Tag Archives: south Georgia

Georgia needs better economic solutions for forestry and rural south Georgia 2025-06-26

I’m going to agree with something a supporter of the now bought-out mine said: we need better economic solutions for south Georgia forest owners. And beyond that, for south Georgia. So counties and cities won’t be tempted by jobs promised by mines, landfills, private prisons, and pellet plants.

[Georgia needs better economics, for forestry & rural south Georgia, Drew Jones, Charlton Co. Commission, Okefenokee Swamp & blackwater rivers]
Georgia needs better economics, for forestry & rural south Georgia, Drew Jones, Charlton Co. Commission, Okefenokee Swamp & blackwater rivers

Drew Jones wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today, June 26, 2025, Okefenokee deal exposed how Georgia’s forest policy is flawed and needs reform, Continue reading

Meet and greet at Georgia Beer Company, 2025-10-19

Join WWALS for a relaxed social outing where members, friends, and newcomers can get to know each other, share ideas, and learn more about our upcoming outings, clean water advocacy efforts, and volunteer opportunities.

When: 2-4 PM, Sunday, October 19, 2025

Location: Georgia Beer Company, 109 S Briggs St, Valdosta, GA

[Meet and greet at Georgia Beer Company, 109 S Briggs St, Valdosta GA, Sunday, October 19, 2025]
Meet and greet at Georgia Beer Company, 109 S Briggs St, Valdosta GA, Sunday, October 19, 2025

This is a dutch treat event. Feel free to grab a bite to eat or sample some local craft beer while you mingle. Whether you’re a long-time paddler, new to watershed protection, or just curious about what we do, this is a great chance to connect.

Let’s raise a glass to clean water and strong community—we hope to see you there!

Continue reading

Meet and Greet at Banks Lake 2025-08-09

Join WWALS Watershed Coalition for a casual Meet and Greet at beautiful Banks Lake before our popular Full Moon Paddle! This is a great chance to meet WWALS members, chat about upcoming outings and advocacy work, and enjoy the evening air by the lake.

When: 6 PM to 9:30 PM, Saturday, August 9, 2025

Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County, on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT).

GPS: 31.034824, -83.096725

[Meet and Greet at Banks Lake, 6 PM, Saturday, August 9, 2025, Bring a chair, snacks; drinks; Paddle later or just sit and chat]
Meet and Greet at Banks Lake, 6 PM, Saturday, August 9, 2025, Bring a chair, snacks; drinks; Paddle later or just sit and chat

Continue reading

Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19

Update 2025-06-27: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-06-26.

WWALS and Valdosta Utilities got good E. coli results on the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers.

We don’t know about Sugar Creek; nobody tested that this week.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

There’s some chance of rain for the next four days.

Since these recent tests were after previous rains, apparently we’re past first flush. That means whatever was in the woods has washed out now, so more rain may not cause much contamination.

So as near as we can tell, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, if you can beat the rain!

[Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19, Happy swimming, paddling, boating, and fishing]
Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19, Happy swimming, paddling, boating, and fishing

Maybe join us tomorrow for spring hopping, Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21.
https://wwals.net/?p=67572 Continue reading

Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20

Very good news today! The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out, ending mining on their specific property. First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.

Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM), and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia) for helping fund that acquisition. Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.

There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.

[Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund]
Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund

We should all celebrate!

But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story. There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.

Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, Continue reading

Summer Solstice: longest day, highest sun, end of spring, beginning of summer 2025-06-20

We’re in the season of evapotranspiration now, when we may get as much rain as in winter, but it evaporates or transpires from leaves, leaving less in rivers and springs.

Today is the Summer Solstice. At high noon the sun will be as far north as it will get all year, ditto when it rises and sets. The actual solstice is 10:42 p.m. EDT, when the sun’s axis is pointed the most towards the sun.

From then on is astronomical summer, until the Fall Equinox, which will be September 22, 2025, when the lengths of day and night will be most close to equal.

[Seasons and the orbit of the Earth --NASA]
Seasons and the orbit of the Earth –NASA

If you like hot, join us tommorrow for Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21.

There’s also meteorological summer, which Continue reading

River paddling, Withlacoochee River and wells, speakers at WWALS River Revue 2025

Hahira, Georgia, June 19, 2025 — Speakers from Georgia and Florida will talk about where to paddle Georgia rivers and legal issues with that, as well as contamination in the Withlacoochee River in north Florida, much of it coming from Georgia, at the WWALS River Revue, September 6, 2025.

