Tag Archives: Ichetucknee River

Cancelled: Iche Nippy Dip Day Swim and Paddle, Ichetucknee River, Ichetucknee Headspring, 2024-01-06

Due to predicted inclement weather, the State Park and its Friends organization have cancelled Iche Nippy Dip Day.

So WWALS has cancelled this dip and paddle.

[Dippers, Put-in, Paddlers, 2020-01-04]
Dippers, Put-in, Paddlers, 2020-01-04

We will work on scheduling a future similar event.

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

Tour of Ichetucknee Springs 2023-12-14

Thanks to Rangers Cole and Owen for an informative tour of Grassy Hole, Mill Pond Spring, and Devils Eye Spring on the Ichetucknee River.

[Three springs on the Ichetucknee River: Grassy Hole, Mill Pond, and Devils Eye 2023-12-14]
Three springs on the Ichetucknee River: Grassy Hole, Mill Pond, and Devils Eye, 2023-12-14; see the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail, including the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers.

This tour was part of the agenda of Stacie Greco’s Santa Fe River Springs Protection Forum.

Join us to paddle past these springs this Saturday on Iche Nippy Dip Day Swim and Paddle, Ichetucknee River 2024-01-06.

Apparently there was quite a town at Mill Pond Spring, formed around the undershot water wheel of the mill. Hurricanes, economic changes, and wars caused the demise of the town.

Water lettuce, the main topic of the Forum, is cultivated in nurseries at Devils Eye Spring.

Here’s a video on YouTube of some highlights of the tour.
https://youtu.be/WthagPBbUvI

Or on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1019535769126733

There are more pictures below.

Or on facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/posts/pfbid02DqDjVAdDJtnS7ZyYu84KSM5eqNEn24kBAeDeCyUUY1GD1AaHqhqqZdDh4TjQNAmSl Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, dirty Sugar Creek 2023-12-28

Update 2024-01-06: Three Clean Rivers 2024-01-04.

We got good results for two sites on the Santa Fe River for Wednesday, and bad results on Sugar Creek of the Withlacoochee River, plus excellent results for two Withlacoochee River sites for Thursday. All the other WWALS testers are off for the holidays, but Valdosta’s Wednesday results on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia were good.

There has been no significant rain in a week, so the E. coli washed into the rivers by the previous big rains has gotten diluted or washed downstream.

No more rain is predicted until Thursday, and the rivers are back down to reasonable levels. So if you don’t mind being chilly, happy fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend, and Happy New Year! Continue reading →

Suwannee Riverkeeper on The Spotlight Show, Talk 92.1 FM, 2023-12-07

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]
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 →

Iche Nippy Dip Day Swim and Paddle, Ichetucknee River, Ichetucknee Headspring, 2024-01-06

Update 2023-01-03: Cancelled due to predicted inclement weather.

Swim in the Itch head spring, during Iche Nippy Dip Day, the annual first-Saturday-in-January-that-is-not-New-Year-Day dip.

Then join us for a leisurely paddle 4 miles downstream in crystal clear waters with the possibility of seeing manatee, several types of gar and bird species. The launching spot has been recently upgraded to accommodate new ADA standards.

Iche Nippy Dip Day was founded by Earl Kinard (February 20, 1930 – March 27, 2022). He was there when WWALS dipped and paddled on January 4, 2020.

When: Gather 9:00AM (swim), launch 11 AM, end 2 PM, Saturday, January 6, 2024

Put In: Ichetucknee Headspring and Ichetucknee North Launch, Ichetucknee S.P. North Entrance, 8294 SW Elim Church Rd, Fort White, FL 32038, Columbia County.

GPS: 29.98292, -82.76053

[Dippers, Put-in, Paddlers, 2020-01-04]
Dippers, Put-in, Paddlers, 2020-01-04

Continue reading →

Colossal aggregation of Redeye Chubs 8 years ago –Ken Sulak 2015-08-15

Back in the day—15 Aug 2015—Gilchrist Blue Spring, before the boardwalk and steps were damaged by a storm and removed.

I was there the next day—phenomenal aggregation—not seen again by me since there or elsewhere. Spawning?? Feeding?? The bottom of the run then was carpeted by Hydrilla about 1-2″ high, having been munched to a Hydrilla-turf carpet by Suwannee Cooters which arrived that summer in the hundreds to munch. That changed my mind about Hydrilla removal—maybe better to leave it alone as turtle pasture. I would like to see the chubs and turtles like that again.

[Gozillions of Redeye Chubs! Photo by diver/photographer Danielle Shmalberg from Orlando.] Gozillions of Redeye Chubs! Photo by diver/photographer Danielle Shmalberg from Orlando, Now Danielle Marsh, actually from Gainesville.

