Update 2024-08-09: Georgia House Navigable Streams Study Committee 2024-08-15.

The Georgia legislature is trying to define which creeks and rivers are navigable. They are using an antique law to do so.

You can help keep Georgia rivers and creeks navigable by logging your river trips here:
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/32bc9531a62e4c83971b162a58eb25f2

The goal of this mapping project is to document the upstream extent of recreational descents on as many Georgia rivers as possible. Paddlers documenting their descents through this survey could help protect access to streams for generations to come. We encourage paddlers to submit their earliest and farthest upstream descent on as many rivers as possible.

Help keep paddle access to Georgia rivers, Contact your statehouse members, Record your paddle outings

Maybe you’d also like to explain to the Georgia statehouse that the 1863 definition of navigable is outdated: “is capable of transporting boats loaded with freight in the regular course of trade either for the whole or a part of the year.”

Nowadays we fish, paddle, and motor in forms of recreational commerce that were not common in 1863.

Here is one way to contact your Georgia state legislators:
https://action.outdooralliance.org/a/protect-the-publics-right-to-paddle-in-georgia_7_24

Two of the members of the Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams are in the Suwannee River Basin:

• James Burchett, of Waycross, District 176, who represents Atkinson, Lanier, and northeast Lowndes Counties.
  404-656-5105, Suite 1318, james.burchett@house.ga.gov
• John Corbett, of Lake Park, District 174, who represents Charlton, Brantley, the south half of Ware, Clinch, Echols, and the east third of Lowndes Counties.
  (404) 656-5105, john.corbett@house.ga.gov.

Paddlers going upstream on the Little River, 14:12:00, 30.8471247, -83.3475737

Kevin Colburn, American Whitewater, 2024-07-22, Take Action! Georgia Right to Paddle Imperiled,

The Georgia General Assembly has embarked on a process that could result in a sweeping loss of the public’s right to paddle rivers in Georgia. Following some legislative back-and-forth, a committee is now formally convening that will address the matter and may choose to issue a list of streams that they consider to be open to public use under civil-war-era state law. American Whitewater feels strongly that the General Assembly should support outdoor recreation through codifying a modern set of public river use rights rather than attempt to delineate every stream that is or is not open to the public. There are some tangible steps that paddlers can take to help.

1. Contact Your State Legislator. Let them know that you live and work in Georgia in part because of access to the State’s whitewater rivers, and that maintaining public access to rivers is an important value that you and your family hold. Ask them to contact their colleagues on the Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams seeking support for paddling all rivers and streams in Georgia that are capable of being recreationally navigated. Take action here.
2. Map Your Headwater Descents. We are not sure where this committee’s work will lead, but we believe that mapping where people have paddled could provide important evidence to the legislature. This is especially true of the upstream-most and oldest descents of rivers, which show the committee that recreational navigation extends far upstream and back many years. All descents are welcome! Please use this survey tool to map some of your descents.

Waiting for obstacle removal (Crowe Deadfall) –Gretchen Quarterman

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

Suwannee Riverkeeper sawing a deadfall –Bobby McKenzie, 30.8451896, -83.3466904

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