Tag Archives: Okefenokee Swamp

WWALS Webinar: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, peer-reviewed evidence, 2026-01-15

Update 2025-01-17: Video.

Hahira, Georgia, January 12, 2026 — For thirty years it was suspected that the Okefenokee Swamp leaks water into the groundwater from which we all drink. Now we have much stronger evidence, that the Swamp leaks not a little but a lot of water into the Floridan Aquifer.

At noon by zoom this Thursday, you can watch the UGA professors who published it explain that evidence.

They will also mention some consequences, such as nearby water withdrawals pull more water from the Swamp into the Aquifer.

Lead author Prof. Jaivime Evaristo will explain the isotope evidence. Prof. Todd Rasmussen will explain the water level evidence.

Register to join with Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1z-dW1OESdqPj1W3BhwENA

At noon, January 15, 2026, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman will give a brief introduction.

Prof. Evaristo and Rasmussen will speak for about 45 minutes.

Questions and answers will be at the end.

[Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen]
Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen

Here is more about their paper:

https://wwals.net/?p=69044

This paper is more incentive to pass Georgia House Bill 561 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from mining, at least on its east side. Georgians, please ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 561. Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do the same. Here’s how to contact Georgia Statehouse members:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

About the authors: Continue reading →

Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer peer-reviewed evidence, WWALS Webinar, 2026-01-15

Update 2026-01-17: Video: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer peer-reviewed evidence, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15.

UGA Professors Jaivime Evaristo (isotope data) and Todd Rasmussen (water levels) review two lines of evidence that the Okefenokee Swamp leaks through the underlying limestone into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, and nearby water withdrawals draw more down.

This WWALS Webinar by zoom at noon will explain their recent scientific paper on this subject.

https://wwals.net/?p=69044

This paper is more incentive to pass Georgia House Bill 561 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from mining, at least on its east side. Georgians, please ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 561. Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do the same. Here’s how to contact Georgia Statehouse members:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

[Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen]
Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen

When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, January 15, 2026

Register to join with Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1z-dW1OESdqPj1W3BhwENA

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end. Continue reading →

Videos: Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

History Instructor Vickie Everitte conducted a historical exploration of Georgia’s Wiregrass Region and the complex stories of survival, resistance, and adaptation that unfolded there after the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson.

WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction to this WWALS Webinar. Questions and answers were at the end, including a distinguished guest.

[Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11]
Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

Here is a zoom video of this WWALS Webinar:

https://youtu.be/ULUwKQEOh10

Her slides are on the WWALS website in PowerPoint and PDF. Images of each page are below.

Native American and Passageways to Freedom within the Wiregrass Region1

As settlers moved south of the Oconee River, drawn by the land’s economic promise, waves of migration and militia efforts reshaped the landscape—and the lives of the Native American families who called it home. Through rivers, streams, and the vast Okefenokee Swamp, Indigenous people found ways not only to endure but to carve out paths of freedom and self-determination amid the U.S. Indian Removal Policy of the 1830s.

Drawing from original correspondence between settlers, militia, and Georgia’s governors in Milledgeville, this presentation reveals how waterways became corridors of escape and survival. As Everitte reminds us, “Swamps are places on the margins — as much, they are places of transition, opportunity, and challenge.”2

About the Speaker

Continue reading →

Okefenokee Swamp exchanges water with the Floridan Aquifer –peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09

Update 2025-12-26: WWALS Webinar via zoom: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen, 2026-01-15.

University of Georgia (UGA) Professor Todd C. Rasmussen is back after 30 years with peer-reviewed double evidence that the Okefenokee Swamp does exchange water with the underlying Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink in south Georgia and north Florida.

