Come see prescribed fire, basket making, longleaf pine trees, snakes, lizards, frogs, and eat food cooked on the spot.
When: Gather 12 PM, launch 1 PM, end 5 PM, Saturday, April 20, 2024
Put In: Gaskins Forest Education Center, 3359 Moore Sawmill Rd., Alapaha, Georgia 31622
![[WWALS Booth at A Day in the Woods 2024-04-20, Gaskins Forest Education Center, Alapaha, Georgia]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-04-20--a-day-in-the-woods/fbmany.jpg)
WWALS Booth at A Day in the Woods 2024-04-20, Gaskins Forest Education Center, Alapaha, Georgia
Update 2024-03-30: Excerpt from the Rules.
Hahira, Georgia, March 29, 2024 — On April First, really, no fooling, submissions are open for the 2024 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.
WWALS President Sara Jay Jones said, “Musicians, don’t wait until the deadline to send in your song. Also, we could use more volunteers to help at the show and committee members to help plan it.”
The Seventh Annual Finals will be held at the WWALS River Revue, an indoor fundraising dinner to benefit WWALS Watershed Coalition, with an evening of food, drink, and entertainment. That’s 5-8 PM, Saturday, September 7, 2024, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said, “Your ticket or sponsorship helps support everything WWALS does, from water quality tests, paddle outings and swimming & boating lessons, to chainsaw cleanups, and beyond to advocacy to stop trash at its sources, strip mines, and pipelines. We work for water trails, solar power, and Right to Clean Water, with growing engagement for youth and marginalized communities.”
There will be plaques for each best song per genre, prizes of Continue reading
Come help WWALS celebrate spring with 30,000 of our south Georgia and north Florida friends, at the WWALS booth at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, Georgia, all day this Saturday and Sunday in Drexel Park.
Come talk to us about our outings and advocacy (yes, including Valdosta trash and sewage), our Water Trails, the pictures for sale Gretchen took of our rivers, notecards, stickers, hats, t-shirts, plus a kayak raffle. Continue reading
Update 2024-06-23: Pictures: Juneteenth at Reed Bingham State Park 2024-06-22.
Hahira, GA, June 7, 2024 — “WWALS will provide stunt adults to paddle with children whose parents don’t want to get in a boat,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
WWALS will also provide boats for new paddlers at this gathering of people from Brooks, Cook, and Tift Counties, Georgia, and beyond in celebration of Juneteenth.
Food and activities for children will be provided by Fannie Gibbs and Macedonia Community Foundation.
When: 11 AM – 3 PM, Saturday, June 22, 2024
Put In: Reed Bingham State Park Beach, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620. Take I-75 Exit 39, turn west on GA 37, right on Evergreen Church Road (CR 99), left on Reed Bingham SP Road (CR 221), in through the gate and across the dam, and the beach is on your right, in Colquitt County.
![[Boating and family fun at Juneteenth 2021]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-22--juneteenth/fbmany.jpg)
Boating and family fun at Juneteenth 2021
Join us on The Spotlight Show on talk921.com at 6 PM, Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman and “Diamond” Jim Halter will talk about chainsaw cleanups, the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, the Okefenokee Swamp, the Ichetucknee Springs and River, and the 2024 WWALS River Revue coming up this September.
![[Suwannee Riverkeeper on The Spotlight Show, 6-7 PM, Thursday, February 1, 2024]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-01--spotlight-show-talk92.1-radio/igmany.jpg)
Suwannee Riverkeeper on The Spotlight Show, 6-7 PM, Thursday, February 1, 2024
https://www.facebook.com/events/792834679536648/
-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/
As Jane Fallon sings,
There is no right way
To do the wrong thing.
![[Movie: Chant for the Okefenokee --Jane Ross Fallon (8.5M)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-01-04--jane-fallon-chant-okefenokee/Chant-For-The-Okefenokee.jpg)
Movie: Chant for the Okefenokee –Jane Ross Fallon
You can help stop a strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp for titanium dioxide for white paint:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining
Georgians, ask
your statehouse delegation to
pass HB 71 to stop further such mines on Trail Ridge east of the Swamp.
https://protectgeorgia.org/okefenokee/#/366/
Floridians, ask your friends and relatives in Georgia to do this, and ask the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to deny the permits for this single point source of pollution upstream of Florida.
