The audience was amused at the thought of the Valdosta City Council racing at Reed Bingham, or of any of them writing songs. But it could happen! And any of them can come on down to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Valdosta.

You’ve already seen the videos of the two resolutions, for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) and the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). Here are videos of three WWALS members thanking Valdosta Mayor and Council for those, plus three festivals. We call WWALS a coalition because many people are involved, from many backgrounds, doing many different things to conserve and advocate for our watersheds being swimmable, fishable, and at least our well water drinkable.

There’s a playlist at the end.

• 6. Water Trails and BIG Little River Paddle Race —Phil Hubbard, WWALS Outings Committee Chair
  

  Video. Phil offered to pay the registration fee for any of them for the 6th Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race. Afterwards, one of them talked herself into taking up his offer.

  

• 6. Water Trails and rivers —Bobby McKenzie Alapaha River —Mayor John Gayle
  

  Video. Bobby McKenzie recently moved here from Hawaii; he’s stationed at Moody AFB. He already helped with the rediscovery of public access to the Withlacoochee River off of Gornto Road, which we’re calling Sugar Creek Landing.

  Mayor John Gayle responded to Bobby’s stories of paddling with his family by telling another one about boating on the Alapaha River.

  The landowners confirmed just after this meeting that we have permission for a cleanup at the site of Troupville, the previous Lowndes County seat before Valdosta, and Bobby will lead that, Saturday morning April 21, 2018.

• 6. Paddle Race, Film Festival, Songwriting Contest, Water Trails soon finished —Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman
  

  Video. I pointed out that the back of the paddle race flyer previously handed out was a flyer for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, at Mathis Auditorium in Valdosta, Thursday, May 31, 2018, with many short videos about oceans, rivers, and the Pale Blue Dot.

  

  On another flyer, submissions are open now for the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest in Cedar Key, Florida, Saturday, June 23, 2018, and we expect many submissions from the biggest city in the entire Suwannee River Basin, which is Valdosta. “You look like songwriters!” I said, and the audience was amused. A couple of the Mayor and Council admitted afterwards that maybe they could write a song.

  

Here’s a LAKE video playlist:

Paddle Race, Film festival, Songwriting Contest, and Water Trails @ VCC 2018-04-05
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Videos of the rest of that VCC meeting are on the LAKE blog.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

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