Bad State Line, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-30

Update 2021-02-02: Spook Bridge, Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line: all good, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-31.

Suzy Hall tested for WWALS Saturday at State Line Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River, and got 500 cfu/100 mL, which is well above the 410 one-time test limit. So I’d still avoid boating, swimming, and fishing in that water. I tested at four sites Sunday, so we’ll see if there’s any improvement. But beware more rain fell Sunday, so probably stay off the river for a few more days.

[Bad at State Line, Boat Ramp, Swim Guide]
Bad at State Line, Boat Ramp, Swim Guide

Suzy’s Saturday result is lower than the Thursday State Line results by the Duncans for WWALS and by Madison Health, but still not good. The Swim Guide map is unchanged. Continue reading →

Save Our Suwannee and Jay Jourden band in Lanier County News 2019-09-05

Our second year winner of the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Jay Jourden and his band, was on the front page of the Lanier County News the next month of 2019.

The Fourth Annual Contest is coming up August 21, 2021, at the Turner Center Art Park in Valdosta.

[Story]
Story

Carol A. Moore, Lanier County News, Thursday, September 5, 2019, Berrien Resident Loves Winning “Save Our Suwannee” Song,

Nashville resident Patty Stidham (second from right) couldn’t wait to congratulate the winner of the WWALS Watershed Coalition Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. Jadean Jourden of Ponte Vedra, FL won the overall contest with “Save Our Suwannee” played by his group Newgrass Bluegrass. Jourden has been nominated in this year’s Josie Music Awards as Vocalist of the Year in Jazz/Blues & Rising Star of the year [https://www.josiemusicawards.com/].

All about this year’s contest is here: https://wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-21–songwriting/. Our WWALS Songwriting Contest Committee, which now includes four musicians, is working out the details, including who will be headliners, who will be judges, and some streamlining of the judging process.

[Banner]

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Very bad, health advisory, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-28

Update 2021-02-01: Bad State Line, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-30.

Best avoid the Withlacoochee River for a few days. It rained more Wednesday than last Friday, and this time something definitely washed into the river, confirmed Thursday by both WWALS testers Josh and Angela Duncan and by Madison Health, published by FDEP. Madison and Hamilton Health have published a health advisory for the Withlacoochee River.

[Chart, plate, advisory, Swim Guide map]
Chart, plate, advisory, Swim Guide map

Given that more rain is expected Sunday, it might be prudent to stay off the river until sunny next week. Continue reading →

No Nestle Permit, SRWMD

Update 2021-02-09: Back to Live Oak and online: SRWMD Nestle Special Meeting 2021-02-23.

Update 2021-02-04: Special SRWMD Board Meeting February 23, 2021, in Fanning Springs.

You can address your own postcard to SRWMD:

SRWMD Board Members
9225 CR 49
LIVE OAK, FL 32060

NO Nestlé PERMIT

Just “NO PERMIT” is enough, but No permit for Seven Springs or Nestlé would be better. You don’t even need to know who the Board Members of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) are.

[NO PERMIT postcard to SRWMD]
NO PERMIT postcard to SRWMD
PDF

The lead organization on these postcards is Our Santa Fe River (OSFR). If you’re in High Springs this afternoon, you can get a physical postcard from OSFR board member and WWALS member Kristin Rubin at the High Springs Farmer’s Market, 23517 185th Rd., High Springs, FL, from 3 to 6 PM. Tomorrow, January 30th, OSFR will have cards at 441 Alachua Farmer’s Market, 5920 NW 13th St., Gainesville, FL, from 9 to 12 AM.

But you can use any old postcard. Just address it, put No Permit on it, stamp and mail it.

If you haven’t been following this story, Continue reading →

Videos: Radio: Full Wolf Moon Banks Lake, Mayor’s Paddle, Okefenokee 2021-01-25

It was good to talk about the Banks Lake Full Wolf Moon Paddle this Thursday, and the Mayor’s Paddle coming up in two weeks, Monday morning on Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio. We also talked about water trails and water quality testing.

[Banks Lake Full Wolf Moon Paddle, Mayor's Paddle, Withlacoochee River, and Climate Change]
Banks Lake Full Wolf Moon Paddle, Mayor’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River, and Climate Change

Remember, you can ask the Georgia governor and other elected and appointed officials to stop a strip mine far too near the Okefenokee Swamp, and ask him to stop that wood pellet plant in Adel while you’re at it.

Here’s a WWALS video playlist, or you can pick individual videos below. Continue reading →

Walter Parks, bard of Okefenokee Swamp Hollers

If you like the Okefenokee Swamp and you don’t know Walter Parks, you’ll thank yourself for listening to him.

Walter Parks on twitter

Here’s a video he did for the Library of Congress: Walter Parks: Haunting Swamp Hollers from Georgia.


