Actually, the Suwannee River Sill Gates are always open.

This was a facebook comment yesterday, “Open the dam in the swamp.”

It was on this WWALS facebook post: Very low water, Fargo Ramp, Suwannee River 2025-11-12 Video by Shirley Kokidko for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS):
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1946665392780126

See also:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/posts/pfbid02p1mXs1UZK6ZhGQe4BeEdAa54E1Ws2Dk5AQmKmRsbqKPc3ATi6SxVyZjXL1U54dHRl
https://wwals.net/?p=68851

I’ve also heard from otherwise very knowledgeable Floridians: “When there are big rains, Georgia opens the Okefenokee gates and floods Florida!”

Nope, that doesn’t happen, either.

Open the Okefenokee Gates, Suwannee River Sill, Actually always open, Since around 2000

The Sill itself was an experiment in fire prevention that did not work, and also turned out to be a bad idea, because the Okefenokee Swamp needs fire to regenerate itself.

Here’s video and pictures of the Second and First Gates through the Suwannee River Sill, December 9, 2025.
https://youtube.com/shorts/8LA_PLDqXA0

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CF1tPvZR9/

Movie: Through the sill (33M), 30.8164000, -82.4136000

Open Second Gate, Suwannee River Still, 2023-12-09 –jsq for WWALS

Movie: Through the second gate, which is always open (46M),, 2023-12-09 –jsq for WWALS 30.8164000, -82.4135600

Movie: Michael Humphrey though the sill (25M),, 2023-12-09 –jsq for WWALS 30.8163000, -82.4139000

FG-2023-12-09

First gate, Suwannee River Sill, 2023:12:09 12:41:07,, –jsq for WWALS 30.8033510, -82.4177690

Movie: First gate, Suwannee River Sill (64M),, 2023-12-09 –jsq for WWALS 30.8035000, -82.4178000

DNFA

Do Not Feed Alligators, 2023:12:09 12:42:36,, –jsq for WWALS 30.8036180, -82.4178480

Movie: Water through the first gate, Suwannee River Sill (63M),, 2023-12-09 –jsq for WWALS 30.8038000, -82.4176000

In September 2025, six Florida Men Canoe Entire 240-Mile Suwannee River in 48 Hours. To do that, they paddled through the First Gate of the Suwannee River Sill.

Suwannee River Gates, Okefenokee Swamp, 2025-09-26 thru 2025-09-28, Florida Men Canoe Entire 240-Mile Suwannee River in 48 Hours

The Suwannee River Sill is a 4.5-mile long earthen dam from Pine Island in the north to the mainland, off of GA 177. That’s far longer than most well-known U.S. dams, but the Sill is only about 13 feet high.

Map: Suwannee River Sill in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail (SRWT)

It was built in 1960 to keep the water level up in the Okefenokee Swamp to prevent the kinds of fires that had raged through the Swamp in the 1950s.

But, as written up by ExploreSouthernHistory.com in Suwannee River Sill, Georgia:

In fact, the five mile long structure never worked as planned.

Studies have shown that it only holds back enough water to impact about one percent of the great swamp.

The Okefenokee has always experienced times of drought and times of high water. Wildfires have been part of the life of the swamp since long before the first human entered its vastness.

The beautiful open prairies of the swamp were created by wildfires that swept through the Okefenokee many years ago. These natural fires served to prevent out of control wildfires in the swamp, by reducing the amount of brush and other natural fuel available to burn. In other words, when fires naturally took place in the swamp on a regular basis, they were less destructive and played an important role in protecting surrounding lands from wildfire.

The staff of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge now sets prescribed burns each year to clear underbrush and other accumulated fuel from upland areas. As many as 12,000 acres are burned annually to keep down underbrush and simulate the smaller fires that once burned naturally in the swamp. It is hoped that over time these efforts will protect adjoining lands and limit damage to the swamp itself by returning the Okefenokee to a more natural cycle.

In 1998, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service conducted an environmental impact study that concluded the Sill should be breached and its two concrete water control structures removed. Additional studies were conducted by other agencies.

The idea of breaching the Suwanee River Sill after 52 years has been controversial, with some favoring the idea and others opposing it. Environmental groups have even called for the removal of the entire structure, but many area residents have opposed such an idea out of fear that removing the Sill will limit their access to the Okefenokee.

At present, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has tried to reach reasonable middle ground by allowing water to flow more normally down the Suwannee while also using the Sill as a way to open more public access to the swamp. The completion of the paved road, ramp, hiking trails and parking area about one-third of the way down the Sill at its first water control structure achieves the latter goal in a noteworthy manner.

Suwannee RIver Sill Recreation Area is open to the public during daylight hours (camping is not allowed). It is accessed via Georgia 177 and can be reached by the first paved road to the left after passing through the western gate of the refuge near Fargo. A $5 parking pass must be purchased at nearby Stephen C. Foster State Park.

“In 1962, construction of the sill berm and closure of the two spillway gates were completed,” according to this paper: Effects of the Suwannee River Sill on the Hydrology of the Okefenokee Swamp: Application of Research Results in the Environmental Assessment Process, Cynthia S. Loftin, Sara B. Aicher, Wiley M. Kitchens, USDA Forest Service, 2000.

That paper goes into some detail about how the Sill did not work for its intended purpose of keeping the water level up in the Swamp. This figure indicates one reason why: it’s hard for a dam to impound water that is mostly at a higher elevation.

Figure 5. Elevation changes in the Suwannee River channel and floodplain in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and southwest of the Suwannee River sill. 1999-05-23, Loftin, Aicher, Kitchens
PDF

And that purpose was misguided, because intermitten wildfires are necessary for the Swamp to regenerate itself. They are why the Swamp has open prairies.

I can’t find any specific reference on when the gates were left open permanently. However, according to the same paper, in its discussion of removing the sill entirely, the gates were first left open for two years sometime around the year 1999 when that paper was presented at the Wilderness Science in a Time of Change Conference in Missoula, Montana, May 23-27, 1999.

The FWS had an opportunity to proceed in a phased (defined in the preferred alternative) removal of the water control structures and earthen dike. Incorporated into the preferred alternative was a proposal to collect two years of baseline data downstream from the sill and verify HYDRO-MODEL predictions of downstream changes. Two years of monitoring with the water control structures opened will follow. A supplemental report summarizing the monitoring will be attached to the original EA upon conclusion of the supplemental study. Barring any documented negative impacts to public use or private landowners that cannot be mitigated through additional management actions or accepted as factors in the system restoration, the alternative will be fully implemented.

The alternative being to keep the gates open. Apparently that was fully implemented.

There is still talk about tearing down the entire Sill. That is unlikely to happen, because many people, local and otherwise, like using the Sill for fishing.

 -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/

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