Daily Archives: May 28, 2020

Naylor Boat Ramp Out and Back, Alapaha River 2020-06-13

Update 2020-06-19: Pictures.

Update 2020-06-18: Naylor Boat Ramp signs planted 2020-06-13.

Update 2020-06-12: Good to go, so see you there.

Join us for a one-mile paddle upstream and back from the newest boat ramp on the Alapaha River.

There’s plenty of room to stay six feet apart on the ground and ten feet apart on the water.

When: Gather 9:30 AM, launch 10 AM, Saturday, June 13, 2020

Put In: Naylor Boat Ramp, 6955 US 84 E, Naylor, GA 31641, in Lowndes County, Georgia.
From Valdosta go east on US 84, cross the river, make a U-turn when you can, go back west across the river and turn right into the park around the boat ramp. There’s also a nice beach in the park a bit downstream from the boat ramp.

GPS: 30.92507, -83.03867

Take Out: Naylor Boat Ramp

Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

[Naylor Boat Ramp, 2020:03:06 16:35:28, 30.9253889, -83.0393611]
Photo: Tasha Ekman Laface, Naylor Boat Ramp, 2020:03:06 16:35:28, 30.9253889, -83.0393611

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Last day to comment to the Corps against strip mine near Okefenokee Swamp 2020-05-28

Today is the last public comment day to ask the Corps to stop a strip mine so close to the Okefenokee Swamp you can see both from a few hundred feet up.

[Distant 2019-11-23]
Drone aerials of titanium mine site near Okefenokee Swamp 2019-11-23.

As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told Georgia Sen. Purdue last November,

“The initial project location is the farthest that mining activity would be from the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) boundary and the Okefenokee Swamp. Any additional mining that occurs within the 12,000-acre permit area would be closer to the refuge. The northwest boundary of the permit area is within a half mile from the refuge boundary and 400 feet from the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp.”

FWS also spelled out the bottom line: “It is the responsibility of the permit applicant to demonstrate what the extent of impacts of the project will be to surrounding natural resources.”

And the applicant still has not done that, not even in its second application.

A few miners profiting by selling titanium dioxide for paint is nowhere near sufficient reason to risk the unique treasure that is the Okefenokee Swamp, which is also the headwaters of both the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.

Please comment to the Corps

Today you can still ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop this strip mine:
To: CESAS-SpecialProjects@usace.army.mil
Re: Applicant: Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, Application Number: SAS-2018-00554

Be sure to ask the Corps to deny the permit, or at least to require an Environmental Impact Statement.

Or use the convenient comment form in this Action Alert by Waterkeeper Alliance:
https://waterkeeper.org/news/take-action-protect-okefenokee-swamp-from-a-titanium-mine/

Or this convenient comment form by Georgia River Network:
https://www.congressweb.com/GEAN/225

For far more information about this bad strip-mining proposal, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining/

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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