Overcast and a small chance of drizzle won’t stop us:
yes, we’re paddling
from Hagan Bridge to Franklinville on the Withlacoochee River,
10 AM Sunday, February 11, 2018.
Follow
the link for details.
More:
For more outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER® You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS, between Hagan Bridge and Franklinville, Withlacoochee River 2013-04-20.
Category Archives: River
It’s a Go for this weekend’s outings 2018-02-10-11
Update 2018-02-10: And it’s a go for Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee Sunday morning!
Definitely for today’s Five Holes Cleanup at the Suwannee River, and probably for tomorrow’s Hagan Bridge Withlacoochee River paddle (stay tuned for final word on that one).
5 Holes Clean Up at the Suwannee River
Outings Chair Phil Hubbard says:
“We are a GO for the clean up at 5 Holes for this afternoon at 3 PM.”
Five Holes is also known as
Seven Sisters Spring; see also Pictures by Alan Cressler from 2008.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for WWALS at Five Holes, Suwannee River,
2015-08-15.
Withlacoochee River Paddle from Hagan Bridge to Franklinville Road
Phil says: “Like wise, as of the 8 AM forecast we should be a GO for the paddle outing tomorrow with a 25% chance that of now appears to be decreasing during the midday and increasing after sunset. However we shall revisit this one again this afternoon before making a final decision.”
More good news: Continue reading
Rain and this weekend’s outings 2018-02-10-11
Update 2018-02-10: And it’s a go for Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River Sunday morning!
Update 2018-02-10: It’s a Go for Five Holes, and probably for Hagan Bridge.
Even the rain likes the weekend. Multiple weather forecasts show chances of rain ranging from 40% to 100% this weekend. Rain is not the best time to be clambering up and down steep slopes at Five Holes, and a thunderstorm is not a good time to be paddling the Withlacoochee River from Hagan Bridge. But we don’t want to call it early, because then both days would for sure be sunny.
-
So, Outings Chair Phil Hubbard says he will make a decision
on the
5 Holes Clean Up by 10 AM Saturday.
By the way, Five Holes is also known as
Seven Sisters Spring; see also Pictures by Alan Cressler from 2008.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for WWALS at Five Holes, Suwannee River, 2015-08-15. - Phil will make a decision on the Withlacoochee River Paddle from Hagan Bridge to Franklinville Road by Saturday afternoon by 4 PM. The good news: Continue reading
Five Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration, Suwannee River 2018-02-10
Update 2022-05-23: Pictures: Five Holes Cleanup 2018-02-10.
Update 2018-02-10: It’s a Go!.
Join us to clean up and scout a chain of springs and sinks next to the Suwannee River. If it looks good, we may plan a bigger outing later in the year.
No boat required; we’re going by land.
This 5 Holes site exploration is immediately after the Organizing Committee meeting for the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest; you can come to either or both.
When: 3PM, Saturday, February 10, 2018
Where: CR 141 Boat Ramp, aka Florida Campsites Ramp, in Suwannee River State Park.
GPS: 30.414, -83.159167
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members. For non-members, it is $10.00, per decision of the WWALS board at its 14 January 2018 meeting for all WWALS outings scheduled since then. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today! If you want to pay for membership or the outing at the site, please bring cash.
Photo by John S. Quarterman for WWALS, along with many more, from August 15, 2015.
Bring: swimming gear (suit, goggles, etc.), and a change of warm clothes. A rope wouldn’t hurt. Trash pickers and trash bags: this is a cleanup. Most of us do not plan to paddle, but if you want to, you can put in at the boat ramp and paddle upstream to 5 Holes; in that case bring Continue reading
Court rebukes Sabal Trail in pivotal case, may shut it down next week 2018-02-01
Yesterday FERC rubberstamped Sabal Trail’s five-month construction delay, but that same day the DC Circuit Court rejected all arguments by FERC and the pipeline company, and could mandate vacating the pipeline’s permit next week. Meanwhile, Sabal Trail already has been shut down, shipping mostly zero gas since mid-November, when it apparently lost one of its only two customers.
According to an industry publication the case by Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is “the strongest legal rebuke of FERC’s oversight since the rush to build out natural gas pipelines began several years ago” and “a pivotal moment in the evolution of pipeline opposition and broader climate accountability.”
