Monthly Archives: September 2014

Bowen Mill Pond, Brooks County, Georgia

For fishing in Brooks County, GA, try Bowen Mill Pond, west of Quitman. Heading west on US 84, turn right on Barwick Road between the Harveys and the Rite Aid, or right on Shiver Road. Then turn left on Dry Lake Road, and eventually turn left on Bowen Mill Pond road. You’ll see the pond on your right after a while.

Or, if you don’t mind dirt roads, turn off of US 84 onto Few Lane, immediately left onto Hassell Road, and when it curves to the right you’ll see the pond on your left.

Or keep going on US 84 until you see the tiny concrete marker Continue reading →

Piscola Creek

Running through Thomas and Brooks Counties, Georgia to the Withlacoochee River, Piscola Creek is on the USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) as two of the three Georgia Priority Watersheds, all of which are in WWALS watersheds.

Upper Piscola Creek Watershed encompasses 25,936 acres of land in the southeast part of Thomas and western part of Brooks Counties in southwest Georgia. The land around the watershed is about 75 percent photo by Georgia NRCS crop, pasture, range and other associated agriculture use. About 20 percent of the watershed is forested. The other five percent is commercial or communities.

Middle Piscola Creek Watershed encompasses Continue reading →

Alapaha River access at Hwy 82 at very low water

Pictures of the location of the Alapaha River Cleanup at US 82, 27 September 2014, taken east of the town of Alapaha at US 82 on the Alapaha River by Bret Wagenhorst.

And this access point is on the Alapaha River Water Trail WWALS is developing.

Continue reading →

KLVB Lowndes/Valdosta Rivers Alive Cleanup 2014-10-04

WWALS encourages people to participate in Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)‘s event:

Georgia’s Fifteenth Annual River Clean up
Saturday, October 4, 2014
8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Multiple Lowndes/Valdosta Cleanup Sites:
“Please call or emaiI to volunteer so that you can be assigned to ane of the sites“

For More Information Contact: Continue reading →

Alapaha River Cleanup at US 82, 27 September 2014

Second WWALS outing this month, this time on land; facebook event.

If you enjoy paddling the Alapaha River, I hope you will consider coming out this Saturday to give back and help clean up along the river’s banks as part of a GA Rivers Alive cleanup. Starts at 0900 at the boat ramp at the Hwy 82 bridge just east of the town of Alapaha. I anticipate the cleanup will last about an hour. Bring work gloves and good cheer.

It is much easier to pick up trash along the banks Continue reading →

Aquifer Conference, Monticello, FL, 2014-10-2,3,4

Update 2 Oct 2014: WWALS will have a table at the conference. See you there!

This conference coming up next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday looks quite interesting. I wonder if they know they’re directly on the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline Alternative 3 which would gouge through the Floridan Aquifer from Albany, GA through Monticello and then east and south across the Ochlockonee, Aucilla, Ecofina, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers?

Sharing Water:
The Floridan Aquifer in Alabama, Georgia and Florida Continue reading →

Alapaha River Water Trail letter to Lowndes County Commission

Delivered on paper to Commissioner Joyce E. Evans a week ago, and sent by email to all the Lowndes County Commissioners today, with attached PDF. -jsq

WWALS Watershed Coalition
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
11 September 2014

Re: Alapaha Water Trail

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners,

WWALS Watershed Coalition is implementing a small grant from Georgia River Network (GRN) to establish an Alapaha River Water Trail. In addition, a grant application opportunity has come up that could result in funding to Lowndes County for related facilities, and perhaps to extend that Water Trail into a system of Blueways also including the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers. In addition to improving local quality of life, either or both could contribute to the economy of Lowndes County by bringing in boaters on the rivers who would buy locally, and providing features attractive to knowledge-based businesses and their employees. All at little or no cost to the county plus grant funding.

The GRN grant involves Continue reading →

Sabal Trail to move pipeline off Withlacoochee River in Florida?

Will Sabal Trail actually move off the Withlacoochee River in Florida? That depends on how you interpret which version of what Sabal Trail has said about its seven (7) different proposed fracked methane pipeline routes through Suwannee County, Florida. And all but one of the five proposed Georgia routes still would cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia. Beware that no matter what Sabal Trail says, FERC could pick any of these routes or some other. And no matter what FERC says, other agencies, including state and local, also have to approve permits and other evaluatios of any route, plus both Spectra Energy and Williams Company have recently “suspended” or cancelled pipelines as uneconomic. There is something you and your local elected bodies can do.

Amber Vann wrote for the Suwannee Democrat 19 September 2014, Gas pipeline concerns continue, Continue reading →

Alapaha Dead River Sink

Update 2014-11-13: This is actually the Dead River Sink. See also the Alapaha River Sink. -jsq

Received 16 September 2044:

I just saw the photos on WWALS web site of Bret’s trip to find the sink, Very nice.
Here are some photos of the sink you may want to add.
-Chris Mericle

Plus this Sunday, 10AM 21 September 2014, Chris and Deanna Mericle will be our local hosts at the WWALS outing on the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers in Florida.

-jsq