Three different trash trap companies have quoted for a Withlacoochee River location just upstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp, and downstream from US 41, North Valdosta Road.

Two have looked at another Withlacoochee River location just downstream from GA 133, in Troupville Park, where VLPRA briefly owns both sides of the river.

Trash trap sites, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-02, Langdale Park below US 41, Troupville Park below GA 133

The Langdale Park location is about 28 feet across the river, and would require a 50-foot trap.

That location is very convenient, because the access road goes right there.

I sent quotes for this location by two trash trap companies to the City of Valdosta in 2023. A catch is that these locations are not in the City of Valdosta.

Above Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 28 feet across the Withlacoochee River, 2025-07-02 –jsq for WWALS

The river is somewhat wider at the GA 133 location, there are pretty good bluffs on each side for anchorage.

The access road would require some work.

Below GA 133, across the Withlacoochee River, 2025-07-02 –jsq for WWALS

As we know, the Withlacoochee River can rise quite high, and when it does, those trash traps would be underwater. That’s no different from the ones on creeks.

As many of us know by experience, kayaks and canoes can go over floating booms of trash traps.

Boats with outboards merely need to raise their motor as they go over.

Nobody has been motoring or paddling far upstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp since Hurricane Helene, due to a huge log pile.

There is no need for any permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because these are floating traps, not anchored to the riverbottom, and not even touching it as long as there is a reasonable amount of water.

None of the Suwannee River Basin rivers in Georgia are navigable, except possibly the Suwannee River. The Suwannee is on a federal navigable river list, but it, like all our other rivers, does not match the Georgia 1863 legal definition of navigability, which is about floating goods to market down the river. Logs don’t count: the law explicitly says that. And nobody floated bales of cotton down any of our rivers to market, because of shoals.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR) appears to have its own definition of navigability, which seems to be near where they have boat ramps. But that doesn’t change the actual Georgia law.

The Georgia House of Representatives in 2024 declined to make any changes to that law.

https://wwals.net/?p=66654

Nevermind that right across the GA-FL line, the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee are all navigable in Florida.

The real issue is actually not navigability, since according to that 1863 law that’s about goods to market.

The issue is passage.

https://wwals.net/?p=63282

This is why most of the water trail resolutions passed by cities and counties include this clause in the Hahira resolution in support of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail:

Section 2: That the public easement of passage established by more than twenty (20) years of regular and open travel by boat on the Little and Withlacoochee River past Hahira is hereby recognized and accepted by the Council on behalf of the citizens of Hahira, and visitors from throughout the State of Georgia and the United States; and

So why are there no trash traps in the Withlacoochee River?

1. Capex. River trash traps are pricier than those in creeks. Grants have not yet been found for either of these locations.
2. Opex. Somebody has to clean the trash out, and somebody has to maintain the access road.

WWALS continues plugging away at this issue.

 -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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