Volunteering with WWALS 2025-11-21

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Why would you volunteer with WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS)? How can you help the Suwannee Riverkeeper keep the waters clean in the 10,000 square miles of the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida?

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Volunteering isn’t just about giving your time. It’s about making a meaningful impact on your local environment. WWALS is dedicated to preserving the waters of the Suwannee River Basin, advocating for clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water. See wwals.net

By stepping up as a volunteer, you become part of this collective effort: be it paddling an outreach event, testing water quality, writing a grant, or promoting awareness. You’re helping safeguard our local rivers, aquifers, and wetlands — a cause that aligns well with your love for kayaking, chasing waterfalls and sunsets.

How to Get Involved

WWALS offers a variety of committees that handle many of the organization’s activities. These committees are the heart of volunteering and most are open to non-board members.

Here’s how you can get started:

Continue reading →

Pictures: Tire, rim, antique bottles, pull-top cans, traffic cone, RCA TV, and wasp nest from Withlacoochee River, KF to Nankin 2025-11-12

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Kyle Keller found a vintage Coca-Cola bottle made in Valdosta, Scotti Jay and Will Hart found antique pull-tab cans, and Will pulled up a tire rim with a bottle embedded. Melissa Stewart raised a traffic cone, a large piece of metal, a tire, an RCA TV, and a wasp nest.

In addition to these things we could find only at very low water, everybody found the usual more recent single-use throwaway plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, and cans.

[Traffic cone, big metal, tire, rim, antique bottles, pull-tab cans, RCA TV, wasp nest, WWALS Withlacoochee River cleanup, Part 2 of KF to Nankin 2025-11-22]
Traffic cone, big metal, tire, rim, antique bottles, pull-tab cans, RCA TV, wasp nest, WWALS Withlacoochee River cleanup, Part 2 of KF to Nankin 2025-11-22

Here’s a video:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1267738521828643

https://youtu.be/W_VkwSm2e80?si=lMh1LKJdmqJoW3Cc Continue reading →

Where does this little creek by Knights Ferry Boat Ramp come from? 2205-11-22

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Update 2025-12-02: Pictures: Tire, rim, antique bottles, pull-top cans, traffic cone, RCA TV, and wasp nest from Withlacoochee River, KF to Nankin 2025-11-12.

It was running a steady stream even though the Withlacoochee River was very low, when we set out to paddle from Knights Ferry Boat Ramp to Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp on Saturday, November 22, 2025.

Scotti Jay first asked this question: What is the source of this creek’s water?

[Where does this little creek by Knights Ferry Boat Ramp come from? Is it from a spring?]
Where does this little creek by Knights Ferry Boat Ramp come from? Is it from a spring?

Here’s a video of this little creek running:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/2640393432991196

https://youtu.be/3Ws6mzlmWcs Continue reading →

Full Cold Moon Paddle, Banks Lake 2025-12-04

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Join us for a leisurely Sunset and Full Moon Paddle on Banks Lake, our mini-Okefenokee. Maybe we will see bats.

Full Moon paddle regulars, Holly Jones and Xiaoai Ren, will be leading this paddle.

When: Gather 4:15 PM, launch 4:45 PM, moonrise 5:07 PM, sunset 5:31 PM, end 6:15 PM, Thursday, December 4, 2025

Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County, on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT).

GPS: 31.034824, -83.096725

[Full Cold Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, Lakeland, GA, Sunset, Moonrise, Maybe bats 2025-12-04]
Full Cold Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, Lakeland, GA, Sunset, Moonrise, Maybe bats 2025-12-04

Continue reading →

Pictures: Knights Ferry to Nankin Clean Up, Withlacoochee River 2025-11-22

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Update 2025-12-02: Where does this little creek by Knights Ferry Boat Ramp come from? 2205-11-22.

At Knights Ferry Boat Ramp we collected some trash, including three mattresses. Our shuttle provider was Will Hart’s State Line River Outfitters.

We installed new versions of the signs for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT). Thanks to Micah Cofield for digging the posthole. The third try found a spot with no rocks. These signs were mostly paid for by a generous grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR).

I’ve lost count how many sets of signs we’ve installed at Knights Ferry. I think this was the fourth set. Y’all don’t shoot them up this time, eh?

[Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, Mattresses, signs, and trash, Old Bridge pilings, Canoe on the bottom 2025-11-22]
Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, Mattresses, signs, and trash, Old Bridge pilings, Canoe on the bottom 2025-11-22

Thanks to Maya Loizeaux for collecting trash. Micah and Maya did not paddle, but they helped.

Thanks to Pam Maxwell for coming down to join WWALS. She did not paddle.

