Category Archives: Springs

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.

Event: facebook meetup

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 →

Manatee Springs State Park Public Meeting 2018-01-09

Received from FDEP yesterday afternoon (not much notice), Manatee Springs State Park to Host Public Meeting,

CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT
CONTACT: DEP Press Office, 850.245.2112, DEPNews@dep.state.fl.us
Manatee Springs State Park to Host Public Meeting
~The public is invited to provide comments on the draft plan~
WHAT: Public Meeting
WHEN: Jan. 9, 2018
5:30 — 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Chiefland Women’s Club
825 E. Park Ave.
Chiefland, FL 32626
DEP’s Florida Park Service is in the process of updating the unit management plan for Manatee Springs State Park. Citizens are invited to attend a public meeting to learn about the proposed plans for the state park and provide their comments.

Continue reading →

Dead River Sink and Iche Nippy Dip Day 2018-01-06

Reminder: the first leg of the Alapaha Quest has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 27, 2018, so see you at Sheboggy Landing then, not tomorrow.

However, if you want to get out in the cold this Saturday, January 6, 2018, other groups have two outings scheduled in the Suwannee River Basin: Alapaha Dead River Hike and Iche Nippy Dip Day.

Iche Nippy Dip Day

Ichetucknee Springs State Park says: Continue reading →

Manatee Springs to Fowlers Bluff, Suwannee River, 2018-02-24

The manatees come in from the cold in February, to Manatee Springs; we’ll paddle from there 8.3 miles down the very wide Suwannee River to Fowlers Bluff, where we plan a water quality testing demo and possibly an oyster roast.

When: 9 AM, Saturday, February 24, 2018

Put In: Manatee Springs State Park, 11650 NW 115 St, Chiefland, FL 32626

Directions: at the end of S.R. 320, off U.S. 98, six miles west of Chiefland.

GPS: 29.4894572,-82.9769455

Take Out: Fowlers Bluff Ramp, 15597 NW 46th Lane, Chiefland, FL 32626. 29.396410, -83.026030

Free: This outing is Free! And we recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

Photo: Scotti Jay

Continue reading →

Arnold Springs, Mozell Spells, Withlacoochee River 2017-10-14

A fine fall day with diving and landowners at Arnold Springs, Old Clyattville Road Bridge, exotic invasive Japanese Climbing Fern, Horn Bridge, and Mozell Spells (State Line Ramp): on the Withlacoochee River with WWALS Watershed Coalition, Suwannee Riverkeeper. Thanks to all who came to paddle from as far as two hours from Gainesville, Florida and four hours from Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Blue-green Arnold Springs water meets tea-colored Withlacoochee River water.

The Quitman Gauge (US 84) read 2.17 feet (85.67 NAVD88), which was slightly above our recommended low level, and just fine for Arnold Springs. Here are some pictures and a Google Map. A few videos will follow.

This part of the outing was all in Georgia, but we paddled downstream from Florida to get there; see Continue reading →

Cleanup and outing, Nankin, Mcintyre and Arnold Springs, Mozell Spells, Withlacoochee River 2017-10-14

Tires and trash cleaned up at Nankin Boat Ramp, swimming and diver tales at McIntyre Spring, a creek, karst, shoals, and rapids, into Florida and back to Georgia all downstream, Valdosta Railway Trestle, Madison County Four Freedoms Trail, and exotic invasive Japanese Climbing Fern, all on a fall day on the Withlacoochee River with WWALS Watershed Coalition, Suwannee Riverkeeper. Thanks to all who came to paddle from as far as two hours from Gainesville, Florida and four hours from Pine Mountain, Georgia.

The Quitman (US 84) Gauge was at about 2.6′ (86′ NAVD88).

Here are some pictures.

This post is just the first part; more pictures ~~will follow~~ are posted with diving and landowners at Arnold Springs, Old Clyattville Road Bridge Horn Bridge, and Mozell Spells (State Line Ramp). and a Google Map, and a few videos are still to come.

These are some of our many favorite spots on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Watch wwals.net for more outings are they are announced, or see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. We have outings at least once a month.

Banner and fourteen picker-uppers, 09:55:21,, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Cleanup 30.6749200, -83.3939200

Continue reading →

Diving McIntyre Spring 2017-11-18

One of the original explorers revisited south Georgia’s only known extensive underground spring cave system forty years later: McIntyre Spring on the Withlacoochee River.

Photo: Guy Bryant

Who would have thought that off the Withlacoochee River under Brooks County, Georgia there were caves so big you can hardly see both the diver and the edge: Continue reading →

Global Croplands, Suwannee River Basin

You can see on these maps that the Suwannee River Basin is massively agricultural, except where it’s forestry or swamp or other wetlands. Thus it’s no wonder that most of the nitrate runoff problem here is due to agriculture, as shown in the Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs).

WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter points to this Global Croplands map to illustrate the BMAP issues. The question remains of whether agricultural best management practices as advocated in the recent BMAP meetings will be sufficient to deal with the problem, considering they haven’t decreased it in the past decade.

Global Croplands About: Continue reading →

Two public meetings about the new Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park

Today (Tuesday) and Thursday, public workshops about Florida’s newest state park, Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park.

When: 5:30-8PM, Tuesday,
November 28, 2017

Where: 23760 NW 187th Avenue,
High Springs, FL 32643
Santa Fe Room,
Old School Community Center

When: 5:30-8PM, Thursday,
November 30, 2017

Where: 105 NE 11th Avenue,
Trenton, FL 32643
Gilchrist County
Public Library

A COPY OF THE AGENDA MAY BE OBTAINED BY Continue reading →

Mt Zion United Methodist Church Spring, Clyattville, GA

Aaron Sirmons sent these pictures. He was tipped off by Guy Bryant.

Apparently the church used to use the spring for baptisms. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.