Alexander. “We’re not sure why that’s occurring.”