Josh Marks, GC’93, Protects the Okefenokee Swamp

Josh Marks is a Green Corps alum and founder of Georgians for the Okefenokee, a Georgia nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and activating the public around the protection of the Okefenokee Swamp.

Growing up in Long Island, Josh Marks developed a love for the environment. Beyond spending time outdoors, he loved watching wildlife shows and Jacques Cousteau underwater specials on TV. His outdoor adventures in middle and high school out west and in Alaska pointed him towards Dartmouth College. There he minored in Environmental studies and did a foreign study program in Kenya studying wildlife, tourism, and the interplay of both with indigenous communities.

Even before college, Josh was engaged in politics and environmental causes. During high school, he organized a coalition of Long Island high school students fighting to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation. And it was during this same time that he also first became aware of the importance of federal environmental statutes passed in the ‘70s under President Nixon, and was inspired by his older brother’s work on Capitol Hill. 

During his senior year at Dartmouth, Josh wanted to pursue a full-time career in environmental advocacy, but opportunities for new college graduates were non-existent. Then he heard about a new program - Green Corps. Josh recalls his decision to join the inaugural Green Corps class of 1992. “The night of the Green Corps on-campus info session and interview, Bill Clinton was giving a speech on campus; he was in the thick of the fight for the NH primary, and he was there stumping for votes. After his speech, he did a Q&A. For an environmental journalism class, I had studied Clinton’s tenure as governor of Arkansas and discovered he had the third worst environmental record in the country. I wanted to ask him about it. I held my hand up for the entire 20-minute Q&A. He picked on someone to my left and my right, and completely ignored me, as if he knew I was going to ask him a tough question. To that point, I wasn’t totally sure about working for Green Corps, but right then I turned to Heather Collis Puro, the Green Corps recruiter, and said ‘That’s BS, and I’m pissed. Sign me up.” 

Josh Marks with Green Corps Class of 1993 classmates.

With Green Corps, Josh learned the essentials of organizing; lobbying, coalition building, working with the media, event planning, fundraising, managing volunteers, and more. He learned to be relentless, a trait that would serve him well over the next 30 years as a lawyer and environmental advocate. After stints working to protect old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and endangered species in the Midwest, he worked as Sierra Club’s Okefenokee Mining Campaign Coordinator in the late ‘90s where he successfully fought DuPont’s proposal to strip mine the entirety of the swamp’s hydrologic boundary. He went on to attend law school and became an environmental attorney. In 2023, he began his own law firm, GreenMark Law, focusing on four key areas; renewable energy, environmental compliance, natural resource protection and sustainability.

In 2020, Josh founded Georgians for the Okefenokee (GFTO), and continues to be a leader in the protection of the swamp. When Twin Pines Minerals proposed to strip mine the southeastern boundary of the Okefenokee, Josh returned to the essentials of organizing. He worked with the state and federal government, creating partnerships across political divides. He teamed up with Environment Georgia and other Green Corps alumni at Green Century Capital Management to mobilize grassroots efforts and investors to pressure the mining company. He cultivated relationships with reporters, and using his research and investigation skills, provided them new angles on political corruption and the company’s terrible track record, which helped shine an intense light on the company, the governor and other leaders who were trying to sell out the swamp.

In June of this year, Twin Pines Minerals ended their 7-year fight to mine near the Okefenokee and sold its land and mineral rights to the Conservation Fund. While this is a huge victory, especially in light of the terrible environmental rollbacks happening everywhere else, he warns that the fight is not done. There remains nearly 30,000 acres of unprotected land along the swamp’s edge that the owners want to lease for mining. Josh and GFTO will continue to work tirelessly to safeguard the swamp, using the blend of organizing skills he first learned over 30 years ago.

Excerpted from the Alumni Newsletter of the Public Interest Network.