How much delay, lack of gas, loss of customers, and legal setback does it take for a pipeline’s financial backers to pull the plug? Reject, shut off, and revoke. Then go solar, like even Duke Energy is doing in Florida, starting with Hamilton County!
D.C. Circuit Court January 31, 2018,
order denying petition for rehearing en banc.
Ellen M. Gilmer, E&E News, 1 February 2018, D.C. Circuit ruling could shut down pipeline, Continue reading
Committee meeting: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-10
Singing Cedar Key in the summer? How many songs can you name about the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Little (which one?), Grand Bay, Banks Lake, the Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannacoochee Spring, Manatee Springs, or the Dead River Sink? Most people know only one song for all of that. Come on, songwriters, let’s hear more! WWALS members, come help organize the first Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest!
Update 2018-02-03: And you can join us afterwards for 5 Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration, at the Suwannee River but by land.
Sheet music cover of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River”. 1935. Color photoprint. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.
The WWALS Songwriting Contest Committee held its first meeting Sunday, January 28, 2018 at Crossroads Market & Grill in Hamilton County, Florida, with Eileen Box (Chair), Scotti Jay, Sara Squires, and John S. Quarterman. Numerous logistics were discussed, from submission format and content to venue: so far the leading contender is Cedar Key, in Levy County on the Gulf of Mexico.
When: 1PM, Saturday, February 10, 2018
Where: Crossroads Market & Grill, Inc., 5463 State Rd 6 West, Jasper, FL 32052
What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
Hahira: against GA state fee diversions and for WLRWT 2018-01-30
Tonight, a resolution supporting the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, and a resolution for Georgia HR 158 against state fee diversions, (the one already passed by three counties and two cities in the Suwannee River Basin), on the agenda at the Hahira City Council Work Session (and Thursday at the Regular Session). Both will be introduced by Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
When: 6:00 PM, Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Where: Hahira Courthouse, 301 W Main Street, Hahira, GA 31632
What: Work Session, Hahira City Council
Hotchkiss Road Landing, Old State Road, and Naylor Boat Ramp
Common question: isn’t Hotchkiss closed?
Answer: the old
Hotchkiss Landing
in Lowndes County is closed, private, and
don’t go there!
But
Hotchkiss Road Landing
in Lanier County is open as always, do go there to get to the Alapaha River.
And there’s a new park at US 84, with a Naylor Boat Ramp being built
by Lowndes County, as urged by WWALS.
Bret Wagenhorst, Dave Hetzel, Gretchen Quarterman, at Hotchkiss Road (open, do go there
), in Alapaha River Outing, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 24 August 2014.
Previously there was some discussion of using a different name for Hotchkiss Road Landing in the Alapaha River Water Trail, but then nobody would know what we were referring to, since that’s what it’s always been called, down at the end of Hotchkiss Road off of US 84.
For those relatively new to WWALS, WWALS was heavily involved in Continue reading
Gornto Road, Valdosta, access to Withlacoochee River 2018-01-24
It could use some markers to keep people on it and off private property, and maybe some loaner kayak wheels, but there is public access to the Withlacoochee River off of Gornto Road in Valdosta.
Tea-colored water, 16:22:37,, Withlacoochee River 30.8623900, -83.3224600
And a very nice blackwater river it is. Continue reading
Pictures: PCS Phosphate mine permit Public Hearings, Jasper, FL 2018-01-23
See also: Nutrien (PCS Phosphate mine) 5-year permit renewal 2018-03-16.
Update 2018-01-25: Fixed Attorney Scott Shirley’s attribution.
Hamilton County did due diligence by hiring a consultant to review the PCS phosphate mine’s record and permit applications. The Mericles and me were the only non-county non-PCS people who spoke, but the Planning and Zoning Board interacted quite a bit last night at the public hearings. Both the motions they passed recommended approval of the permits, but the second motion included taking into account the points raised by the public, such as better public access to permit materials and review of the mining company’s water quality data.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS,
Left to right:
Deanna Mericle,
Consultant Gregory M. Hitz,
County Attorney Cliff Adams,
Planning and Zoning Board:
A.L. Milner(?),
Eddie Wynn,
Megan Carter,
Jim Tompkins,
Harrell Tyree,
Riley L. Anderson,
for PCS: Attorney Scott Shirley, Danny Johnson.
County Attorney Cliff Adams took notes throughout, and there was a sound recording.
The public consisted of Continue reading