[Okefenokee Swamp leaks water into the Floridan Aquifer --peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09, Mining withdrawals would make it worse]
Okefenokee Swamp leaks water into the Floridan Aquifer –peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09, Mining withdrawals would make it worse

This paper is more incentive to pass Georgia House Bill 561 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from mining, at least on its east side. Georgians, please ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 561. Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do the same. Here’s how to contact Georgia Statehouse members:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

Here’s a video explaining the new paper by its first author Prof. Jaivime Evaristo, on YouTube, 2025-12-09, The Okefenokee is Not a Bathtub: A New Look at Wetland-Aquifer Coupling, Continue reading →

Suwannee River Sill and Mixons Hammock –Shirley Kokidko 2025-11-26

Here’s what the second and third gates in the Suwannee River Sill looked like a week after Shirley Kokidko’s Low water at the first gate, Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp 2025-11-20. Plus a gator ambling down to the river, and Mixon’s Hammock, upstream towards Stephen C. Foster State Park.

[Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp --Shirley Kokidko, Alligator, Second and Third Gates, and Mixons Hammock 2025-11-26]
Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp –Shirley Kokidko, Alligator, Second and Third Gates, and Mixons Hammock 2025-11-26

Here are a few videos:

Remember, despite the Florida myth, the gates in the Suwannee River Sill are always open, since about 2001.

The third gate isn’t even a gate: it’s just a breach in that 4.5-mile earthen dam, so the North Fork of the Suwannee River can get through. The Sill was meant to keep water levels up in the Swamp to prevent wildfires, but it did not succeed. Also, it turns out wildfires are necessary for the Swamp’s vegetation to regenerate itself. So after a study starting in 1998 and a two-year trial period, the gates have always been open.

The current low water in the Swamp and in the Suwannee River is because we’re in a drought.

It rained a bit the last day or so, and more is predicted. But so far that has made almost no difference in the level of the Suwannee River at Fargo, GA.

Other rivers in the Suwannee River Basin also show almost no change. See Current River and Lake Levels by Florida’s Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD).
http://www.mysuwanneeriver.org/realtime/river-levels.php

There is a gauge at the Sill, but Continue reading →

Low water at the first gate, Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp 2025-11-20

Looks like you could paddle through the Suwannee River Sill, but it’s not clear how far you would get through the Narrows below Stephen C. Foster State Park Ramp before you got to the Sill.

[Low water, first gate, Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp, Thursday, November 20, 2025]
Low water, first gate, Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp, Thursday, November 20, 2025

Yesterday Shirley Kokidko checked on water levels in the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp. She says there is enough water to paddle to Billys Island or Minnies Lake.

Until we get some rain to break this drought, paddling from SCFSP to Griffis Fish Camp will be doubtful.

Here is a video Shirley sent from the First Gate at the Suwannee River Sill, the 4.5-mile-long earthen dam that was supposed to keep water levels up in the Okefenokee Swamp to prevent fires, but did not work.

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/854041060433085

https://youtu.be/xrNMTGZtws0 Continue reading →

Open the Okefenokee Gates 2025-11-15

Update 2025-11-21: Low water at the first gate, Suwannee River Sill, Okefenokee Swamp 2025-11-20.

Actually, the Suwannee River Sill Gates are always open.

This was a facebook comment yesterday, “Open the dam in the swamp.”

It was on this WWALS facebook post: Very low water, Fargo Ramp, Suwannee River 2025-11-12 Video by Shirley Kokidko for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS):
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1946665392780126

See also:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/posts/pfbid02p1mXs1UZK6ZhGQe4BeEdAa54E1Ws2Dk5AQmKmRsbqKPc3ATi6SxVyZjXL1U54dHRl
https://wwals.net/?p=68851

I’ve also heard from otherwise very knowledgeable Floridians: “When there are big rains, Georgia opens the Okefenokee gates and floods Florida!”

Nope, that doesn’t happen, either.

[Open the Okefenokee Gates, Suwannee River Sill, Actually always open, Since around 2000]
Open the Okefenokee Gates, Suwannee River Sill, Actually always open, Since around 2000

The Sill itself was an experiment in fire prevention that did not work, and also turned out to be a bad idea, because the Okefenokee Swamp needs fire to regenerate itself.

