We saw many creeks and seeps, and a few shoals barely visible as waves, on the Alapaha River from Mayday to Statenville, all in Echols County, Georgia, Saturday, May 11, 2024.
We had two chainsaws and two handsaws, but did not need to saw any deadfalls to get through.
We did see more power boats than I’ve ever seen on that river.
Thanks to Shawn O’Connor for leading, and to everyone else for paddling.
Continue readingWho knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.
You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.
Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer. Continue reading
Here’s a bridge named after a schoolteacher, the Lucille M. Norton Bridge across Grand Bay Creek in Lanier County, Georgia, on GA 31, aka US 221 and Lakeland Highway.
Kenna Walsh, Valdosta Daily Times, July 7, 2006, Updated September 12, 2014, Bridge to be named for Lucille Norton,
LAKELAND — This Sunday, a well known and loved Lakeland teacher will receive an eternal dedication. Lucille Norton, a native of Lanier County who died at age 86, taught home economics in Lakeland for 58 years. This Sunday, the bridge over Grand Bay Pond on U.S. 221 will be named in her honor at a 2 p.m. ceremony in the Lanier County Courthouse.
Continue reading
Watch out for road work on Lakeland Highway across Grand Bay Creek.
![[Map and Grand Bay Creek Bridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-07-18--ga-31-grand-bay-creek-encroachment/many.jpg)
Map and Grand Bay Creek Bridge
The Public Notice doesn’t say when the work will start on GA 31 aka US 221 aka Lakeland Highway, but you have 30 days from yesterday to comment. I will ask for a copy of the application. Meanwhile, the Public Notice is below, and here is the gist of it (I added the links):
State Route 31 from State Route 7 to State Route 135
(GPS Coordinates: 30.97284, -83.10488; 30.90854, -83.18506)…
The proposed project will impact the buffer of Open Water (OW) 4, OW 13, and OW 31. The project will add passing lanes at four sites in two interconnected corridors along State Route (SR) 31 in Lanier and Lowndes Counties. The project will impact the state mandated 25-ft buffer within the Suwannee Watershed (HUC 03110202). The disturbance will cover 5,903 square feet and include discharging of fill and clearing and grubbing to widen SR 31, culvert replacement, and the installation of Best Management Practices (BMPs).
GA 31 is commonly known as Lakeland Highway, and also as US 221.
The coordinates supplied actually put the southwest end of the road work just east of Lightsey Road aka CCC Road in Lowndes County, and the northeast end east of Shiner Pond Road aka Spells Road CR 12 in Lanier County.
![[Map: Lakeland Highway widening in ARWT]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-07-18--ga-31-grand-bay-creek-encroachment/2023-07-19--map-lakeland-highway-widening.jpg)
Map: Lakeland Highway widening in
the WWALS map of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT)
OW 4, 13, and 31 presumably are numbered for this particular project. I would guess Continue reading
This morning the Lowndes County Commission considered and Tuesday evening will vote on letting a subdivision developer replace a detention pond with a built-on lot and some other detention area somewhere unspecified.
![[Map: Little Viking Road to Grand Bay, ARWT]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-21--loco-drainage-grand-bay/map-arwt-little-viking-road-grand-bay.jpg)
Map: Little Viking Road to Grand Bay,
in the WWALS
map of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT).
The detention pond is marked by the red ellipse. The most likely drainage from there is where I drew the cyan line. It appears to go into Grand Bay. See below a closeup of the lot and a larger map of how Grand Bay drains into Grand Bay Creek, the Alapahoochee River, the Alapaha River, and then the Suwannee River on the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading
Hooded Pitcher Plants are the answer to Lanier County Sheriff Nick Norton’s question to the Georgia Department of Transportation as to why the ditches were not being mowed on GA 31 between Valdosta and Lakeland.
Amber Spradley, WCTV, at GA 31 and Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA), August 22, 2020, GDOT discovers rare plants ahead of road project,
![[Clockwise: Amber Spradley, Gretchen Quarterman, potted pitcher plants, Hooded Pitcher Plants]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-08-21--pitcher-plants-gretchen-wctv/quad.jpg)
Clockwise: Amber Spradley, Gretchen Quarterman, potted pitcher plants, Hooded Pitcher Plants
Gretchen Quarterman, a 10-year “Master Gardener” and the executive director of WWALS Watershed Coalition, tells WCTV Hooded Pitchers live in nutrient-poor bogs, or wetlands. They trap and consume insects to obtain nutrients for survival.
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
A month ago at Beatty Branch:
“Everything in this area depends on groundwater,” said John Quarterman, the Suwannee Riverkeeper in Lowndes County, where Moody is located. “I’m not saying that Moody necessarily did make enough contamination to be a problem, but I can’t tell from this report, and I don’t think it’s our responsibility to determine that they didn’t.”
![[Photographer Hyosub Shin and Reporter Meris Lutz]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-12-07--ajc-moody-afb/20181207_125050.jpg)
Photographer Hyosub Shin and Reporter Meris Lutz,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
online today and in Sunday’s Atlanta paper newspaper,
Contaminated groundwater, a toxic legacy of Georgia’s air bases,
3 January 2019.
Moody Air Force Base tested their own wells, and found them clean. Which is good, but
![[Figure 2 AFFF Area Locations]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-12-07--ajc-moody-afb/Moody-site-inspect-PFOA-PFAS-0081.jpg)
Figure 2 AFFF Area Locations
PDF
their wells are much deeper than the wells the rest of us use in the country around here. Moody did not test any of those wells; Continue reading
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
Every few years Banks Lake gets drained is an effort to stymie unwanted aquatic vegetation.
Hydrilla verticillata forms dense mats at the surface of the water. The dense mats can Continue reading
![[Creeks, seeps, waves over shoals, and many power boats, Mayday to Statenville, Alapaha River 2024-04-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-05-11--mayday-statenville-alapaha-river-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/1889-01-29--troupville/many.jpg)
![[Lucille M. Norton Bridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-07-18--ga-31-grand-bay-creek-encroachment/bridge.jpg)