Tag Archives: Bird Chamberlain

Pictures: Alapahoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2024-07-21

The Alapahoochee River Cleanup was jam-packed, all right, but not exactly how we expected:

There was almost none of the usual trash, but eight of us found something unexpected in the river.

Alapahoochee River, Chainsaw cleanup 2024-07-21, Snake in hollow log, Dead gator under log

Shawn O’Connor and Quen Metzler and I sawed through the first deadfall in several places. At the last cut, Shawn found a snake in the hollow log. We never did see what kind.

Bird Chamberlain, leading this outing, had already fallen in at the first deadfall. He was in the water pulling sawed logs out of the way.

Shawn said to Bird, that log’s stuck on a sandbar, see if you can pull it over.

Bird pulled, and it wasn’t a sandbar.

A dead gator floated up.

Not knowing the gator was dead, Bird apparently walked on water back to his boat. “I don’t want to play anymore,” he said.

Here are some video snippets: Continue reading →

Alapahoochee River Cleanup, 2024-07-21

Update 2024-07-22: Pictures: Alapahoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2024-07-21.

Join us for a river cleanup including many deadfalls, some interesting creeks, an old steel bridge, some rapids, and Turket Creek Waterfall.

Most paddlers will paddle and collect trash, and some of us will have chainsaws.

This is a relatively strenuous paddle, so it is not recommended for beginners. It’s only 2.83 river miles, but it’s jam-packed.

Thanks to Bird Chamberlain, who lives nearby, for leading this outing.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 10 AM, end 2 PM, Sunday, July 21, 2024

Put In: GA 135 Alapahoochee Landing, Between Jennings, Florida, and Statenville, Georgia, in Echols County, 3/4 mile upstream of the GA-FL line and west of Pear Tree Lane, north side of road, left (west) bank.

GPS: 30.62845, -83.0893

Alapahoochee River, Cleanup 2024-07-21, GA 135 to, Sasser Landing

Continue reading →

Pictures: Florida Folk Festival Sunday 2024-05-26

The petition for a Florida Constitutional Amendment for Right to Clean Water brought many people to the WWALS Booth. They went away with a WWALS flyer, so RTCW meshes will with other WWALS activities.

Florida Folk Festival, Sunday 2024-05-26, Florida Petition for Right to Clean Water

Sarah Younger of Sierra Club Suwannee-St. Johns Group shows how to sign the petition. We got 90 signatures on the banks of the Suwannee River in White Springs, Florida, at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park.

Florida registered voters can sign any time:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org

Each signature gets us (and all the other groups participating) closer to getting the petition through Florida Supreme Court review and onto the 2026 ballot. The beauty of it is that it doesn’t go through governor or the legislature. And once it gets on the ballot, environmental constitutional amendments tend to get approved by huge margins. Which will put it in Article I, along with other basic human rights such as freedom of speech.

Many thanks to WWALS volunteers Gee Edwards and Bird Chamberlain for helping. Continue reading →

Pictures: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle 2023-03-04

Update 2023-03-13: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle in Valdosta Daily Times and WWALS video of what the Mayor and Chairman said.

Everybody had a good time at the Fourth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. The water level was just right for the shoals to be ripples and the weather was perfect: not cold, not hot, nice and shady.

Phil Hubbard led this one of many WWALS paddle outings. Three people fell in and one paddle got lost, but everybody recovered and nobody went home mad.

Mayor, WWALS, Chairman; banners; boaters; outfall; Spook Bridge

WWALS is proud to bring together Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter and Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson at the site of the county’s recent acquisition of 71 acres from Helen Tapp to add to the 49 acres Parks and Rec already owns to eventually form Troupville Nature Park. Continue reading →

Boats provided by State Line River Outfitters at Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle 2023-03-04

Update 2023-03-03: Early takeout for Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle: DeLoach Private Boat Ramp 2023-03-03.

Update 2023-03-02: Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Sewage spills, Trash, Okefenokee Swamp over stripmine @ Radio 2023-02-28.

If you don’t have a boat, come on down anyway to Troupville Boat Ramp this Saturday, for the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle!
https://wwals.net/?p=60845

Will Hart of State Line River Outfitters has agreed to supply boats. Will will be out of town, but Bird Chamberlain will bring a couple of canoes and half a dozen kayaks, in addition to the WWALS canoes.

We even have a volunteer or two to paddle people in a canoe who are too young or whatever to paddle themselves.

State Line River Outfitters, Will Hart, Bird Chamberlain, Russell Allen McBride, Blondie Quarterman

State Line River Outfitters sponsored Bird when he paddled in the WWALS Boomerang Paddle Race last year: and won! Continue reading →

Pictures: Statenville & Sasser Cleanup, Alapaha River 2023-01-07

We took advantage of a rapidly warming winter day to clean up two Alapaha River Water Trail boat ramps Statenville in Georgia, and Sasser in Florida.

