What is Camp Charlie?
Camp Charlie is a family-friendly weekend designed to help participants build the skills and confidence to enjoy the outdoors together. Through camping and hands-on outdoor activities, families gain practical experience in a welcoming environment—especially those who may be new to camping or lack the equipment or experience to venture into the outdoors on their own.
Getting Started
Camp Charlie is a community-led, community-sponsored program, with Georgia Wildlife Federation providing equipment, expertise, planning assistance, and support along the way. Camp Charlie weekends have been held across Georgia, including at the Okefenokee Swamp in Charlton County, the Wharton Center in Towns County, and GWF’s Alcovy Conservation Center in Newton County. To learn more about bringing Camp Charlie to your community, start with the Camp Charlie Planning Guide below. If you’re interested in sponsoring or helping facilitate a Camp Charlie weekend, contact GWF at 770-787-7887 or info@gwf.org.
Camp Charlie Planning Guide
More About Camp Charlie
Camp Charlie, developed by the Georgia Wildlife Federation in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a planned weekend of camping and hands‐on outdoor activities focused on family learning and fostering respect for the natural world. The program primarily targets families who would like to experience the outdoors, but who may lack the knowledge, skill, equipment, and self‐confidence necessary to go‐it‐alone. Camp Charlie will connect people to the outdoors, beginning at home, in natural areas that are accessible to them, but of which they may not even be aware.
Camp Charlie will build a conservation community by fostering partnerships of individuals, local organizations, educators, natural resource professionals and community leaders. There are many acres of public lands, from National Wildlife Refuges to county parks and regional Wildlife Education Centers, managed by natural resource agencies and non‐profit conservation organizations. This offers immense opportunity to develop partnerships to host Camp Charlie throughout the state, in every eco‐region, from the mountains to the coast.
Camp Charlie is named in memory of Charles Newton Elliott and Dr. Charles H. Wharton. Both men had a genuine love of the outdoors and recognized the importance of connecting people of all ages with the natural world.
Charlie Elliott (1906 – 2000)
Charlie Elliott lived in Covington, Georgia and grew up hunting and fishing in the Alcovy River Swamp. He served as the first Director of Georgia State Parks in 1937‐38, became the Commissioner of Natural Resources in 1938, and then became the first Director of the Game and Fish Commission (now known as the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division) in 1943. Elliott was also Southeastern Field Editor for Outdoor Life magazine from 1950 until his passing. His dedication to the conservation of the natural world and wildlife was evident to those who knew him personally and those who read his
many writings.
Charlie Wharton (1923 – 2003)
Charlie Wharton was dedicated to conservation and worked tirelessly for the preservation of Georgia’s wild places. In the 1960s and ’70s, Wharton led the fight against channelization of the Alcovy River. His efforts not only saved the Alcovy, but also led to changes in federal policies concerning channelization nationwide. He is best known for his academic work, particularly his book, The Natural Environments of Georgia, published by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1978. For more than 40 years, Dr. Wharton made his home in the Georgia mountains on a 129‐acre tract of land that is now home to the Georgia Wildlife Federation’s Wharton Conservation Center.