This is part one of the WWALS cleanup from Knights Ferry to Nankin Boat Ramp, on November 22, 2025, led by Will Hart and Scotti Jay.

Our seven paddlers saw the pilings of Old Knights Ferry Bridge sticking out. Before that bridge was built, there was Knights Ferry. Now there is no bridge and no ferry, but you still get there on Knights Ferry Road.

Will Hart spotted a boat on the bottom. We did not raise it. We did raise a bunch of other things later.

We snaked through a couple of sets of rocks in the first quarter mile downstream.

Here’s a video:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/853304003762459

https://youtu.be/gwKm-c1ObpM Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek 2025-11-26

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Even upstream, the Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week.

And Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks tested pretty clean, except at Gornto Road.

This is according to Valdosta Utilities results, which match the weekend results previously reported from WWALS testers.

Apparently the effects of the small Valdosta sewage spill into Sugar Creek Wednesday last week have washed out of the Withlacoochee River downstream.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek, No new sewage spills, No rain 2025-11-26]
Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek, No new sewage spills, No rain 2025-11-26

No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia since the small Valdosta spill into Sugar Creek on Wednesday, November 11, 2025.

No rain is predicted until Tuesday.

So if you can find enough water, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results rainfall and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.

[Chart: Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek 2025-11-26]
Chart: Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek 2025-11-26 Continue reading →

Survey: Outstanding Florida Springs 2025-11-24

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Alex Krest, a student at the University of South Florida, is conducting an Outstanding Florida Springs Survey.

It’s fifteen questions, online:

https://forms.office.com/r/cNQrJP2uRw

[Ofs-survey-qrcode]
Ofs-survey-qrcode

You can help out a student and maybe indirectly help do something about Florida springs.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC 2025-11-21

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Heather Brasell got WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman invited to talk about water quality with students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC). They did this in the classroom at the Gaskins Forest Education Center (GFEC) and onsite at streams coming from the Town of Alapaha Wastewater Treatment Plant.

[WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC, Watersheds and microbes, plants and animals 2025-11-21]
WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC, Watersheds and microbes, plants and animals 2025-11-21

They did the classroom part at Gaskins Forest Education Center (GFEC), 3359 Moore Sawmill Rd, Alapaha, GA 31622, in Berrien County. Gretchen talked about what watersheds are, about the watersheds of the Suwannee River Basin, about WWALS, and generally about Georgia Adopt-A-Stream water quality testing such as WWALS does. Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-11-22

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Update 2025-11-28: Clean Withlacoochee River, Mostly Clean Sugar Creek 2025-11-26.

Better news from two recent Withlacoochee River water quality samples.

Apparently the effects of the small Valdosta sewage spill into Sugar Creek Wednesday have washed out of the Withlacoochee River downstream, at least where we tested.

Suzy Hall got zero (0) E. coli for Friday at State Line Boat Ramp, aka Mozell Spells.

John S. Quarterman got 100 cfu/100 mL for Saturday nine miles upstream at Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp.

Those are both less than the 126 cfu/100 mL three-test average limit, so quite clean.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean downstream Withlacoochee River, State Line 2025-11-21, Nankin Boat Ramp 2025-11-22]
Clean downstream Withlacoochee River, State Line 2025-11-21, Nankin Boat Ramp 2025-11-22

Nankin Boat Ramp is also 15 river miles downstream from US 84 and 27 miles downstream from GA 133 where Valdosta Utilities got way-too-high E. coli for Thursday. And about 30 miles downstream from Sugar Creek, where WWALS tester Suzy Hall got even worse Too Numerous to Count (TNTC) for Wednesday.

These new WWALS results match the zero (0) that WWALS tester Russ Tatum got for Wednesday at Holly Point, on the Withlacoochee River in Florida a few miles upstream from the Suwannee River.

So if you can find enough water, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing, at least downstream on the Withlacoochee River.

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results rainfall and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Where does southwest Waycross drain? 2025-11-23

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According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Suwannee River Basin starts in Waycross, Georgia, around a line south down Gibbs Street, east on Walker Road, south on Gilmore Street, south down Swamp Road, then east along Washington Drive.

[Where does southwest Waycross drain? Through Lees Branch, into Middle Fork, Suwannee River]
Where does southwest Waycross drain? Through Lees Branch, into Middle Fork, Suwannee River

But what about the drainage canal you can see running southwest from Brunel Street across Gibbs Street?

Looks to me like that goes into the Suwannee River Basin.

People who live in Waycross, tell me if I got this right.

[Map: SW from Brunel Street --SRWT 2025-11-23]
Map: SW from Brunel Street on the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail (SRWT).

North across Washington Street, there is a network of ditches that drains into Caney Branch into the Satilla River. Continue reading →