Category Archives: PR

Press Release

Bird, rock, plant, platform: Within These WWALS #7 2020-06-20

You’ve probably seen all these things before. Well, maybe not the last one.

So you can answer Within These WWALS #7, using this form:
https://forms.gle/vMW4f37MNBSv9mii7

[Flying, Porous, Carnivorous, Sleeping]
Flying, Porous, Carnivorous, Sleeping

Please answer by midnight at the end of Saturday, July 11, 2020.

Please identify (by scientific or common name) each of the items highlighted in a set of photos and then come up with the name of the WWALS waterway where all the photos were taken.

The first correct set of answers wins a packet of WWALS photo notecards from that watershed, sent via postal mail from WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.

There’s also a facebook event this time, but remember to answer in the google form.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Outside in the Art Park, Scott James as M.C.: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Hahira, GA, June 16, 2020 — The new Turner Center Art Park, across from the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, GA, has plenty of room for physical distance while listening to the finalists play in the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, 7-9 PM, Saturday, August 22, 2020, at 605 North Patterson Street, Valdosta, Georgia, 31601. (See also PDF.)

Scott James, Talk 92.1 FM

“I’m honored to be the Master of Ceremonies for this celebration of our rivers, creeks, swamps, and springs,” said radio personality Scott James, of Talk 92.1, WDDQ, out of Valdosta, GA.

“Songwriters, don’t forget to send in your song by Wednesday, July 8, 2020!” said Laura D’Alisera, our 2018 overall winner and 2019 headliner, and now two years on the organizing committee.

[Third Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest]
Third Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Submissions can be songs about any river, stream, spring, sink, swamp, lake, or pond in the Suwannee River Basin or Estuary (except not the Santa Fe Basin; that has its own contest). Judging of finalists will take into account integrity and value of the waters, historical value, originality of lyrics and music and musical consistency between them, performance, and clarity of message. Extra credit for naming the most rivers (springs, etc.). Even listing them counts; tying them together in a way that shows their value is better.

“Tickets are on sale now, Continue reading →

Please ask your elected officials to stop strip mine near Okefenokee Swamp –Suwannee Riverkeeper on WKUB 105.1 FM

Are 60,000 comments over two comment periods enough to stop a titanium dioxide strip mine within miles of the Okefenokee Swamp? We don’t know. So please ask your elected officials, local, state, and national, to stop the mine, or at the very least to demand an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Follow this link for how.

[Heavy Mineral Mining In The Atlantic Coastal Plain-0006]
Heavy Mineral Mining In The Atlantic Coastal Plain-0006

Here’s the rest of the interview of Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman by Brian Blount of WKUB 105.1 out of Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia, north of Waycross and the Swamp.

If you have any trouble listening to it, you can download it from the WWALS website.

See the first Suwannee Riverkeeper comment to the Corps for more about slimes and hydrology.

For much more about this bad strip mine idea, see
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Okefenokee Swamp more important than a titanium mine –Suwannee Riverkeeper on WKUB 105.1 FM

Update 2020-06-08: Part 2, Please ask your elected officials to stop strip mine near Okefenokee Swamp –Suwannee Riverkeeper on WKUB 105.1 FM.

The Okefenokee Swamp is a gem, locally, nationally, and internationally, too important to risk for profit by a few miners for paint. This is in a radio interview of Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman by Brian Blount of WKUB 105.1 out of Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia, north of Waycross and the Swamp.

[WKUB 105.1 FM]
WKUB 105.1 FM

Here is an introduction by Wade Scott, and my request for people to ask the Army Corps to deny the permit application by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, or at least to require an Environmental Impact Statement broad enough to cover the whole Swamp and the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, as well as the existing titanium mines in north Florida and south Georgia, plus the phosphate mines current and proposed in north Florida. Continue reading →

WWALS Trivia Online Tuesday, 2020-06-02

It was fun last time, so let’s do it again: WWALS Trivia Online Tuesday. Follow the above link for the zoom parameters to join us 7PM Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

Our host, new WWALS board member Shelby Miller, will lead us through questions about rivers, plants, animals and minerals.

[Shelby Miller to draw]
Shelby Miller to draw

When: 7 PM, Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Where: Online.

Event: facebook

WWALS Advisor Joe LaForest will be behind the scenes keeping everything running.

Most of the questions came from charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Winner: Raptor, flower, paddling organization, tree base: Within These WWALS #6 2020-05-16

The winner of Within These WWALS #6 is…

Emmy Kidder.

She wins a packet of WWALS photo notecards from that watershed, sent via postal mail from WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.

Swamps and Springs WWALS picture notecards

Here are the answers to Within These WWALS #6.

Name this native raptor that can dive into water and catch live fish, has white under its wings making it easier to identify from below, and builds its nests atop trees over bodies of water, like this one shown atop a cypress at dusk.

Osprey, Pandion haliaetus.

We paddle by this nest most every time on our Banks Lake Full Moon paddles. The next one is coming up Continue reading →

Winner: Butterfly, bridge, pointy, flower, what river? Within These WWALS #5 2020-05-09

The winner of Within These WWALS #5 is…

Sara Jones.

She gets a packet of Withlacoochee and Little River picture notecards from the WWALS photo notecards, sent via postal mail from WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.

WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River picture notecards

Lots people who were on #PaddleGA2019 knew Spook Bridge, but apparently the plant spooked them. Continue reading →

Winner: Within These Walls Contest 4 2020-05-02

The winner of Within These WWALS number 4 is: Deanna Mericle.

She gets a packet of WWALS picture notecards from the WWALS online store.

The underwater plant is:

Eel grass, Zostera marina.

[1 Plant]
1 Plant

Nope, not wild rice, Zizania aquatica, which usually sticks up above water.

Florida State Parks does say both occur in the subject stream.

The bird is: Continue reading →

WWALS Trivia Online 2020-05-19

Update 2020-05-18: facebook event.

Tuesday at 7PM, May 19, 2020, you can join new WWALS board member Shelby Miller for a half hour of fun online, as she conducts the first-ever WWALS Trivia Online!

Shelby will introduce each multiple-choice question about rivers, shoals, and other things in the WWALS Watersheds, which include the entire Suwannee River Basin. You get 20 seconds to answer. Fastest right answer wins that question.

[Yay winner!]
Photo: John S. Quarterman, Yay winner! Shelby Miller drawing the winning WWALS kayak raffle ticket, at Griffis Fish Camp, Suwannee River 2019-12-07

Follow this link to Register for WWALS Trivia Online.

Yes, this is different from Continue reading →

Raptor, flower, paddling organization, tree base: Within These WWALS #6

Update 2020-05-30: The winner.

Many of you saw many of these things just a few days ago, or saw pictures of them taken by those who were there.

So you can answer Within These WWALS #6, using this form:

https://forms.gle/BQgTiRRThpBgWLZN8

[Bird, flower, org, base]
Bird, flower, org, base

Please answer by midnight at the end of Saturday, May 16, 2020.

Please identify (by scientific or common name) each of the items highlighted in a set of photos and then come up with the name of the WWALS waterway where all the photos were taken. The first correct set of answers wins a packet of WWALS photo notecards from that watershed, sent via postal mail from WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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