We have a request to clear at least two deadfalls on the Little River that are obstructing passage to a fishing lake.
![[Trashjam, Rountree Lake, and map, Little River above Red Roberts Landing]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-08-20--little-river-chainsaw-cleanup-request/many.jpg)
Trashjam, Rountree Lake, and map, Little River above Red Roberts Landing
The deadfalls are about half a mile upstream from Rountree Bridge and Red Roberts Landing. Continue reading
We saw many creeks and seeps, and a few shoals barely visible as waves, on the Alapaha River from Mayday to Statenville, all in Echols County, Georgia, Saturday, May 11, 2024.
We had two chainsaws and two handsaws, but did not need to saw any deadfalls to get through.
We did see more power boats than I’ve ever seen on that river.
Thanks to Shawn O’Connor for leading, and to everyone else for paddling.
Continue readingThanks to the Atkinson County Commissioners for passing this resolution unanimously Thursday evening. We will get a signed copy soon.
Shirley Kokidko, who lives in Pearson, the county seat, said a few words. I gave the shortest speech ever, “We could speak for half an hour. But if the Okefenokee Swamp isn’t worth protecting, what is?”
As they voted, they said things such as, “this would affect our fishing.”
A Commissioner sought me out in the parking lot afterwards to remark, “This is our heritage, our way of life.”
After Berrien County, plus the city of Nashville, this is the second county on the Alapaha River to pass such a resolution.
It is the fifth sixth such resolution in Georgia state Senate District 8,
after Valdosta, Ware County and Waycross, Clinch, and Echols Counties.
Maybe Senator Russ Goodman will be interested in that.
Berrien County and the city of Nashville are in Continue reading
Update 2024-07-26: Help keep paddle access to Georgia rivers 2024-07-22.
We never had bales of cotton boated down the Withlacoochee River, because there are too many shoals.
![[19th-century navigable definition; 21st-century river economy]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-29--ga-navigable-passage/igmany.jpg)
19th-century navigable definition; 21st-century river economy
But we do get fishing both from the shore and in paddle and power boats up and down our rivers, and for other recreation, There are massive investments by nearby cities and counties and other organizations in cleaning up the rivers for those purposes.
The state of Georgia needs to revise its 19th-century definition of navigability and passage to match the 21st-century present.
The Georgia 1863 definition says a navigable stream “is capable of transporting boats loaded with freight in the regular course of trade either for the whole or a part of the year.” See Georgia Navigability Report, 3rd Edition and O.C.G.A. 44-8-5 (2010)
Some people once tried boating down to the Suwannee to establish commerce. They sold the remains of the boat and returned to the former Lowndes County seat of Troupville, at the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River. Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Continue reading
Update 2024-02-27: Navigable stream additions to GA HB 1397 2024-02-27.
Update 2024-02-25: Need to add Sugar Creek, as well as Cat Creek and Franks Creek.
Following up on the December 2023 report of the Fishing Rights Study Committee, that Committee’s Chair, Rep. Burchett of Waycross, who is also the House Majority Whip, this Thursday introduced HB 1397, which defines navigable streams in Georgia.
![[Warrior Creek, Okapilco Creek, Deep Creek, Bird Wing Run]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-22--ga-navigable-streams/igmany.jpg)
Warrior Creek, Okapilco Creek, Deep Creek, Bird Wing Run
The bill’s list appears to include all of Georgia parts of the WWALS water trails, plus some creeks and an upstream reach of the Alapaha River.
However, the entire Alapahoochee River is missing, https://wwals.net/maps/alapaha-water-trail/arwt-map/arwt-points/#ga-376-bridge, as is the East Fork of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp. The North Fork of the Suwannee River is missing, but it’s so overgrown that’s not surprising.
Considering the inclusion of Okapilco Creek, the bill needs to add Sugar Creek below Baytree Road, which is a nice urban creek with a beach and shoals, https://wwals.net/?p=56221 with the WaterGoat trash trap, https://wwals.net/?p=63876 and will be used this coming Saturday, March 2, as the early takeout for the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. https://wwals.net/?p=64095
Similarly, the bill could add add Cat Creek below GA 37 and Franks Creek below GA 122. That would help with finding and fixing E. coli problems seen at bridges on those creeks. WWALS has already started investigating those creek problems and has applied for a testing grant. https://wwals.net/?p=58982
These are the bill’s items in the Suwannee River Basin. If I’ve missed any, somebody let me know. Continue reading
Update 2024-02-28: Navigability in HB 1397 in GA House Natural Resources & Environment Quality Subcommittee 2024-02-26.
