Rescheduled from July,
WWALS Ambassador
Dave Hetzel will speak about the
Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT), which is
now looking to place signs and reprint brochures,
and the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WRWT),
whose Committee is looking for more members,
at the
Southern Georgia Regional Commission Council
meeting September 24th in Pearson, Georgia.
When: 11AM Thursday September 24th, 2015
Where: Continue reading
Also boating, deadfalls, steam engine, and rapids. Diane Shearer presented slides about the Alapaha River of her homeland, 31 March 2012 at Georgia River Network Weekend for Rivers, and said:
Right there at Alapaha, where it’s been clearcut behind it. This is one of the main problems of the river: there used to be nothing on that shore there but huge cypress trees and tupelo trees, and that’s almost gone everywhere. And that’s one of the great dangers to this river, is agricultural runoff, the fact that people can suck all the water out of it they want to, for irrigation and those sorts of things.
The video starts Continue reading
According to GA-DNR, 17 August 2015,
The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Council will meet on Monday, August 31, 2015 at 10:00am in the meeting room of
Aniston’s Restaurant, located at 1404 W. Baker Highway, Douglas, GA. Registration begins at 9:30am. The Council will be hearing presentations on surface water supply and agricultural water-use forecasting. The Council will also be discussing items for consideration in the revision and update of the 2011 Regional Water Plan.
Here are the LAKE videos of their June meeting and here is the announcement for their July meeting; the LAKE videos for that last one will be available soon.
-jsq
From Douglas and Tifton, Georgia through Florida to South America and South Africa,
they ate bon-bons and floated and climbed to see springs, caves at Five Holes, and said what they thought about the
Sabal Trail pipeline proposing to gouge across the Suwannee River,
on the
WWALS Outing Saturday August 15th 2015.
Update 2018-02-12: 5 Holes (also known as Hamilton Seven Sisters Spring) is on Suwannee River State Park (SRSP) land, and is normally closed to the public. We did have permission for this outing, thanks to Park Manager Craig Liney, as well as for the later Five Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration.
Expedition leader Chris Mericle reports he’s gotten the Suwannee River State Park vehicle entrance fees waived for this weekend’s outing, plus a permit
…to view a unique closed area of the park called “5 Holes”. 5 Holes is a series of karst windows leading to a spring. When the water level is right you can walk through a semi-cavern from the river up the spring run to the spring.
So meet us 8AM tomorrow morning, Saturday, August 15h, 2015 at Gibson Park!
James Garrett posted some Continue reading
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter says the Naylor Boat Ramp is
on schedule for completion this fall, provided the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources returns the appropriate permits.
At last night’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Sesssion, WWALS president John S. Quarterman displayed the Alapaha River Water Trail brochures, pointing out the Naylor Boat Ramp on the map. He, ok, I, asked what was the status of that project that Lowndes County is building with SPLOST funds.
Nobody answered in the public meeting, but afterwards Continue reading
Update 2015-08-14: Now plus Five Holes caves at Suwannee River State Park!
This flag marks where Sabal Trail plans to drill under the Suwannee River,
pictured today by Chris Mericle, who also pictured
a number spraypainted on a tree and remarked:
I know it is a small thing but, it is this lack of respect for nature that we will be forced to endure if this pipeline is permitted.
With FL DEP proposing to issue a permit for Sabal Trail, let’s go investigate, and have some fun at the same time.
First we’ll look at the
Alapaha Rise, which is where some of the water that disappears from the Alapaha River at its
sinks comes back up out of the Floridan Aquifer.
To get to the Rise we paddle upstream on the Suwannee River,
then Continue reading
The Upper Suwannee River is new to the
WWALS Mission.
WWALS Watershed Coalition, a WATERKEEPER® Affiliate,
applied in July to WATERKEEPER® Alliance to add that new
territory, which was approved 15 July 2015.
Three years ago when WWALS was forming, we decided not to include the Upper Suwannee at that time, because we wanted time to solidify WWALS as an organization in its smaller territory of the watersheds of the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers and all their tributaries. Even then, we put the S in WWALS so it could be redefined to mean Suwannee, so our acronym would expand to Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds.
WWALS now asks Waterkeeper to add Upper Suwannee HUC 03110201 to WWALS territory.
HUC is United States Geological Survey (USGS) jargon for Hydrologic Unit Code. Upper Suwannee HUC 03110201 is everything from the Withlacoochee Confluence upstream that drains into the Suwannee River. This 2720 square miles: Continue reading
This clarification of the WWALS Mission was adopted by the WWALS Board at its 8 July 2015 Board Meeting:
WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the
Withlacoochee,
Willacoochee,
Alapaha,
Little, and Upper
Suwannee River
watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.
For what each of those terms means, and how they relate to the Goals for 2015 adopted at the same meeting, see Explanation.
To help WWALS accomplish these goals to further its mission, you can join WWALS today!
-jsq
The Florida Department of Greenways and Trails now
links to WWALS
for the
Alapaha River Water Trail.
Chris Mericle, who negotiated this for WWALS, says:
This action will shine a brighter and wider light on WWALS, anyone searching the Greenways and Trails website and clicks on the ARWT will be directed to WWALS.
Follow the link to see.
We’re also looking for pictures Continue reading