Tag Archives: Bobby McKenzie

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 →

Trash traps, detention ponds, and parking lots: Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, GA 2024-05-07

For years WWALS has been promoting work by Russell Allen McBride and others to clean up Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

Trash traps, detention ponds, and parking lots, Valdosta, GA, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River

Russell’s net full of trash is the top graphic on the WWALS trash issue page:
https://wwals.net/issues/trash/ Continue reading →

Video: Chainsaw Cleanups –Phil Hubbard, WWALS Webinar 2024-04-11

Phil Hubbard, longtime WWALS paddle outings leader, on March 11, 2024, told us why he started a series of chainsaw cleanups two years ago.

He and his son paddled down the Withlacoochee River and encountered more than 20 deadfalls they had to portage. That was Father’s Day, June 19, 2016. He didn’t even know Langdale Park existed before then. They got to Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River after dark. He joined WWALS to find a way to deal with the deadfalls.

Video: Chainsaw Outings, –Phil Hubbard, WWALS Webinar, 2024-04-11

We have done 21 chainsaw cleanups on the Withlacoochee River, including during the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle this year. Phil thinks with a few more at low water, it will be good. The stretch from Langdale Park down past Sugar Creek, around the Little River Confluence and up to Troupville Boat Ramp will be a nice paddle that anybody can do.

Here is the zoom video of this WWALS Webinar about Chainsaw Cleanups by Phil Hubbard:
https://youtu.be/DhjtzsBncOw?si=0zgQX6L04vllB7jV

WWALS also did two chainsaw cleanups on the Suwannee River and one on the Little River. Here are all the ones we can remember: Continue reading →

Earth Day: Planet vs. Plastics 2024-04-20

Trash cleanups are good, but you wouldn’t clean up after a sewer spill and do nothing to stop it from happening again. You wouldn’t be happy with any city or county that let spills keep happening.

You can help stop trash from getting into our waterways by getting cities to enforce trash ordinances about parking lots and trash cans, by getting trash traps installed on creeks, and by asking for single-use packaging bans and bottle bills. Start by bringing your own reusable grocery bags, but don’t stop there.

The Global Earth Day theme for 2024 is Our Planet Versus Plastics.

Earth Day 2024, Planet vs. Plastics 2024-04-20, Trash cans, Trash traps, cleanups, Plastic bans and bottle bills

Styrofoam and other plastics are not just an eyesore. These plastics from Valdosta and elsewhere entering the watersheds are breaking down and getting into all aspects of the environment. Animals eat them, and cannot digest them. Children play in creeks with this stuff. Adults don’t want to boat on rivers with floating trashjams. It’s hard to promote eco-tourism without fixing the trash problem. Sure, we go clean it out of the rivers, and you can help us with that, but that alone is not enough. Continue reading →

Chainsaw Cleanups –Phil Hubbard, WWALS Webinar 2024-04-11

Update 2024-05-01: Video: Chainsaw Cleanups –Phil Hubbard, WWALS Webinar 2024-04-11.

Phil Hubbard, longtime WWALS paddle outings leader, will tell us why he started a series of chainsaw cleanups two years ago.

Does everybody have to saw on a chainsaw cleanup? What else can people do? Who else has been involved? What did we not expect?

Important points, such as: How to order pizza with a chainsaw, and how to tattoo your chainsaw bar. Also: maybe wrap up before dark.

WWALS Chainsaw Cleanups, Phil Hubbard, WWALS Webinar 2024-04-11, Withlacoochee River, Suwannee River, and soon others

Have we finally accomplished the initial goals after 17 or 18 chainsaw cleanups?

Have they all been on two stretches of the Withlacoochee River? Nope, also downstream on the Withlacoochee and on the Suwannee River. Where to chainsaw cleanup next: maybe on the Santa Fe River in Florida, or the Alapaha River or the Little River.

This webinar will be by zoom, noon-1 PM, Thursday, April 11, 2024.

Register in advance with zoom for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpdeyqrT4rH91Y0CaBM7TxVd2WoIblH5Vj

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

WWALS Board President Sara Jay Jones will give a brief introduction, Phil will speak for about 45 minutes, and we will have questions and answers.