Jane Ross Fallon wrote, “I recently won the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. The contest video of my performance did not turn out, and it was suggested I film one myself. John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper, sent me a banner to use. So I made a video with my cell in my house. I didn’t think the sonic quality of the phone was adequate, so I recorded the song on my computer, overdubbing the video. Never done that before. Then I decided, it’s not about me, it’s about the song and its purpose. So I made a more elaborate presentation. Let me know if it works.😏”
Here is
Jane’s video of her Chant for the Okefenokee.
https://youtu.be/UQx9eEWbEcI Continue reading
Join us on The Spotlight Show on https://talk921.com at 6 PM, Thursday, December 7, 2023.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman and “Diamond” Jim Halter will talk about upcoming outings such as this weekend’s campout at Griffis Fish Camp where naturalist C.B. Adams will tell us old-timey stories before we paddle the next day from the Okefenokee Swamp down the Suwannee River.
![[Spotlight Show on Talk 92.1 FM, C.B. Adams at Griffis Fish Camp on the Suwannee River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-12-07--radio-jim-halter/many.jpg)
Spotlight Show on Talk 92.1 FM, C.B. Adams at Griffis Fish Camp on the Suwannee River
Also this December we’re having a chainsaw cleanup on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia.
To begin the New Year, swim with us on Iche Nippy Dip Day on the Ichetucknee River in Florida, and then paddle down the river.
In September, join us for the second annual WWALS River Revue sit-down fundraising dinner with new songs in the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, 5-8 PM, Saturday, September 7, 2024, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia. Continue reading
It was a good time at the WWALS booth at the Brooks County Skillet Festival.
![[Collage @ Brooks County Skillet Festival 2023-10-21]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-21--brooks-county-skillet-fest-pictures/many.jpg)
Collage @ Brooks County Skillet Festival 2023-10-21
Thanks to Jan Powell, Kimberly Tanner, and her Brazilian exchange student for assisting WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman at the WWALS booth.
Quitman is on Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River. The Withlacoochee, and, upstream, the Little River form the east border of Brooks County with Lowndes County.
There are more pictures below.
For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see Continue reading
Update 2023-11-07: Pictures: Banks Lake Full Hunters Moon Paddle 2023-10-28 2023-10-28.
All the Ghouls & Gals won prizes, at the WWALS family friendly 1st Annual Full Moon Halloween Float costume contest fundraiser at Banks Lake in Lakeland, Ga., just before the Full Hunters Moon Paddle.
![[Participants, winners, and organizers, WWALS Halloween costume contest at Banks Lake 2023-10-28]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-28--halloween-full-moon-costume-contest-pictures/many.jpg)
Participants, winners, and organizers, WWALS Halloween costume contest at Banks Lake 2023-10-28
Thanks, Rindy Kennedy, for organizing!
More: For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS outings web page, https://wwals.net/outings/. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.
-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
Join us at the historic railroad station in Alapaha, Georgia, near Sheboggy Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River, the most upstream public landing on the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail.
The schedule starts with a parade at 10:30 AM.
The star attraction is Mandy Barnett, the “torch singer with the chameleon-like chops” who was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2021 by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith.
Plus food and other vendors.
WWALS members, come help at that WWALS booth!
When: 9 AM, Saturday, November 11, 2023
Put In: Alapaha Station, 245 NE Railroad Street, Alapaha, Georgia 31622
GPS: 31.38103, -83.222412
![[WWALS at Alapaha Station Celebration 2022]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-11--alapaha-station-celebration/many.jpg)
WWALS at Alapaha Station Celebration,
pictures from
2022
![[Song Submissions Open, No Fooling, April 1, 2024, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Finals: Turner Arts Center, Valdosta, GA]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-03-29--song-submissions-pr/fbmany.jpg)
![[WWALS Booth at Azalea Festival 2024-03-09-10, One Mile Branch, Drexel Park, Valdosta, Georgia. Photos: John S. Quarterman 2024-03-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-03-09--azalea-festival/fbmany.jpg)