Letter from WWALS to Lowndes County Commission, signed Friday, mailed Saturday; the hearing is 5:30 PM today 12 February 2013, 327 North Ashley Street 2nd floor, Valdosta, GA.
Lowndes County Board of CommissionersContinue reading
327 North Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA 31601
WWALS Watershed Coalition
www.wwals.net
Dear Lowndes County Commissioners,
So
Georgia state law requires protection for perennial river corridors
and
the major rivers in the WWALS watersheds qualify as perennial rivers.
What are the rules?
Apparently to be a “Qualified Local Government” a comprehensive plan
including River Corridor Protection Plans with
protection for a natural vegetative buffer area
bordering each protected river is required.
Continue reading
(1)(b) The Comprehensive Georgia Planning Act of 1989 provides for the development of coordinated and comprehensive planning by municipal and county governments. Such comprehensive plans shall consider the natural resources, environments, and vital areas within the jurisdiction of the local government. Maintenance of the status as a “Qualified Local Government” is contingent upon the development of such comprehensive plans (O.C.G.A. 50-8-1 et seq.).
What does “perennial” mean in Georgia Mountain and River Corridor Protection Act, O.C.G.A. 12-2-8 (2010)?
According to Merriam-Webster:
Definition of PERENNIAL
1: present at all seasons of the year
For example, does the Alapaha River at Hotchkiss Landing
often (if ever) go dry?
No, there is pretty much always water there.
That Georgia state law, O.C.G.A. 12-2-8 (2010), has a more specific definition:
Continue readingFAMU PR 9 February 2013 on WCTV.com, FAMU Teams Up to Promote Sustainable Food Support Systems,
TALLAHASSEE, FL- Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Statewide Small
Farm Program, Food & Water Watch (FWW) and the Crescent Moon Organic
Farm will host a food workshop titled “Building Sustainable
Food Support Systems.” The workshop is scheduled for Sunday,
Feb. 10 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Crescent Moon Organic Farm in
Sopchoppy.
The featured speaker will be Continue reading
In 2009 Bret Wagenhorst of Tifton organized a canoe trip on the Alapaha River.
He says:
I believe we had nearly 15 people on that trip. The put in was at Burnt Church, just above the Boy Scout camp outsideof Lakeland. The take out was the state road that is being proposed to be closed due to lack of use. The photos are in an album on my Facebook page. I believe it is titled “Alapaha River Trip”. The last photo of the album shows lots of people at the take out— the state road access that “is hardly ever used”! Feel free to copy any of the photos you like.
Since his facebook album requires facebook login to view, I’ve copied it to a flickr set. That last picture sure does look like Hotchkiss Landing:
Continue readingScouting for a potential WWALS outing (since scheduled for 16 February 2013, two WWALS board members and three local residents went to look at Hotchkiss Landing on Old State Road at the Alapaha River in Lowndes County. Here are a few pictures; we also have videos, some of which will follow.
Looking west (upstream):
There’s a bill in the Florida House to drill for oil
in a state park in the same aquifer we drink out of.
A group is organizing through facebook and reddit and elsewhere to oppose this bill:
Continue readingSave Blackwater River State Forest
An alliance of citizens committed to protecting the beautiful Blackwater River State Forest from proposed House Bill 431, that would allow oil and mining in the forest.
The Tifton Gazette carried the WWALS press release on Page 8A, Tuesday, January 15, 1013:
WWALS Watershed Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Adel, GA, 9 January 2013 — A local watershed group formed in June 2012, WWALS Watershed Coalition, invited Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, to its first meeting of the new year to bring his experiences with the Altamaha, Satilla, and Flint Rivers to its conservation efforts on behalf of local blackwater rivers in south central Georgia.
Three newcomers, Garry Gentry, Dave Hetzel, Al Browning, Bret Wagenhorst, Gordon Rogers, Karan Rawlins, Gretchen Quarterman
Continue readingUpdate 2016-03-03: Please see Streamer on the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha.
Here in our WWALS watersheds
in south central Georgia,
instead of a single big river like the Flint or Altamaha, our many
small blackwater streams meander through cypress swamps and remnants
of longleaf pine forests. Tannin from oak roots produces the tea color
that is one of many attractive features of our streams.
Maybe you, like me, have trouble keeping track of the watersheds of the Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha and Little River Systems. U.S. EPA has much useful information about every U.S. watershed. On the right is a map I got EPA’s My WATERS Mapper to make by clicking on a point near Valdosta (a point just north of Tifton also works) that was close to all three WWALS watersheds known to that Graphical Information System (GIS):