“I think I’m the only one who has been on every chainsaw cleanup, Continue reading →

Pictures: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River 2024-03-02

The weather held off and 42 paddlers had a good time on the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle from Langdale Park Boat Ramp down the Withlacoochee River, around the Little River Confluence, and up to Troupville Boat Ramp. Only a few people fell in, and they were good sports. The City Manager needs a bigger boat.

Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River, 2024-03-02

Those who got out after three miles at Sugar Creek got to see the WaterGoat trash trap purchased by the City of Valdosta and cleaned out by volunteer Russell Allen McBride and family, which keeps much trash out of the river.

The remaining four miles went under the Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge, past Wood Valley Subdivision and Sheri Run, and the I-75 and GA 133 highway bridges. Many deadfalls (fallen dead trees) previously sawed out of the way by numerous WWALS Chainsaw Cleanups were visible. Outings leader Phil Hubbard sawed through a remaining deadfall during the paddle.

Paddlers saw all the river frontage of the land recently purchased by Lowndes County for Troupville River Camp and Nature Park. Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman used the jon boat with 9.9hp outboard paid for by a grant from Wild Green Future (WGF) to saw several deadfalls off the Withlacoochee River. Then he towed five paddlers and five boats from the Confluence to Troupville Boat Ramp, including Outing Sweep Phil Royce towing City Manager Richard Hardy’s to-small bad-seat boat. The City Manager walked from the Confluence to the boat ramp.

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for leading this outing, and Phil Royce and Russell Allen McBride for being sweep.

Thanks to them and Gretchen Quarterman and others for helping people over rough spots and to Gretchen for making sure everybody was signed in on the WWALS insurance waiver.

Thanks to Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter and their staffs.

Thanks to Joe Brownlee and Georgia Power for the grant that kept entry for paddlers free and paid for the Port-A-Potties.

Thanks to the Boys & Girls Club for the shuttle van.

Thanks to VSU CORE for bringing boats and student paddlers.

Thanks to everyone who helped on the numerous chainsaw cleanups, including Bobby McKenzie, Shawn O’Connor, Russell Allen McBride, Phil Royce from Live Oak, Florida, Gary Koch from Ocala, Florida, and especially Phil Hubbard.

Plus anybody else I have forgotten to mention.

I would mention everybody who has been involved in improving the trash and sewage situations, but this post would be very long.

-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/

Continue reading →

Crowe Deadfall chainsaw cleanup 2024-03-01

Bobby McKenzie was right to be worried about the Crowe Deadfall, a big oak seen for years across the Withlacoochee River between I-75 and GA 133.

Yesterday evening we cleared that and two other deadfalls.

By cleared, I mean at the Crowe Deadfall stay way left: there’s a narrow passage for the Fifth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. See you at Langdale Park Boat Ramp this morning.

Three deadfalls cleared between Troupville and I-75 2024-03-01

Thanks to Georgia Power for the grant that makes tickets to this paddle free.

Thanks to Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers for the jon boat. Thanks to Wild Green Future (WGF) for the grant that bought the 9.9hp outboard, the 86lb-thrust trolling motor, the batteries, and some other gear.

-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/

Continue reading →

Digging at edge of Stafford parking lot, St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek 2024-02-27

Who is doing this mysterious digging, and why?

Maybe to plant a fence?

That would be a good thing, to keep trash out of Hightower Creek, which flows into Sugar Creek, past the WaterGoat, into the Withlacoochee River, at the early takeout for the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle.

Digging in the Stafford parking lot, St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek 2024-02-27

It’s about time something happened there, where I videoed Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson in December 2022 saying something needed to be done. According to Valdosta City ordinances, it is the parking lot owner’s responsiblity to keep trash from escaping the property, no matter where it came from.

Thanks to Russell Allen McBride for spotting this digging.

Thanks to Gretchen Quarterman for photographing. She noted, “Enterprise guy was on parking lot. He knew nothing about it.”