Back in 1994-1998 big schools of chubs were present in the Val bed right at the kayak launch at Iche St. Park. These minnows are highly associated with submerged aquatic vegetation, typically living within the Val forest, but have greatly declined in abundance now. Loss of habitat I suppose.

Ken Sulak

 -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/

North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan in SRWMD presentation to NCFRPC –Columbia County Observer 2023-10-09

Thanks to Stew Lilker for recording and analysis of a presentation about water planning in the Suwannee and St. Johns River Basins.

To answer his question: No, there won’t be enough water, unless water withdrawals are limited, which neither of the Suwannee nor St. Johns River Water Management Districts seem inclined to do.

Please sign the petition to get Right to Clean and Healthy Waters on the ballot:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org

[SRWMD, NFRWSP]
SRWMD, NFRWSP

Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, October 9, 2023, North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan: Just a Suggestion – Will There Be Enough Water in the Future?

Updated – October 11, 2023  2:55 am – mixed SRWMD slide deck with Observer audio for a clean presentation by Amy Brown, Ph.D. Downloading the slide deck (pdf) keeps all links at the end of the presentation live.

COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (the east side of the Suwannee River Water Management District and the top half of the St. Johns River Water Management District) is being updated. The Plan focuses on the sustainability of resources. It is just a plan, and water users “are not required to implement” any options identified in the Plan.

Well, slide 24 seems to indicate some requirements. Maybe local governments don’t have to implement exactly what NFRWSP says, but I’d bet they will be strongly recommended to do so. Continue reading →

Packet: Agricultural Water Use Monitoring Report and Practical Community Resilience @ SRWMD Board 2023-09-12

There are a couple of interesting items in the SRWMD Board agenda for next week.

[Agricultural Water Use and Practical Community Resilience @ SRWMD 2023-09-12]
Agricultural Water Use and Practical Community Resilience @ SRWMD 2023-09-12

The Agricultural Water Use Monitoring Report says most agricultural water wells 8-inches or larger in diameter are being monitored. But it doesn’t say what the results are. More flow? Less? To be continued, I suppose.

The SRWMD Practical Community Resilience through Enhanced Risk MAP Outreach for the Suwannee River Water Management District is a plan based on federal funding. It has a map showing all the Florida Suwannee River Basin counties are Florida Statute Fiscally Constrained Counties. Maybe it will have some results later.

What: SUWANNEE RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT GOVERNING BOARD MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING
The Public Hearing is about millage.
The PDF for that, as well as the board packet, is on the WWALS website.

When: 3 PM, Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Where: District Headquarters, Live Oak, Florida

GoTo Webinar Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1360284333254296661

Public Comment Form Link: www.MySuwanneeRiver.com/Comments

Pictures of the two reports mentioned, plus the agenda, are below. Continue reading →

Tell FDEP: stop withdrawing our springs 2023-08-28

According to a 2016 Florida state law, FDEP is supposed to “adopt uniform rules for issuing permits that prevent groundwater withdrawals harmful to the water resources and a uniform definition of the term “harmful to the water resources” to provide water management districts with minimum standards necessary to be consistent with the overall water policy of the state for Outstanding Florida Springs.“

The department’s writeup even says, “The rule is likely to affect consumptive use permitting in the Northwest Florida, Suwannee River, St. Johns River and Southwest Florida water management districts.”

Well, it won’t limit permitting in its current form.

[Agenda for 2023-08-28 and Madison Blue Spring 2022-06-04]
Agenda for 2023-08-28 and Madison Blue Spring 2022-06-04

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is holding a workshop on development of this rule.

You can ask them to actually follow the law and protect our springs.

That’s 11 AM, Monday, August 28, 2023, at the
Alachua County Headquarters Library, Meeting Room A,
401 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601.

Sierra Club Florida has an RSVP form

Here is the agenda: Continue reading →

FL Gov signed sprawl bill: need Rights to Clean Water 2023-06-08

Thanks to everyone who asked the Florida Governor to veto the sprawl bill, HB 359 / SB 540. But he signed it anyway, so now anyone who sues to stop a comprehensive plan change and loses has to pay the other side’s legal bills.

And the Supreme Court drastically limited the scope of the Clean Water Act in its decision in Sackett II.

Now we really need Right to Clean Water in Florida as a constitutional amendment. Please sign the petition and ask all your Florida registered voter friends and relatives to do so.
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/petition

With enough signatures, the RTCW petition can get a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2024, and there is nothing the legislature or governor can do to stop it.

[Right to Clean Water, FL SB 540]
Right to Clean Water, FL SB 540

Georgians, please encourage Floridians to sign the petition.

Here’s an explanation of why other means won’t work,
“Floridians who’ve been following along know that we are not going to achieve anything remotely resembling such protections through legislative action, which is why supporting this amendment is a no-brainer.”

Cheryl Lasse, Palm Beach Post, June 8, 2023, New Florida law and court ruling leave state’s waterways in peril, Continue reading →