[Georgia river paddling, Florida Withlacoochee River and wells, Suzanne Welander & Rick Davis, WWALS River Revue 2025]

Suzanne Welander wrote the book on Canoeing and Kayaking Georgia. She will speak about that and her work to get the Georgia legislature to fix its antique 1863 navigability law. According to that law, river passage depends on navigability, and streams in Georgia are only navigable if they can, all or part of a year, be used to transport goods to market. Nobody ships bales of cotton down our rivers, and for most of them nobody ever did. What people use our rivers for these days is fishing, paddling, motoring, and swimming. The law needs to be updated from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman wrote about her book, “It is even more thorough than previous editions, with some new put-ins added (even Banks Lake!), and others no longer accessible deleted. Working with Suzanne on the WWALS rivers was a pleasure, and the WWALS water trail maps and other materials also improved because of it, adding some new-to-us landings and improving descriptions. The book contains pithy yet informative narrative and very usable summary maps, plus admirable recommendations of each river.”

Rick Davis, Madison County Commissioner District 5, will speak about fecal contamination in the Withlacoochee River and nearby wells, and the task force he chairs of the dozen downstream Florida counties. Back in 2020, after Valdosta’s huge sewage spills, he chaired that task force, which was instrumental in getting a Consent Order on Valdosta from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Although Valdosta has made great strides towards fixing its antiquated sewage infrastructure, and has floated $67 million in municipal bonds for further water and sewer projects, it still has spills, and the dozen downstream Florida counties are once again watching.

WWALS Board Member Scotti Jay said, “We like to paddle the rivers, and nobody wants to drink, paddle in, or eat fish out of contaminated water.”

WWALS River Revue is Continue reading

Pictures, Full Strawberry Moon, Banks Lake 2025-06-11

Thanks to Gee Edwards for leading this one at the last minute, after Janet had some sort of dancing injury.

[Full Strawberry Moon, Banks Lake NWR 2025-06-12, A small but hardy crowd, not scared of rain predictions]
Full Strawberry Moon, Banks Lake NWR 2025-06-12, A small but hardy crowd, not scared of rain predictions

Janet did not paddle. Nor did I, although I brought Honeybun, Blondie, and Sky to help out. River stayed home.

Janet and Gee are WWALS Board members.

Janet and Kim Tanner (not present) are the co-chairs of the WWALS Outings Committee. Maybe you’d like to join that committee to help schedule outings.
https://wwals.net/about/committees/#wwals-outings

The next Full Moon paddle is Continue reading

Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill 2025-06-14

Your organization can still sign onto this letter to all U.S. Senators:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJYPPq-I7vrVSDmC3qoo4SrN9WwFpOacdMcPkacGpEn-5rwg/viewform

The letter specifically opposes pipeline pay-to-play: the section that would give pipeline companies expedited permitting if they pay the lesser of $10 million or 1% of their expected construction costs, while removing the ability of any state or federal agency to reject such a permit.

The letter also opposes the bill’s prohibition on state regulation of so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations, which consume vast amounts of power and emit noise and pollution.

The latter has already been sent to all U.S. Senators, but they will get updates as more organizations sign on.

[Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play]
Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play

Dear Senators,

The “Big Beautiful Bill” strips states rights, property rights, and turns the United States into a Pay to Play nation whereby big industry polluters can very literally buy the permits they desire, States and regulatory agencies are stripped of the ability to reject damaging projects, and impacted property owners and impacted communities are too often denied their day in court, all in service to advance major fossil fuel pipelines, export facilities and associated infrastructure.

We, the undersigned organizations, Continue reading

Clean Withlacoochee River and Sugar Creek 2025-06-12

Update 2025-06-20: Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19.

WWALS got some OK E. coli results on Sugar Creek this week.

And Valdosta Utilities got clean results for the Withlacoochee River.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

Rain is predicted this weekend and every day this coming week.

Since these recent tests were after previous rains, apparently we’re past first flush. That means whatever was in the woods has washed out now, so more rain may not cause much contamination.

So as near as we can tell, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, if you can beat the rain!

[Clean Withlacoochee River, and Sugar Creek, More Rain coming, 2025-06-12]
Clean Withlacoochee River, and Sugar Creek, More Rain coming, 2025-06-12

Maybe join us Thursday evening by zoom for How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar, by Dennis J. Price, P.G., 2025-06-19
https://wwals.net/?p=67740 Continue reading