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 to FWC BAC against paid permits for paddle boats 2017-11-27
Sent today. See also PDF, and previous posts about what you can do. -jsq
To:
Nick Wiley, Executive Director
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600
850-488-2975
nick.wiley@MyFWC.com
Emily Herschman Davis: 850-617-9577
emily.herschman@MyFWC.com
Colonel Curtis Brown, Chairman
Boating Advisory Committee (BAC)
Curtis.Brown@MyFWC.com
Captain William Griswold, Chairman
Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG)
WSGriz@aol.com
Re: Paid permits for non-motorized boats
Dear E.D. Wiley, Chairman Brown, and Chairman Griswold,
As the head of an organization that holds many paddle outings in Florida, I thank you for holding a public meeting tomorrow of the Boating Advisory Council that could finally put to rest the ill-advised idea of charging permit fees for paddle boats or boards. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, so I am sending this letter.
Stean Rayer, Ying Wang, Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR), University of Florida, 30 October 2014, Measuring Population Density for Counties in Florida
Thank you, FWC Executive Director Wiley, for saying back in February Continue reading
NMBWG and BAC going for paydirt of paid paddle permits
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Florida Boating Advisory Council (BAC). More below on what you can do, plus still more apparent term limit overruns, paddle boaters represented by a yacht business owner, the last NMBWG meeting, the paydirt of paddlers pay (for marinas), and what that would cost.
After a decade of BAC attempts to charge people for paddling (see yesterday’s installment), in 2015 the BAC decided it needed a sub-group:
“The Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG) was created by the Boating Advisory Council at its May 18, 2015 meeting. The purpose of the working group is to address four core areas of non-motorized boating: access, education, safety, and user pay/user benefit.”
It doesn’t take much reading of the NMBWG minutes to infer that the whole goal of this group was not access, education, safety, nor (non-motorized boater) user benefit, but “user pay”.
Yacht Octopus by Peter Sleeckx, 2 December 2006,
CC BY-SA 3.0.
Term limits apparently don’t apply
Continue readingMore than a decade of attempts to charge permits for paddle boats
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Boating Advisory Council.
For more than a decade, at least half its lifetime, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Boating Advisory Council (BAC) has been trying to find a way to charge permit fees for registration of non-motorized boats. Here’s the story so far, which will make clear there’s no reason to believe such efforts will stop. Also including not one, but two BAC members mysteriously serving longer than state-mandated term limits would seem to allow. Is it really about the children? Or is it about marinas, that paddle boaters don’t use? With a special appearance by the Florida state rep. who sponsored the law that expedited WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP.
The Boating Advisory Council (BAC) was created Continue reading
Paid permitting of paddle boats and boards Tuesday? 2017-11-28
One group wouldn’t do it, so its parent may: require paid permits for paddle boats and boards in Florida.
When: 9AM, Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Where:
Mission Inn,
10400 County Road 48,
Howey-in-the-Hills, 34737
That’s a golf club resort halfway between The Villages and Orlando,
rooms $179 to $246 for Monday night.
Who: Boating Advisory Council (BAC) of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
Event:
On the agenda
under “Unfinished Business / Updates”:
“Non-Motorized Boat Working Group Recommendations Review — William Griswold”
TripAdvisor, Mission Inn Resort & Club, 10400 County Road 48, Howey in the Hills, FL 34737-3000
How to Comment: Continue reading
Langdale Park open 2017-11-01
Back open after many months with much improved internal roads, and no sandbar across the boat ramp! Thank you, Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA). Downstream five miles on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail hang a right at the Little River Confluence and about a third of a mile upstream you’ll come to Troupville Landing.
There are still a few deadfalls. Next upstream Continue reading
Troupville Landing: Little River GA 133 Boat Ramp 2017-09-01
Thanks to Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) for fixing up the access to what it calls Little River Boat Ramp, on GA 133 west of Valdosta off I-75 Exit 18. WWALS calls it Troupville Landing, after Troupville, the Lowndes County seat before Valdosta, just downstream at the confluence with the Withlacoochee River. It’s the most downstream access to the Little River on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
It’s also called the prison boat ramp, after the state prison across the road. Here’s looking upstream to the bridge. Continue reading
Hagan Bridge to Franklinville, Withlacoochee River, 2018-02-11
Join WWALS for a leisurely Sunday 5.7 mile paddle on the Withlacoochee from Hagan Bridge Landing to Franklinville Road Landing, through a very rural region of Lowndes County, Georgia, on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
When: 10 AM, Sunday, February 11, 2018.
Put In: Hagan Bridge Landing, MILE 84.4, 5110 GA Hwy 122 E, Hahira, GA 31632, Lowndes County. 5 miles east of Hahira, GA. Between Hahira and Lakeland. Also known as GA 122 Withlacoochee Access.
Take Out: Franklinville Road Landing, MILE 78.71, 6560 Franklinville Road, Hahira, GA 31632. Lowndes County. Between Hahira and Moody AFB on dirt Franklinville Road off of Skipper Bridge Road. Do come in from Skipper Bridge Road: Tyler Bridge on Franklinville Road is closed, so you can’t get to the landing there from Cat Creek Road. On the way out we will view the Franklinville Monument, marking the original county seat of Lowndes County.
Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is Free! And we recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman,
2013-04-20.
Sabal Trail no gas for a week?
Has Sabal Trail been shut down for a week? Its FERC-required online reports seem to say so, while Gulfstream and FGT numbers jumped up that same day. Read to the end for something even more interesting.
2017-11-13, Operationally Available Capacity
While Cap stays about the same 789 million dekatherms per day (MDTH/day), Nom drops from around 186 on November 13th to zero or less on November 14th, and stays zero for a week; still zero this morning.
2017-11-14, Operationally Available Capacity
What’s Nom? Apparently Continue reading
Nine Riverkeepers say FERC’s Sabal Trail SEIS unacceptable; request pipeline shutdown
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, November 21, 2017 — Factually incorrect, failing to account for LNG export or solar power, and irresponsible for not finding or creating a method for attributing environmental effects to greenhouse gases, as the DC Circuit Court had instructed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to do: that’s what nine Riverkeepers called FERC’s Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) yesterday; see their letter to FERC. The nine include all the Riverkeepers in the path of Sabal Trail and all parts of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP) plus others in all three states invaded by those pipelines, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, plus Oklahoma, where the SMPP instigator, Florida Power & Light (FPL), owns a fracking field, The nine, who support fishable, swimmable, drinkable water, pointed out that all of FPL’s original excuses for Sabal Trail have been proven incorrect, and asked FERC to shut it down.
Sabal Trail in green, Transco and FSC in black, in Sierra Club interactive map of gas pipelines.
The Riverkeepers weren’t buying FERC’s ignorance: Continue reading