Tag Archives: Okefenokee Swamp

Florida Men Canoe Entire 240-Mile Suwannee River in 48 Hours 2025-10-02

Received yesterday.

Florida Men Complete Nonstop 242-Mile Paddle of the Suwannee River in 2.5 to Spotlight Wild Florida
SUWANNEE RIVER, FL — In an inspiring demonstration of endurance and purpose, six Florida men, Mason Gravley, Jordon Wolfram, Zach Franco, Bo Meyering, Robin Beemer, Daniel Weber successfully canoed the entire Suwannee River, over 242 miles, in just 2.5 days. Launching from the headwaters in Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp at daybreak on 9/26 and finishing in the Gulf at Suwannee, FL on 9/28, World Rivers Day, the group completed the nonstop journey to raise awareness for the urgent protection of this area of the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and the connection of water and land between Georgia and Florida.

Florida Men Canoe Entire 240-Mile Suwannee River in 48 Hours, 2025-09-26-28

The expedition, which began at daybreak from Stephen Foster State Park in Georgia on Friday, September 26th and concluded after sunset on Sunday, September 28th, combined grueling physical effort with a message rooted in conservation. Two of the paddlers work for Florida conservation groups. Franco, the Conservation Partnership Coordinator at Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid; Gravley, the Impact Campaigns Manager at the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation in St. Pete.

“This wasn’t just an adventure, it was Continue reading →

Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Update 2025-09-05: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-09-04.

What is overflowing in that floodwater from those five Chemours mines on Trail Ridge at the top of the Santa Fe River Basin?

“If I lived near Chemours, I’d be paranoid too,” said John Quarterman, who serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper, a staff position for an organization of the same name that advocates for conservation of the numerous watersheds within the Suwannee River Basin. “Some of the stuff they’re paranoid about is probably actually happening, but it’s hard to document which of it is and which of it isn’t.”

Until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection takes frequent measurements up and down the state’s rivers, Quarterman said, it will be difficult to pin down the impact of Chemours’ activities. And without such studies, he said, it’s difficult to identify bad actors — let alone hold them accountable.

WWALS has a volunteer water quality monitoring program, and two recently-trained testers may start testing in the Santa Fe River Basin soon.
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Is Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist, September 4, 2025, Waterlogged and contaminated: In rural Florida, locals suspect a mining company is to blame for their flooding troubles: Residents are trying to connect the dots between hurricanes, high radium levels, and a mineral mining giant next door.

The storm had passed, but the water kept rising. In September 2017, Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, causing tides to surge and dumping about a foot of water across much of the state. A few days later, Jane Blais stood on a bridge with her neighbors near her High Springs ranch, watching the Santa Fe River below swell higher and higher.

“We had zero notice,” Blais said, Continue reading →

Explore the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Veronica Kelly-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11

Discover all that Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has to offer in our upcoming presentation focused on things to see and do around the 407,000-acre national wildlife refuge. From camping under the stars to paddling scenic water trails, the refuge is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts. Learn about wildlife watching ethics, areas for hiking and biking, guided boat tours, overnight excursions, hunting and fishing opportunities, and so much more. Whether you’re seeking outdoor adventure or a peaceful connection with nature, this presentation will showcase how Okefenokee has something for everyone.

When: 12 PM, Thursday, September 11, 2025

Put In: Register to join with Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tUE8DKI4QJqDpfgYiuiFmw
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.

Explore the Okefenokee NWR, Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, Thursday, September 11, noon-1 PM

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 name Tino.

Continue reading →

Georgia needs better economic solutions for forestry and rural south Georgia 2025-06-26

I’m going to agree with something a supporter of the now bought-out mine said: we need better economic solutions for south Georgia forest owners. And beyond that, for south Georgia. So counties and cities won’t be tempted by jobs promised by mines, landfills, private prisons, and pellet plants.

Georgia needs better economics, for forestry & rural south Georgia, Drew Jones, Charlton Co. Commission, Okefenokee Swamp & blackwater rivers

Drew Jones wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today, June 26, 2025, Okefenokee deal exposed how Georgia’s forest policy is flawed and needs reform, Continue reading →

Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20

Very good news today! The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out, ending mining on their specific property. First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.

Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM), and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia) for helping fund that acquisition. Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.

There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.

Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund

We should all celebrate!

But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story. There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.

Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, Continue reading →

Alabama miners failed to post bond to mine near Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia 2025-06-06

The future looks cloudy for the Alabama miners.

You can ask GA-EPD to end the suspense by denying their permit application:
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov

Dylan Jackson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 6, 2025, Controversial Okefenokee mine project delayed as company fails to post required funds: Georgia EPD says Twin Pines Minerals has not provided the $2 million in collateral required to obtain a permit.

Alabama miners failed to post bond to mine near Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia –AJC, June 6, 2025
AJC posted a picture captioned in part:
“Twin Pines began storing equipment at this site in Charlton County near the Okefenokee Swamp.”
They’ve been doing that since at least 2019, as this WWALS picture shows.

Twin Pines Minerals has not produced the $2 million bond or other collateral required to receive its permit to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp, a delay that comes as the company and its affiliates continue to show signs of financial distress.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division spokeswoman Sara Lips confirmed on Wednesday that Twin Pines has yet to submit the financial assurance required for permit approval. The agency requested a bond or other collateral from the company in February 2024, shortly after draft permits were released.
Continue reading →

Okefenokee Gateway Getaway at The Farm at Okefenokee 2023-10-26

It was quite a do, at The Farm at Okefenokee.

