See the beautiful blackwater Alapaha River while it’s high,
in the middle of the Alapaha River Water Trail,
from Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County to Mayday in Echols County.
When: 8AM Saturday 23 April 2016
Put in: Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County, 30.93669, -83.0406
Take out: Mayday in Echols County, 30.82827, -83.017179
Distance: 12.7 miles
Duration: about 6 hours
Directions: 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
The
Florida Springs Council (FSC) is concerned about Bill Gates,
Lakeland Sands and others investing in Florida and south Georgia Land
for industrial farming operations, reports
Chris Mericle, WWALS delegate to FSC.
FSC, like WWALS, would like to know more, and is trying to contact Bill Gates
to start a dialog about sustainable farming practices.
For example, Chris reports:
There is a 300 acre parcel of Lakeland Sands property here in Hamilton Co. that has been cleared of the forest that was there except for a small island of trees in the center. Within this island of trees is a true hydrogeological wonder. A beautiful spring boils from the ground, the spring pool is Continue reading
Investment firms owned by Bill Gates have bought thousands of
acress of agricultural land in counties in or near WWALS watersheds
in south Georgia and north Florida, all above the Floridan Aquifer,
near the Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers,
as part of a nationwide buying spree of a quarter million acres.
Here’s a summary of what we’ve found thus far. Any more recent posts should be found through this search.
These purchases of hundreds and thousands of contiguous acres are all after Bill Gates announced in 2012 he was going to “fix” agriculture in conjunction with Monsanto and Syngenta.
And it’s not just Bill Gates. Continue reading
It was a nice day with current on the Alapaha River from
Statenville to Sasser Landing 15 February 2015,
with a side trip up the Alapahoochee River to the famous Turket Creek Waterfall.
This morning WWALS continues
from Sasser Landing to Jennings Bluff,
plus a walk up the Dead River to the sink where the Alapaha River goes underground. Continue reading
Boating on our rivers and water trails for them,
issues and education: 
you can help with the fun and work of WWALS!
Here’s much of what can be done laid out in a list of a dozen WWALS Goals for 2015.
The board has at least one opening right now,
and the committees always could use more members. You can apply through the online form.
See also the monthly newsletter, the news about WWALS, and of course the website with blog, facebook the page and group, and WWALS on twitter, Youtube, and the membership google group. You can become a member or corporate sponsor of WWALS online right now.
The WWALS Executive Committee 11 March 2015 recommended Continue reading
Rainfall can be quite different in Statenville on the Alapaha River as shown here than in Valdosta on the Withlacoochee River.
But remember half of Valdosta drains into the Alapaha River watershed.
Here are rainfall and water level graphs from the three USGS Alapaha River gauges in Georgia. The Florida gauge is shown separately, because it use a different base level, and precipitation doesn’t seem to be available from Florida gauges. See also always-current graphs of all the levels. Continue reading
Saw: tupelo, cypress, maple, river birch, pine, live oak, titi, mayhaw, native blueberries, palmetto; only maple in bloom. Not much wildlife.
River: several small streams entered river through breaks in the bank, winding course, couple of bluffs and some exposed karst
Comments: a good level to run this section, saw 2 other canoes with a family of campers, and a fisherman in a john boat skinning a catfish, 2 rope swings, the side trip up the Alapahoochee River to the waterfall just up from the take out was worth the effort.
Pictures: see separate post by Bret Wagenhorst. And pictures by John S. Quarterman.
Ten of us met at 12 noon Sunday afternoon, February 15th 2015, continuing our exploration of the Alapaha River Water Trail, as announced.
The shuttle took Continue reading
Here’s the
outing announcement,
here is Bret’s summary of the outing, and below are Bret’s pictures. Continue reading
A surprising number of the Board’s nine goals for 2014 have been accomplished, and some new ones have already been added. What goals should WWALS have for 2015?
Goals accomplished include
becoming an
IRS 501(c)(3)
and raising money for and purchasing
insurance.
Some we’ve been doing right along:
cleanups, including Rivers Alive.
Some are so much the core of what WWALS does that we
didn’t even list them as goals, but we’ve been doing them anyway:
monthly outings
and
indoor events.
The later-added goal of the Alapaha River Water Trail is Continue reading