Here is the Final Report with Recommendations after four public input meetings and a decision meeting of the Georgia House Study Committee on Fishing Access to Freshwater Resources.
Basically, they want to preserve both fishing rights (and private property rights) while preserving boating right of passage. The Study Committee found right of passage tied to navigability, so its key recommendations are to determine and delineate which parts of which rivers and streams are navigable.
If you know Committee Chair Rep. James Burchett or any of the committee members,
please contact them asking for maximum navigability while preserving private property rights.
Or contact your Georgia state house member.
http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ Continue reading
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.
You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.
Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer. Continue reading
This story is amusing enough to publish (with permission), even though it is about goings-on outside the Suwannee River Basin.
Various Notropis species form unusual spawning aggregations. For example, here is a spawning aggregation of the noble Notropis chrosomus AKA the Rainbow shiner, arguably the most colorful fish in North America. This aggregation was photographed in Marshall creek near Monroeville Alabama north of Mobile.
![[Rainbow shiners spawning in the air]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-14--rainbow-shiner/unnamed.jpg)
Rainbow shiners spawning in the airWhat? Fish that spawn upside down in the air above waterfalls in a part of the country that can’t possible have waterfalls? OK, I owe you an explanation.
Once upon a time, and a long ago time it was, I was Continue reading
Update 2023-12-31: Fishing Access in Georgia: House Committee Report 2023-12-01.
What waterways are navigable? How does navigability apply to fishing rights and private ownership of waterways? What about right of passage? How does the Georgia state constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish apply? And what about GA-DNR boat ramps?
This controversy started with a lawsuit about the Flint River, but it has already spread to other rivers and creeks, and sooner or later will affect the Suwannee River Basin.
The Chair of the Georgia House Study Committee on the subject is Rep. James Burchett, District 176, which includes southwest Coffee, Atkinson, Lanier, and northeast Lowndes Counties, all in the Suwannee River Basin. Plus he is the County Attorney for Brooks County.
If you know him, maybe you’d like to talk to him about the importance of river passage and public fishing rights. As he is reported to have said, “The intention is to find clarity. The property owners and fishermen all want to know, where can we fish and where can we not?”
Continue readingMary Beth Brownlee, new Executive Director of One Valdosta-Lowndes (OVL), got to see the site of the future Troupville River Camp and Nature Park.
![[Around Troupville River Camp and Nature Park --jsq]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-31--troupville-river-park/many.jpg)
Around Troupville River Camp and Nature Park –jsq
She and Georgia Power Southwest Regional Director Joe Brownlee and their daughter Elizabeth are only about the third party who have followed me around the entire river circumference of the site, down the Little River to its Confluence, and then up the Withlacoochee River back to GA 133.
WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman took many of these pictures. WWALS provided the visitors information about Troupville Nature Park and Troupville River Camp including letters of support from Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber, Madison and Hamilton Counties, Florida, the Suwannee River Water Management District, and others.
Troupville River Camp is top of the project list for OVL, which is an economic development and well being organization. Continue reading
![[Creeks, seeps, waves over shoals, and many power boats, Mayday to Statenville, Alapaha River 2024-04-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-05-11--mayday-statenville-alapaha-river-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[Atkinson County Commission and Resolution for the Okefenokee Swamp against the Twin Pines Minerals Strip Mine]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-03-14--atkinson-county-okefenokee/many.jpg)
![[Chair Rep. James Burchett and GA House Fishing Access Study Committee 2023-11-30, plus fishing, fish, boating, and trash]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-12-01--ga-house-fishing-access-committee-final-report/many.jpg)
![[Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/1889-01-29--troupville/many.jpg)
![[Access, Navigable, Boat Ramps]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-12--ga-hr-519-fishing-access-committee/many.jpg)