Tag Archives: boating

WCTV on mining proposed near Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge 2019-08-21

“Because of the coal plants in Georgia, there’s mercury deposition on the surface of the ground for years. If they go stir all that up, that could run in to the swamp,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman. “Why should we risk the Okefenokee, its boating, its fishing, its birding.”

Quoted by a reporter based in Valdosta, GA for WCTV in Tallahassee, FL, Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 21 August 2019, Heavy mining facility proposed near Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,

[Sign]
Photo: John S. Quarterman, Okefenokee NWR Entrance Sign, 2019-07-18

…Last week the Charlton County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution of support for the project. County officials said the reason is because Charlton County does not have many industry opportunities of its own, and many residents leave to surrounding counties for work. officials said the 150 jobs created from the project could be beneficial to the county.

The Okefenokee Swamp is the headwater for the Suwannee River, which is why community members across the region are fighting the proposal, saying it could have consequences in both states.

In the proposal, the Continue reading →

Adel passes Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail resolution 2018-01-16

Update 2020-10-01: Signed and executed copy.

Thanks, City of Adel, for passing this resolution last Tuesday! The next BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park will be April 28, 2018, pending final approval by GA DNR. Meanwhile, come paddle with WWALS from Hagan Bridge (GA 122) to Franklinville on the Withlacoochee River, February 11, 2018.

[Under the cypress]
Photo: Phil Hubbard, Under Reed Bingham State Park cypress at the 2017 BIG Little River Paddle Race.

Text of the resolution (see also PDF)

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Organizational Meeting for Alapaha River Water Trail 2014-12-13

300x638 ARWT, in Alapaha River Water Trail draft map, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 7 November 2014 WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
17 November 2014

Re: Alapaha River Water Trail

Dear Neighbor,

You are invited to an organizational meeting for the Alapaha River Water Trail by WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS). This updates and slightly extends the old Alapaha Canoe Trail from the 1970s, with new map, brochure, and website in the making.

When: 1-4PM Saturday December 13th 2014
Where: Continue reading →

The Alapaha River, unspoiled, wild, and scenic –1979 Soil Survey

300x205 Alapaha, in oil Survey of Lowndes County, by USDA, for WWALS.net, 0 August 1979 The Alapaha River is the first illustration in the Soil Survey of Lowndes County of August 1979. This A+ gem of a blackwater river remains “unspoiled, wild, and scenic” and still “provides water sports and fishing for hundreds of people”. More people will know about it soon, due to the Alapaha River Water Trail. Come see an unuusal feature farther downstream: the Alapaha Sink, where the river goes underground. Come with WWALS to the Sink October 26th. Continue reading →

Access to rivers: legal issues

Legal access to rivers and other waterways in Georgia is unclear, and federal law may trump state law anyway.

Dan Washburn wrote some time in 2000 for The Times of Gainesville, GA, Access denied: Owners, users spar over land, which applies as much to the rest of Georgia as to north Georgia:

Photo by Tom Reed The conflict in North Georgia is a confusing amalgam of the old and the new, of state and federal laws, of mountains and streams. Its cast of characters includes landowners and land managers, bureaucrats and businessmen, environmentalists and adventure seekers — and lawyers, plenty of lawyers.

And much of it involves a splitting of legal and philosophical hairs that would make Mother Nature and Uncle Sam cringe.

Nowhere has this tug-of-war played out more dramatically than on Georgia’s rivers and streams, where the dispute over what is public and what is private is as murky as the Chattahoochee River after a hard rain.

There’s a lot more in the article, including this box:

Getting to the water an issue for paddlers, anglers alike

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