Quitman County has an unusual combination of broad forest, open scrub and grass, and a major reservoir forming much of its western edge. Forest covers 51.14% of the supplied 2025 classification. Shrubland and grassland each exceed 10%, while wetlands cover 9.42%. The county’s small developed footprint is concentrated around Georgetown beside Walter F. George Lake. This Quitman County Georgia Land Cover Map is especially useful for comparing lakefront settlement with the much larger rural interior.
The page includes four WebP views for land cover, vegetation, impervious surface, and the 1985–2025 endpoint comparison. Four original 2480 × 1754 JPG maps are bundled in one ZIP for county profiles, lake-and-forest lessons, rural-land comparisons, and presentations.
Table of Contents
Georgetown is a compact lakefront center rather than a countywide urban footprint
The strongest hard-surface cluster sits on the west-central lake edge. Georgetown is the county’s only incorporated city, and the current comprehensive plan is written for the Unified Government of Georgetown-Quitman County. The map’s compact cluster fits that small administrative and residential center much better than a dispersed suburban pattern.
Mean impervious cover is just 0.79%, and only 0.10% of the county reaches 50% impervious surface or higher. Developed land covers 4.86%, a broader class that can contain yards, trees, grass, and exposed soil. Roofs, pavement, and parking areas therefore occupy a very small part of the county even though the Georgetown cluster is easy to recognize.
Thin hard-surface traces extend from Georgetown along roads, with smaller developed points elsewhere. Exact route names require Census or local transportation data.
Walter F. George Lake defines the western edge and changes the way the county reads
Open water covers 5.79%, and almost all of its visual impact comes from the broad western boundary. Georgetown-Quitman County’s 2024 comprehensive plan identifies Walter F. George Lake as the county’s principal tourism asset and notes the importance of lakefront recreation. The lake is therefore more than a background feature in local planning.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers describes Walter F. George Lake as an 85-mile reservoir on the Chattahoochee River along the Georgia-Alabama border. That official context explains why the blue water along Quitman County’s west side is so large relative to the county itself. It also helps distinguish the reservoir from the smaller wetland corridors inside the county.
Lakefront land should not be interpreted as automatically public, buildable, or unrestricted. Shoreline use can involve Corps management, local land-use rules, ownership, and environmental constraints. The land-cover colors only show the physical surface present in the mapped year.
Forest is the majority class, but grass and shrub cover are unusually important
Forest covers 51.14% and is especially broad across the north and east. Large wooded blocks also surround Georgetown and the southern farm areas. The county remains forest-led even though its western shoreline and open rural classes create a more varied appearance than a simple forest county.
Shrubland accounts for 10.57% and grassland 10.31%. Both are more extensive than agriculture, which covers 7.89%. These open classes appear throughout the east, southeast, and south and repeatedly break up the dark-green forest. Treating every open patch as farmland would miss a large part of Quitman County’s actual surface.
Wetlands cover another 9.42%. Teal bands follow low areas through the center and eastern half and meet the lake in several places. Wetland cover is not the same as open water, so those features should be read separately when describing habitat, drainage, or shoreline context.
The vegetation map separates southern cropland from grass and shrub openings
With developed cover muted, the largest farm blocks stand out in the south and southwest, with smaller agricultural areas near the northwest lake edge. Forest remains continuous through much of the north and center, while grass, shrub, and wetland cover fill many openings in the east and southeast.
UGA Extension’s Quitman County office provides production-agriculture resources, soil and water testing, and guidance for crops, livestock, and farm management. Those services establish agriculture as a real local activity without implying that every yellow raster cell represents the same crop or ownership.
Agriculture at 7.89% is smaller than either grassland or shrubland, so the vegetation view is useful for separating fields from other open rural cover.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the dominant land-cover class in Quitman County?
Forest is the largest class in the supplied 2025 summary at 51.14%. Shrubland follows at 10.57%, grassland at 10.31%, wetlands at 9.42%, and agriculture at 7.89%.
Why is developed land 4.86% while mean impervious cover is only 0.79%?
Developed classes can include lawns, trees, yards, and exposed ground around roads and buildings. The impervious layer measures harder surfaces such as roofs, pavement, and parking areas.
Does the 45.10% endpoint difference measure forest clearing?
No. It counts all cells with different class labels in 1985 and 2025. The summary separately lists 14.88% forest loss, 3.16% agricultural loss, 1.11% classified to developed, and 25.30% other difference.
The 1985–2025 endpoint comparison shows widespread forest and other class differences
The total endpoint class difference is 45.10%. That number counts raster cells assigned different categories in 1985 and 2025. It is not an urbanization rate and does not mean that 45.10% of Quitman County was damaged or permanently converted.
The printed summary lists 25.30% other difference, 14.88% forest loss, 3.16% agricultural loss, and 1.11% classified to developed. Developed-change red is concentrated around Georgetown and a few road-oriented areas. Forest-loss orange and other-difference purple spread much more widely through the north, east, and south.
Wetland difference appears in the legend without its own printed percentage. The missing rate should not be reconstructed by subtraction. Classification variation may also contribute to some patches, so intermediate imagery and local forestry, farming, or land-use records are needed before assigning causes.
Thirty-meter land cover is not a shoreline, parcel, or zoning survey
Annual NLCD assigns one predominant class to each 30-meter cell, so shoreline features, narrow wetlands, roads, buildings, and mixed rural lots can look simplified.
Blue water does not establish access rights, red does not define Georgetown’s municipal boundary, and green does not identify forest ownership. Property, shoreline permits, zoning, wetland jurisdiction, and exact road locations require current local, state, federal, or Corps records.
Choosing the four JPG maps for Quitman County
Start with the 2025 countywide map when the goal is to show forest, the lake, Georgetown, wetlands, and open rural cover together. The vegetation view is better for separating agriculture from grass and shrub classes. Choose the impervious map for Georgetown’s compact hard-surface footprint, and reserve the endpoint map for a separate discussion of 1985–2025 classification differences.
Each JPG measures 2480 × 1754 pixels and suits reports, lessons, and presentations. Test a proof before large-format printing because the package does not mark them as A3 high-resolution assets.
Map File Information
The ZIP contains four original JPG maps for comparing Quitman County's 51.14% forest cover, Walter F. George Lake, Georgetown development, grass and shrub cover, wetlands, and 1985–2025 class differences.
- Included Files: Use only the versions confirmed in the article and supplied images
- File Type: Use the confirmed download contents
- Intended Use: Printing, education, presentations, and map-based projects
Related Maps
- Appling County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Atkinson County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Bacon County Georgia Land Cover Map
Sources and Reference Data
- MRLC Annual NLCD Data – official access to annual land-cover and comparison products
- USGS Annual NLCD Land Cover Classification – definitions for forest, shrubland, grassland, agriculture, wetlands, and related classes
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles – authoritative county, place, and transportation layers for comparison
- Georgia DCA – Georgetown-Quitman County Comprehensive Plan – official planning context for the unified government, Georgetown, and Walter F. George Lake
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Walter F. George Lake – official Chattahoochee River reservoir and recreation information
- UGA Extension – Quitman County Agriculture & Natural Resources – local agriculture, soil, water, crop, livestock, and farm-management resources
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
