The South Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC)
produced this interesting map of the Alapahoochee River Watershed
I saw on the counter while visiting the USDA FSA office in Valdosta about something unrelated.
Curiously, it doesn’t show the actual river nor its tributaries
Mud Creek and Grand Bay Creek.
But it does show that this watershed includes much of Valdosta,
half of Dasher, and all of Lake Park. Continue reading
Category Archives: River
WWALS July 19 outing.
Update 2014-07-17: River water too low. Outing instead at 8:30AM Saturday 19 July 2014 at Banks Lake.
We should be @ Gaskins Environment Education Center By noon so we can put in @ 12:30 on the Alapaha River upstream and back paddle. Time on water: 2 hr. Tour the center before or after paddle. The Gaskins Forest Education Center is location @ 3359 Moore Sawmill Rd, Alapaha, GA 31622. Alternate if water too low: Banks lake at Ga. hwy 122.
WWALS June 28 on Little River @ GA 133
We launched @ Little River boat ramp in the VLCPRA area at GA 133.
So we headed
upstream about mile & half.
Continue reading
Proposed EPA Water rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes some new rules to
clarify Clean Water Act protection.
Some people and organizations have concerns about that,
and the EPA has now responded to those concerns.
Comment periods are still open for you to provide input directly to EPA
about the proposed rule.
Here’s the EPA’s Waters of the United States Proposed Rule. EPA says clarification of the Clean Water Act was requested by a broad range of state, tribal, and local government agencies and elected officials and NGOs, ranging from AASHTO to the National Association of State Foresters. One of the two examples EPA cites of state enforcement problems is on the Flint River in Georgia:
Recreation in Lake Blackshear, Georgia
Continue reading
Suwannee Bioregion Coalition?
Related to
population centers in the Suwannee River watershed,
someone asked,
“Do we need an interstate Suwannee Bioregion Coalition to guard the waters that feed into the Suwannee River?”
We’ve got pieces of it already cooperating to some extent in opposing
the Sabal Trail pipeline.
There are many other even larger issues that everyone in the Suwannee River
basin faces.
In south Georgia and north Florida we have Continue reading
Our Santa Fe River and Ichetucknee Alliance for water conservation
Much conservation activism lately on
the third main tributary of the Suwannee River, the Santa Fe River,
with its tributary the Ichetucknee River, both completely in Florida,
unlike WWALS’ Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, which cross from Georgia
into Florida.
They each have their own watershed groups, somewhat like WWALS.
Christopher Curry wrote for the Gainesville Sun 21 June 2014, Grassroots environmentalists fight to protect Ichetucknee, Santa Fe,
At the head spring, a woman stands in knee-deep water on the stairs leading into the swimming hole. About 20 feet in front of her, splashing, swimming family members shout out some encouragement to try to coax her into the cold blue water.
It’s an idyllic scene of summer fun. At a nearby picnic table in the shade, the atmosphere is more serious.
There, some folks from two small but active environmental groups in the Suwannee River Water Management District — Our Santa Fe River and the Ichetucknee Alliance — are gathered, sharing Continue reading
Alapaha Greenway Trail?
A Greenway Trail is an onland version of the sort of Blueways or Water Trails WWALS is working on. WWALS board member Chris Graham got a very nice spread in one of the Lakeland newspapers today about Greenways, speaking for himself. -jsq
Lanier County Advocate, 4 June 2014, Page 12, Local nature enthusiast hoping to bring Greenway Trail to Lakeland,
Naylor native Christopher Graham has spent the majority of his life exploring the great outdoors every chance he gets.
Currently, Graham serves on the board of the Water Shed group to help ensure local rivers are clean and safe for citizens to enjoy. But what Graham has been striving for is to bring a Greenway Trail to the local area.
What are Greenway Trails? Continue reading
Avoid our area –Florida’s Suwannee River Water Management District to FERC
What
they told FERC today
was more subtle than just “avoid our area”, but after
the Sabal Trail methane pipeline avoid
karst limestone, any unconfined areas of our Floridan aquifer,
caves, springs, wetlands, drilling under rivers, blasting,
or using groundwater for testing pipes or disposing of it afterwards,
where can that pipeline go?
The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) covers the Florida parts of WWALS’ watersheds, and our Withlacoochee River is named in the SRWMD comments. Unlike Georgia’s Suwannee-Satilla Water management District, SRWMD has state funding and staff that produced some very interesting comments.
This is the first I’ve heard of this point about source and disposal of testing water: Continue reading
Cancelled due to high water: Paddle Against the Pipeline 19 April 2014
This weekend’s boat outing is cancelled due to flood-stage water levels in the Withlacoochee River, with more rain expected Friday. To be rescheduled.
Continue reading2nd annual BIG Little River Paddle Event is postponed.
The ranger at Reed Bingham has elected to postpone the paddle event due to unsafe water levels on the Little River in the park and no significant drop in water levels today. I think this is the right thing to do. We want a safe, fun event.
The event will be moved to Saturday, March 29 at same times.
Anyone who pre-registered for the event who does not wish to come on the 29th will be given a refund.
Feel free to call me with any questions or concerns.
Bret