It seems unlikely to be the City of Valdosta, considering how reluctant they are to do anything on private property.

Maybe it’s the parking lot manager, Stafford Development Company. Continue reading →

Boat Motor Tryouts, Troupville Boat Ramp, Little River 2024-02-18

Update 2024-02-26: Pictures: Chainsaw cleanup from Troupville up to Sugar Creek and back 2024-02-25.

Successful boat trials at Action Stage on the Little River!

Five of us went down to Troupville Boat Ramp, just west of Valdosta, Georgia, to test out some new boat motors.

9.9hp outboard and 86lb thrust trolling motor (thanks, Wild Green Future) and jon boat (thanks, Flint Riverkeeper) and Bass Fisher (WWALS)

Here’s a WWALS video playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKwQ5xfKf-QznYIX_GRvlK7Rc4P_Ms5DG&si=ll_y4evyoJbmxSgu

Successful boat trials at Action Stage on the Little River!
Videos by John S. Quarterman and Russell Allen McBride for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS).

Thanks to Laura D’Alisera for transfering the new WWALS 9.9hp Mercury fourstroke 20-inch shaft electric start outboard motor ten miles from West Marine in Jacksonville Beach to a shipping location, where Phil Hubbard received it Saturday. Thanks to Wild Green Future (WGF) for the generous grant that bought it.

Sunday evening, Russell Allen McBride, Shawn O’Connor, Bobby McKenzie, and I unboxed it, connected it to its fuel supply, and tried it out. Thanks to Flint Riverkeeper for the jon boat.

With that outboard, the jon boat will indeed go upriver easily under these conditions. It took only ten minutes to haul Russell in his kayak up the third of a mile from the Little River Confluence to Troupville Boat Ramp.

Also due to WGF, we received an 85lb-thrust Goplus 8 Speed, 36 inch shaft, trolling motor, two Power Queen LiFePO4 12.8V 100Ah, lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, and a Power Queen 14.6V 10A LiFePO4 Battery Charger. Those we put on the WWALS bass fisher chainsawing boat, plus the old WWALS 40lb-thrust mounted on the front. Shawn and I demonstrated that the new motor alone will push that boat upstream in these conditions, and both motors will troll it upstream at a walking pace. Which is all we need to get back to the ramp from the Confluence during chainsaw cleanups.

You’ve already seen the chainsaw WGF paid for from a week ago, Sugar Creek to Troupville Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2024-02-11.

We are awaiting a couple more items via the WGF grant. Stay tuned.

This is more preparation for the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Saturday, March 2, 2024, starting at Langdale Park. One hopes that the water level will be well below Sunday’s 148′ NAVD 1988 level, or we may have to reschedule for later.

And also preparation for more chainsaw cleanups on other stretches of this and other rivers.

Next: 9AM Sunday, February 25, 2024, we will take the jon boat from Troupville Boat Ramp down around the Confluence and up the Withlacoochee River to Langdale Park, chainsawing any remaining paddle obstacles along the way. That one will be a bit hard to participate in by paddling.

The day before that, Saturday, February 24, please join us for in the morning for Knights Ferry to Nankin on the Withlacoochee River and in the evening for Banks Lake Full Snow Moon Paddle.

There are more pictures below. Continue reading →

Pictures: Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, Langdale Park to Sugar Creek –Phil Royce 2024-02-03

Thanks to Shawn O’Connor for leading this chainsaw cleanup, Saturday a week ago, from Langdale Park to Sugar Creek on the Withlacoochee River.

This is in preparation for the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, March 2, 2024.
https://wwals.net/?p=64095

Phil Royce drove an hour from Live Oak, Florida, and Gary Koch drove two hours from Ocala, Florida, saying it was better to stop trash upstream. In addition to regulars Russell Allen McBride and Bobby McKenzie, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson came to see us off; he’s second from left in the banner picture. More on that in a later post.

These pictures are by Phil Royce. Phil had to leave early, so his portage pictures are before we came along and sawed a river passage.

Banners, bass fisher, chain saws, Withlacoochee River, Langdale Park to Sugar Creek 2024-02-03

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

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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