Okefenokee Gateway Getaway, The Farm at Okefenokee, Next to Okefenokee NWR, October 26, 2023

The Okefenokee Gateway Getaway was put on by Charlton, Clinch, and Ware Counties, whose leaders “collaboratively strive to harness the potential of our region’s crowning jewel – the Okefenokee Swamp and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.” It was apparently the first-ever collaborative venture of those three Georgia counties. Continue reading →

Campfire Cooking at Griffis Fish Camp and Suwannee River paddle 2025-12-05-07

Cast-iron camping cooking is fun. You can also use steel, aluminum, or whatever you like. You don’t even have to cook: there will be plenty for everybody.

Plus a paddle from Stephen C. Foster State Park down the Suwannee River, through the Sill, out of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, back to Griffis.

When: Set up camp 4 PM, Friday, December 5, 2025
Gather 8:30 AM, launch 9:30 AM, paddle from Stephen C. Foster SP back to Griffis, Saturday, December 6, 2025
Wake up and leave when ready, Sunday, December 7, 2025

Camp At: Griffis Fish Camp, 10333 Ga Highway 177 Fargo, Georgia 31631. From Fargo, travel south on US 441 to CR 177; turn left and travel 10 miles northeast; Griffis Fish Camp is on left, in Clinch County.
We’ll have a fire Friday and Saturday nights so please bring a bundle of firewood if you can. Especially important for the cooks that know how to campfire cook and need plenty of coals on Saturday. Firewood has gotten pricey so if everybody pitches in it works out great.
Bring your own plates/bowls/utensils/drinks to help reduce waste.

Put In: Stephen C. Foster State Park Boat Ramp, 17515 GA-177, Fargo, GA 31631. From Fargo, travel south on US 441 to CR 177; turn left and travel to Stephen C. Foster State Park, in Charlton County.
Paddlers usually put in down the access road from the ramp.

GPS: 30.78246, -82.443594

Campfire Cooking at Griffis Fish Camp 2025-12-05, Suwannee River paddle, Stephen C. Foster SP 2025-12-06

Continue reading →

The Okefenokee: Charles R. Pendleton on The Trembling Earth, The Times, Valdosta, Ga. 1890-02-08

It was harder to get to Floyd’s Island in the Okfonok back then: several weeks bushwhacking, climbing on water lily roots, through bamboo briars (palmettos) and mosquitoes, on trails made by bears and wildcats.

The author’s tree-cutting camping method would not be allowed in the swamp these days, and his attitude towards native Americans was a product of his times. So was his urge to drain and “root” the swamp to turn it to “valuable account.”

The Okefenokee: C.R. Pendleton on The Trembling Earth, The Times, Valdosta, Ga. 1890-02-08

The Times., VALDOSTA GA., FEB. 8, 1890, THE OKEFENOKEE: CHARLES R. PENDLETON ON “THE TREMBLING EARTH.”

Explanation of the Unknown Land of Georgia—The Constitution’s Hunting Party—Incidents Connected With the Swamp.
From the Atlanta Constitution,
VALDOSTA GA., Feb, 1.—I have been watching with a great deal of interest the discussion in regard to the sale of the Okefenokee Swamp. I have followed, step by step, all the developments in the case. The mistaken opinions of so many people, especially in middle and north Georgia, about this swamp surprises me more than anything else. Those who have written and spoken most seem to know least about it.
EARLY DAYS IN THE SWAMP.

A half dozen years of my boyhood were spent within an hour’s ride of the swamp, and I have sat by the hour and listened to the tales Continue reading →

Chemours wants Army Corps permit to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land, Bradford County, FL, Santa Fe River Basin 2025-05-13

Update 2025-05-28: Additional Project Drawings for Chemours application to mine on SRWMD land –USACE 2025-01-02.

Update 2025-05-16: More about Spill from Chemours Trail Ridge South TiO2 mine SE of Starke, FL 2024-01-31.

Chemours wants to mine on SRWMD land in Bradford County, FL, upstream from the Santa Fe River, on Double Run Creek which already had a tailings wastewater spill last fall.

You’ve got 30 days to comment:

The Jacksonville District will receive written comments on the proposed work, as outlined above, until June 12, 2025. Comments should be submitted electronically via the Regulatory Request System (RRS) at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs or to John Fellows at john.p.fellows@usace.army.mil. Alternatively, you may submit comments in writing to the Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, Attention: John Fellows, 10117 Princess Palm Avenue, Suite 120, Tampa, FL 33610. Please refer to the permit application number in your comments.

That’s permit application number SAJ-2019-00480 (JPF).

Chemours Army Corps application to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land, Bradford County, FL, Santa Fe River Basin 2025-05-13

Many of us complained back in 2019 about SRWMD allowing Chemours access through SRWMD property, but in 2021 SRWMD claimed it had no choice.

SRWMD parcels, Bradford County Property Appraiser 2019-10-17

Now it’s not just access, it’s actual mining. So what does conservation mean to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD)? Or to its parent the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)?

Here’s the problem: Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.