Thanks to Echols County, Georgia, Bailiff Bill Rogers and four probationers for cleaning up before we even got to Statenville Boat Ramp, and for disposing of the trash. We moved along pretty quickly.

Two of our number stayed behind to boat downstream a bit from Statenville and bring trash back up.

Statenville, Sasser, trash, banners 2023-01-07

The rest of us went on down to Sasser Landing, near Jennings, Florida. I asked a Hamilton County Deputy where we could take that trash, and he said in the dumpster at the jail in Jasper.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped clean up, to Will Hart for leading this outing, to Amy Meyers, Suzy Hall, and Russell Allen McBride for pictures, and to Bobby McKenzie for hauling the Sasser trash to the jail. Russell remarked that most of the Sasser trash was from illegal dumping.

I noted that the Alapaha River was in general much cleaner than the Withlacoochee, and lacking the obvious signatures of Valdosta trash: for example we found no Zacadoo’s in the Alapaha. Continue reading →

Pictures: Alapahoochee River, GA 135 to Sullivan Launch Sasser Landing 2021-06-05

Update 2023-01-26: Pictures: Many deadfalls, shark teeth, and rapids: Alapachoochee Adventure 2022-07-09.

Bird Chamberlain and others had been suggesting it for years, and we finally did it: the Alapahoochee River from GA 135 to Sasser Landing on the Alapaha River. We paddled over many deadfalls, across the GA-FL line, past the creek of shark teeth, under old abandoned steel Beatty Bridge, through Devil Shoal, right by Turket Creek Waterfall.

Banners, Alapahoochee River, Deadfall, Beatty Bridge, Devil Shoal, Turket Creek Waterfall

Many thanks to Bobby McKenzie for organizing this expedition, to the WWALS Outings Committee for planning it, and to all who paddled, including Suzanne Welander, author of Canoeing and Kayaking Georgia, who came down from Atlanta for this outing. Continue reading →

Pictures: Banks Lake Full Strawberry Moon paddle 2021-06-24

Good turnout for a Thursday paddle! 26 paddlers enjoyed great weather, bats, and the Full Strawberry Moon through clouds at Banks Lake NWR.

Each full moon, it’s only $10 per paddler with free boat rental thanks to the Lakeland-Lanier Chamber of Commerce and Banks Lake Outdoors. Or the whole thing is free with WWALS membership, which starts at $25 individual or $40 family.

26 paddlers, cypress, bat tree, moon

This time we were joined by Bird Chamberlain and almost all of Dirty Bird and the Flu, one of our headliners at the Fourth Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, 7-11 PM, Saturday, August 21, 2021, at the Turner Center Art Park, Valdosta, GA. Continue reading →

Winners: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2020-08-22

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Winners and excellent music from the judges and headliner, too, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Hahira, GA, August 24, 2020 — Everyone went away happy. The finalists got prizes, and the audience was impressed with the song each judge played, and with the headliner. The audience was impressed that one contestant, who couldn’t come due to the virus pandemic, was projected on the bandstand via zoom anyway.

Winners*: Brian Barker via zoom*, accepting for him, Scott Perkins*, Laura D’Alisera, Kathy Lou Gilman*, John S. Quarterman, Sweet William Billy Ennis*, Ronni Dillon (not present)

The winners are: Continue reading →

Final Deadline: July 21, 2020, for Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Songwriters, one more week to send in that river song you’ve been humming, by midnight, Tuesday, July 21, 2020.

Follow this link to send in a song for the 2020 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest:
https://forms.gle/mvw1pAvCPyqE9JxV8

“Then it will be time to get this show on the stage by Saturday, August 22, 2020,” said Committee Chair Tom H. Johnson, Jr. “We’re just looking for a few more good songs before we choose finalists.”

You could win this year! Maybe a plaque for best in your genre, or $50 for best song from inside the Suwannee River Basin, or $50 for best song from outside.

Or the $300 First Prize!

Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2020
PDF

“Maybe you were waiting for the food truck? It’s Rico’s Tacos of Valdosta,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. “And don’t forget, our headliner is Dirty Bird and the Flu.”

“Just don’t forget to send in your song by Tuesday the 21^st,” said Committee member Laura D’Alisera, who won First Prize the first year, after submitting during the extension period. “Really, we mean it this time! By Tuesday, July 21, 2020.”

The three judges are ready to hear your songs, 7-10 PM, Saturday, August 22, 2020, at the Turner Center Art Park, 605 North Patterson Street, Valdosta, Georgia 31601. Headliners will play, finalists will play, silent auction and kayak raffle, judges will judge, prizes will be awarded, winners will play. M.C.: Scott James of Talk 92.1 FM Radio.

Thanks to Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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