Here’s video and pictures of the Second and First Gates through the Suwannee River Sill, December 9, 2025 2023 [date corrected]
https://youtube.com/shorts/8LA_PLDqXA0 Continue reading →

Videos: Okefenokee Swamp by Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11

Veronica Kelly-Summers, a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, talked about the Okefenokee Swamp, its history, significance, places to go, things to do, and what’s next, in this largest and best-preserved freshwater wetland in the U.S.

The Swamp is the headwaters of two rivers: the St. Marys that forms the border between Georgia and Florida, and the Suwannee, which flows through Georgia and the Florida state song.

[Okefenokee Swamp by Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11]
Okefenokee Swamp by Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11

Here is the WWALS video of Veronica’s webinar, from noon-1 PM, Thursday, September 11, 2025:
https://youtu.be/pvLU8wPLsZc

The WWALS campout at Floyd’s Island in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp has unfortunately been cancelled due to low water. So you can watch Veronica’s presentation instead.

WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction. In questions and answers at the end, Veronica elaborated on what it means for the Okefenokee NWR to become a World Heritage Site: more visibility, more visitors, but no additional federal funding.

Veronica Kelly-Summers is a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with over 15 years of experience in protecting natural resources and connecting people with nature. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in forestry from Southern Illinois University with a focus on forest recreation and wildlife habitat management. Her career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken her to eight national wildlife refuges from the woods and swamps of southern Illinois to the Loess Bluffs of Iowa and Missouri, the Florida Everglades, and she’s now stationed at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. She works closely with staff and partners to provide leadership and strategic direction for the Visitor Services program including managing visitor facilities and recreational opportunities for camping, boating, interpretation, environmental education, special events, outreach, hunting, fishing, managing volunteers, and much more. When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jacob, and their pets, a yellow lab named Charlie and a spicy tuxedo cat named Tino.

Continue reading →

Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

Update 2025-12-26: Video: Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar 2025-12-11.

Join us for a fascinating historical exploration of Georgia’s Wiregrass Region and the complex stories of survival, resistance, and adaptation that unfolded there after the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson.

When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, December 11, 2025

Register to join with Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/XHeXy9xUSCOKIPvYpMNtcQ
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.

[Geography of Opportunity in Georgia's Wiregrass Region, by History Instructor Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, Noon-1 PM by zoom, 2025-12-11]
Geography of Opportunity in Georgia’s Wiregrass Region, by History Instructor Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, Noon-1 PM by zoom, 2025-12-11

Native American and Passageways to Freedom within the Wiregrass Region1

As settlers moved south of the Oconee River, drawn by the land’s economic promise, waves of migration and militia efforts reshaped the landscape—and the lives of the Native American families who called it home. Through rivers, streams, and the vast Okefenokee Swamp, Indigenous people found ways not only to endure but to carve out paths of freedom and self-determination amid the U.S. Indian Removal Policy of the 1830s.

Drawing from original correspondence between settlers, militia, and Georgia’s governors in Milledgeville, this presentation reveals how waterways became corridors of escape and survival. As Everitte reminds us, “Swamps are places on the margins — as much, they are places of transition, opportunity, and challenge.”2

About the Speaker

Continue reading →

Video: Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar 2025-08-21

A Wildlife Biologist with GA-DNR, Samuel Holst, talked about the bats of Georgia, including in Banks Lake and the Okefenokee Swamp. Plus some of our rare small mammals that are found around the Okefenokee.

WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction, with questions and answers at the end. Including where to put your bat house. He sent some papers about that, and how to make a bat house, how to attract bats, how to identify bats, their importance in agriculture, and how to keep them out of your house:
https://wwals.net/pictures/bat-papers

[Video: Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar, August 21, 2025]
Video: Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar, August 21, 2025

Here is the link to the website about the Acoustic Survey Volunteer Project:
https://georgiawildlife.com/AnabatProject

Here is the video of Samuel Holst talking about bats of Georgia and other small mammals:
https://youtu.be/k8LQa0fVhHk Continue reading →