Walter Parks was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. A consummate guitarist, he formed the duo The Nudes in 1991, and spent much of the 1990s touring with them around the US. The Nudes toured as a supporting act for Woodstock legend Richie Havens, and after the duo’s breakup Parks was enlisted as Havens’s guitarist and right-hand man. With Havens, Walter performed Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and The Cannes Film Festival. With his trio Swamp Cabbage, Walter has performed The Breminale Festival in Germany and toured Spain twice. Through his deep interest in the music of his native region, he has become an expert on the American Folklife Center’s Francis Harper collection of folk music of the Okefenokee Swamp region of Georgia. For the Homegrown 2020 series, he will perform an entire program of material based on field recordings from the AFC’s collections.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Four paddling Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannee River, to the Gulf

The paddlers are currently in the Okefenokee Swamp, expecting to stay at Mixon’s Hammock, just downstream from Stephen C. Foster State Park, tomorrow. Thanks to Visit Dixie County for a place to park their shuttle vehicle for when they arrive at the end of their journey. We will continue to provide the paddlers information and assistance as they travel down the Suwannee River.

[Pictures and Map]
Pictures and Map; see also WWALS map of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail.

Team to Paddle 340 Miles across Georgia and Florida’s Three Threatened Waterways

For Immediate Release (Gastonia, NC) — Four friends are embarking on an ambitious expedition to paddle 340 miles from Fort Clinch State Park on the Atlantic Ocean, up the St. Mary’s River, through the incomparable Okefenokee Swamp, and down the Suwannee River to the Gulf of Mexico. Why? For fun…and to help raise awareness for these beautiful and threatened waterways. Trip dates are January 20 — February 16, 2021.

The team consists of Continue reading →

Bad Friday after rain, Better Sunday, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-24

Update 2021-01-29: Very bad, health advisory, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-28.

As expected, the big rains Friday caused contamination on the Withlacoochee River, according to Valdosta’s upstream data for US 41, GA 133, and US 84. Everything was clean the day before, both upstream and down. We don’t know about downstream again until I tested Sunday. While Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps were not as clean as we like, they were well within the one-time test limit of 410 cfu/100 mL E. coli. So it appears that if the downstream sites were contaminated Friday, most of that had already washed away in the rest of the rainwater by Sunday.

[KF, Nankin, SL, chart, Swim Guide]
KF, Nankin, SL, chart, Swim Guide

Apparently the Withlacoochee River is clean again, although we do not have many datapoints yet. Be warned more rain is expected today. Continue reading →

Radio: Full Wolf Moon Banks Lake, Mayor’s Paddle, Okefenokee 2021-01-25

Update 2021-01-27: Videos: Radio: Full Wolf Moon Banks Lake, Mayor’s Paddle, Okefenokee.

Monday morning at 8AM, Suwannee Riverkeeper will be on Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio, about the Banks Lake Full Wolf Moon Paddle this Tuesday Thursday, the Mayor’s Paddle coming up in two weeks, and how you can ask the Georgia governor and other elected and appointed officials to stop a strip mine far too near the Okefenokee Swamp, and ask him to stop that wood pellet plant in Adel while you’re at it.

We’ll probably also talk about water trails, water quailty testing, and who knows what else.

[Last time, 2020-12-14]
Last time, 2020-12-14

When: 8 AM, Monday, January 25, 2021

Where: Talk 92.1 FM radio, Scott James drivetime show
https://talk921.com/

Listen: Over the air, or through the radio show’s own website, or through any of several online listening services.

Event: facebook

For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee 2020-01-14 and Suwannee River tests 2021-01-18

Update 2021-01-26: Bad Friday after rain, Better Sunday, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-24.

Thanks to WWALS testers Jacob and Michael Bachrach, we know the Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp was finally low enough to test, and tested good. Ditto Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps, all from Thursday a week ago. This corroborated what Madison Health found at the state line and downstream that same day.

[Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line, chart, Gibson Park, Swim Guide]
Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line, chart, Gibson Park, Swim Guide

Meanwhile, this Monday, Suzy Hall tested Gibson Park Ramp on the Suwannee River, and found it good. The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for upstream Wednesday aweek ago, but those were good for US 41, GA 133, and US 84. I did ask Valdosta yesterday for an update, but so far nothing.

There’s been no significant rain since last week. So, as far as we know, good to go, for boating, swimming, and fishing, in the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.

The Swim Guide map of WWALS “beaches” now includes Gibson Park Ramp, which, even though it is on the Suwannee River, is the last downstream stop on the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail.

[Map: Swim Guide]
Map: Swim Guide

The Langdale Park and US 84 “beaches” show up yellow for historically mixed results, because those most recent Valdosta tests at US 41 and US 84 (and GA 31) are now more than a week old. Continue reading →