After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Refuge staff and others did a lot of work, including much public input, the Interior Department has taken the next step towards getting the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
If approved by UNESCO, the Okefenokee will join its nearest neighbors, Everglades and Great Smokey Mountains National Parks in North Carolina and Florida, and Poverty Point Monumental Earthworks in Louisiana. Continue reading
Update 2025-01-05: Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion approved by USFWS 2025-01-03.
Here is the letter I sent to USFWS yesterday. I have added some images and links for this web publication, plus a few extra paragraph breaks to fit the pictures. See also the PDF.
December 13, 2024
To: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Okefenokee@fws.gov
Re: WWALS comment on Okefenokee NWR Expansion
Dear Fish and Wildlife Service,
Suwannee Riverkeeper for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS) files these comments in support of the proposed minor expansion of the acquisition boundary for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR).
I further recommend that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Department of Interior, or Congress, provide sufficient funds to make competitive offers to buy land.
![[WWALS Comments 2024-12-13, Proposed Minor Expansion of the Okefenokee, National Wildlife Refuge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-12-13--wwals-onwr-expansion/fbmany.jpg)
WWALS Comments 2024-12-13, Proposed Minor Expansion of the Okefenokee, National Wildlife Refuge
I sympathize with concerns I have heard expressed by people living near the ONWR, perhaps most basically Continue reading
A dozen people paddled four miles around Banks Lake on Labor Day morning. We saw three trees with bats, and the old one with no bats.
![[Flyers, bat tree, etc. @ Banks Lake morning paddle 2023-09-04]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-09-04--banks-lake-morning-paddle-pictures/many.jpg)
Flyers, bat tree, etc. @ Banks Lake morning paddle 2023-09-04
I forgot the banners, so people are holding up flyers for the WWALS River Revue. Continue reading
Update 2024-12-24: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to be Nominated to Join UNESCO World Heritage List –U.S. Department of the Interior 2024-12-20.
This is what we sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their bid to make the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Remember, you can still help stop a strip mine from locating near the Okefenokee Swamp:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining
![[The WWALS letter 2023-06-28 and the old-growth cypress 2021-01-10]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-06-28--wwals-okefenokee-unesco/many.jpg)
The WWALS letter 2023-06-28 and the old-growth cypress 2021-01-10
It features an old-growth cypress stand with trees 400-500 years old.
![[NW: Big Cypress Camp Island, Little Cooter Lake, 30.682969, -82.200123]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-01-10--southwings-oke/ONWR-mine-site-46-of-46.jpg)
NW: Big Cypress Camp Island, Little Cooter Lake, 30.6829690, -82.2001230
seen on
a Southwings flight for Suwannee Riverkeeper 2021-01-10.
In web form below, and also in PDF and with attachments.
See also the previous WWALS letter of January 26, 2021.
And, among the references cited, thanks to WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter for spotting G. Ronnie Best, et al., “An Old-Growth Cypress Stand in Okefenokee Swamp,” University of Florida, 1984. https://cfw.essie.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/312/2020/07/Best-etal-1984-OldGrowthCypressStandInOkefenokeeSwamp-BookChapter.pdf
Continue readingUpdate 2024-06-14: Alapahoochee River Cleanup 2024-07-21.
So many deadfalls, seeps, and things in the Alapahoochee Adventure 2022-07-09 that I’m posting pictures in several parts.
First, here is from GA 135 across the GA-FL line to Beaty Bridge. And it turns out we’ve been spelling it wrong for years: it’s Beaty Bridge with one letter t.
Thanks to Shirley Kokidko for organizing this outing, and for the small but intrepid crew who drove as much as two and a half hours to get there.
![[Collage, Alapahoochee Adventures 2022-07-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-07-09--alapahoochee-adventure-pictures/many.jpg)
Collage, Alapahoochee Adventures 2022-07-09
Next: Devil Shoal and Turket Falls. Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-06-05--alapahoochee-pictures/2021-06-05--many.jpg)
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
Amanda M. Usher, Valdosta Daily Times, 4 September 2020, WWALS to visit Banks Lake,
LAKELAND — The WWALS Watershed Coalition works to draw attention to the South Georgia [and North Florida] rivers with its monthly paddles and cleanups.
The group sponsors the Banks Lake Full Harvest Moon paddle, 6:50 p.m., Oct. 1, at the Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Ga. 122. Guests will gather at 6:30 p.m.
The event is held each time there is a full moon, John Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper, said.
“The more people we can get out on our waters, the more they will realize Banks Lake is a gem and our rivers (Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Little, Suwannee and more) are fun and different every time,” he said.
At Banks Lake, Quarterman said spectators can view bats coming out of trees, an alligator and a moon rise.
Participants are asked to bring Continue reading
The winner of Within These WWALS #6 is…
Emmy Kidder.
She wins a packet of WWALS photo notecards from that watershed, sent via postal mail from WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst.
Here are the answers to Within These WWALS #6.
Name this native raptor that can dive into water and catch live fish, has white under its wings making it easier to identify from below, and builds its nests atop trees over bodies of water, like this one shown atop a cypress at dusk.
Osprey, Pandion haliaetus.
We paddle by this nest most every time on our Banks Lake Full Moon paddles. The next one is coming up Continue reading
Excellent comments from Okefenokee Swamp Park, requesting at least three public hearings by the Army Corps, plus independent research, in addition to a full Environmental Impact Statement. When I received them from Dr. Clark last night, he asked me to circulate them widely; see also PDF.
Continue readingVenus gleamed through the fires of sunset as the full moon and Mars hid behind clouds.
The sound of frogs brought out swoops of bats, as a dozen or two paddlers braved the placid flat waters of Banks Lake Friday evening in the least strenuous yet one of the most enjoyable of all WWALS outings. As one new participant remarked, it’s one thing to see it from the road, but out on the water the size, the lucidity, and the sunset are startling while calming.
Bret Wagenhorst, who brought a crew of new people from Tifton and paddled out with them first, reports: “Got to see: ospreys and nest, eastern kingbirds, egrets, ibises, bats, gators and hear Continue reading
![[Okefenokee NWR Nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site, U.S. Department of the Interior, December 20, 2024]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-12-20--onwr-unesco-us-interior/fbmany.jpg)
![[Moonrise]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-08-03--banks-lake-full-sturgeon-moon-pictures/117110041_10219595798977927_384675704180599638_o-moonrise.jpg)
![[About OSP]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-22--okefenokee-swamp-park-tpm-usace-comments/2019-OSP-Twin-Pines-Mineral-Mining-Permit-Application-Comments-0001.jpg)