Two Geology Professors visited The Land Between the Rivers and wrote a letter about many projects they and their students can do there, at the site of Troupville Boat Ramp. This is more in-kind match for the GOSP grant pre-application.
Prof. Don Thieme & Can Denizman, 13:30:33, 30.8515417, -83.3452859
Letter from Donald M. Thieme, Associate Professor, Geology, Valdosta State University (VSU):
Donald M. Thieme, Associate Professor, Geology, VSU
PDF
I am very pleased and excited about the proposal by WWALS to develop the Troupville River Camp. The property in question is at the juncture of the Little River and the Withlacoochee River, two large tributaries to the Suwannee River watershed. As we discussed with John Quarterman in a recent field visit to the property, there are many questions in my own research and that of Dr. Can Denizman which can be pursued through fieldwork and continuous data collection from areas on the property.
Little River on right joins Withlacoochee River, 11:30:21, 30.8471750, -83.3475230The two rivers which meet at the proposed Troupville River Camp are very different in both channel sinuosity and sediment being delivered to their floodplains.
Yellow Dog and Brown Dog, Little River, 11:35:29, 30.8470720, -83.3475200Upstream along the Withlacoochee River, the surface flow sometimes connects with both shallow groundwater and the Upper Floridan Aquifer through karst conduits in both siliceous and carbonate sedimentary rocks. We have been investigating these connections in recent research using geophysical methods which include both electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR).
Upstream Withlacoochee, 11:31:33, 30.8470720, -83.3475220I am planning to work at the proposed Troupville River Camp property this spring with students in my course on Environmental Soil Science (GEOL 3710). I plan to train my students in soil description while sampling these floodplain soils and then complete some basic laboratory analyses which should be useful in planning future use of the landscape.
Survey marker? 11:57:49, 30.8510000, -83.3451358Along with Dr. Denizman and other colleagues in the Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences, and Engineering Technology, I will be collaborating with WWALS on the development of the Troupville River Camp project. We discussed how to harvest LiDAR data on surface topography with the surveyors and engineers working for WWALS. We will help WWALS use this data to identify areas of possible prehistoric and historic cultural activity and select areas where subsurface coring or trenching may yield useful information about environmental change in the Upper Suwannee River watershed.
Old east-west road bridge? 12:40:24, 30.8509920, -83.3478980
Also on that day we’re pretty sure we rediscovered Broad Street, the old north-south main street of Troupville. Some of these geologists’ techniques can determine whether we really did.
Broad Street? 11:53:18, 30.8493176, -83.3462592
Many more pictures from that day are here:
wwals.net/pictures/2019-11-26–vsu-geology-land-between-the-rivers
Here is a google map of that day’s two circuits of the Land Between the Rivers and part of old Troupville.
Here is a summary of the WWALS grant pre-application to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP):
Troupville River Camp center of Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail 2019-10-31.
That and other related letters and documents are on the WWALS website:
wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-31–wwals-gosp-troupville-river-camp/
If your organization wants to send in a letter, please do so before December 31, 2019.
Oh, and don’t wander around in there during hunting season: it’s private property and there’s a hunting lease.
Also of course the Withlacoochee River right now is filthy with E. coli from Valdosta’s record-largest raw sewage spill. Presumably rain will eventually wash that away.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
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