Update 2021-12-01: Valdosta-Lowndes County Comprehensive Parks & Recreation Master Plan 2021-08-31.

It’s a long-term vision, with strategies for funding and implementation, which includes everything needed for a Troupville River Camp at the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, and other river parks and trails. This Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority (VLPRA) Master Plan is based on both a statistically-representative survey and an anecdotal qualitative survey, which came up with very similar results.

Strategy 6: Access to Rivers, Provide Additional Amenities

These are the presentation slides used by David Barth in the September 13, 2021, Lowndes County Commission Work Session. His Barth & Associates helped develop the plan for the Valdosta-Lowndes Parks & Recreation Authority (VLPRA).

It’s our understanding that the WWALS Vision for water quality and access in Lowndes County, Georgia 2021-03-01 is incorporated in this VLPRA Master Plan, including Troupville River Camp, Troupville River Park, and other river recommendations.

After the slides, see also some more recent WWALS recommendations.

VLPRA Master Plan Presentation Slides

See also PDF. Thanks to Jessica Catlett of VLPRA for sending these slides.

You can see David Barth present the slides in videos by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Click on any small image to get a bigger image.

Begin

Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA Comprehensive Parks & Recreation Master Plan July 2021
PDF

Data

A Mixed-Methods, Triangulated Approach (+/- 1300 Participants)
PDF

Funding

Willing to fund with taxes: acquire large parks, trails, streams, natural areas, maintain neighborhood parks
PDF

V&I

Long-Range Vision and Implementaiton Strategy
PDF

Strategies

Strategy 1: Expand and Upgrade Existing Parks
PDF

When

Phasing Strategy
PDF

Wrapup

Approach and Process
PDF

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Recent WWALS Recommendations

See the WWALS recommendation to the City of Valdosta to purchase the Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank next to the Withlacoochee River and turn it into part of a widespread trails system.

Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank, Withlacoochee River to future Troupville River Camp in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

And see these Pictures: Sugar Creek Beach, Shoals, Limbo Log 2021-07-10. It has a great beach, stretches where birds are far louder than traffic, some shoals (thanks to a Valdosta sewer main), and it’s wider in spots than the Alapahoochee River, Valdosta owns much of the northern (right) bank of Sugar Creek. If its chronic sewage and trash problems can be cleaned up, Sugar Creek could form a key part of an urban land and water trails system. WWALS has found a large part of the trash problem.

Beautiful Sugar Creek, but trashed

Also relevant is the recent redesignation of parts of the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers as Recreational, and the opportunity to get more stretches redesignated in coming years.

Prioritization of Nominated Waterbodies; blue marks prioritized waterbodies.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

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