Georgia House Bill 370 (HB 370) is back—and once again threatens to roll back vital protections for Georgia’s salt marsh.
Thanks to advocates like you, we stopped this bad bill just before Crossover Day last legislative session—and we did it again in 2024!
If passed, HB 370 would have changed the process by which the State verifies King’s Grants, drastically limiting the amount of time the State has to certify and recognize whether landowners have legitimate claims to these grants. Sometimes the necessary research to certify a grant takes years, and for good reason: It takes time for the state to verify nearly 250 years’ worth of documents for each landowner’s claim.
Simply put: this bill shifts the burden of proof away from the petitioner and onto the State, forcing them to make irreversible decisions in an unreasonably short period of time. And if the State fails to meet these shortened deadlines, the King’s Grant will be certified by default—impacting this beloved and vital public resource. The result could have been a massive giveaway of one of the state’s most cherished and protected natural resources—our salt marsh.
Thank to you, this bill never made it to the House floor for a vote. HB 370 is dead!
Learn more about our continued work to protect the salt marsh via other avenues at OneHundredMiles.org/SaltMarsh.
“Without vigilant advocates, bills like this one may pass, undetected—and our coast will cease to exist as we know and love it. Thank you for taking action.”
Please contact Megan Desrosiers, OHM President/CEO, to learn more about our work with HB 370.