Georgia native plant society may be a good source of informtion. their website is great. you can also go on plant rescues and take some plants home with you.

You may have some nice stuff naturally - my friend is in the same situation and she has trilliums in the spring popping up throughout the woods.

Keep in mind that you might have an active deer population. Monitor the area and do some research so that you're ready with a plan in the fall when it is a better time to plant.

Nice shrubs include native azaleas, oakleaf hydrangeas, Annabelle hydrangea (all 3 of which are popular with deer), ferns, blueberries, fringe tree, sweetshrub, clethra, so many things!

I'm a huge native plant fan and an active member of GNPS. The website is a good resource.

Here is a link that might be useful: GNPS

There's a lot of real showy natives. I'm curious to know what they consider native or if they gave you any guidelines. For example would they consider a species native if it was native to GA but not found near the lake or if it was a native to the region but not to GA?

For example a nearby county park obviously was trying to stick with natives to replace what was cleared out from the land to begin with but I got a chuckle out of their use of bald cypress. Sure bald cypress is native to the GA coastal plain but not found anywhere near here in Buford.

And what is the penalty if you get this wrong?