Rick Frey is the new St Marys Riverkeeper, and his board had a big bash at White Oak Conservation, with Bobby Kennedy, president and founder of Waterkeeper® Alliance, the organization that licenses Riverkeepers. WWALS was represented by president John S. Quarterman and Treasurer Gretchen Quarterman. Doubtless pictures from the professional photographer will get posted somewhere; meanwhile, here are a few snaps, including some of our brother and sister Riverkeepers: Flint, Altamaha, and Satilla.
Rachael Thompson of Satilla Riverkeeper invited WWALS to
Pioneer Day at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge near Folkston, Georgia.
Rachael showed children how watersheds work.
They played the WWALS froggy toss game.
Endangered species puppets paraded.
Houdini the rat snake was a hit.
And there were gators.
More pictures below. Continue reading
Tents full of thirty people in the morning sun, and happy campers starting to have breakfast, was what Gretchen and I saw when we stopped to visit Sacred Water Camp Sunway morning. They’re watching Sabal Trail, as it drills under the Suwannee River.
Gregory Payne and many campers
You don’t have to camp out to protect all our waters, land, and air. Georgians can sign a petition to Georgia state legislators. Anyone can demand their members of Congress rein in FERC, the rogue, captive agency that permitted Sabal Trail and gave it eminent domain to take local lands. If you see a possible environmental or legal violation, report it your self or contact WWALS. Lots more here.
Sacred Water Camp is not a project of WWALS. However, it is in WWALS’ watersheds and WWALS watches Continue reading
“Demonstrators gathered to protest the Sabal Trail pipeline and participate in the “Dirty Dozen” waterways conference call.”
That was on the front page of the newspaper of record of the biggest city in the Suwannee RIver Basin. There’s a petition for Georgians to sign, lots of protests in Florida to assist with, and you can help us all watch Sabal Trail to catch their next violation.
Online last night, Derrek Vaughn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 November 2016, WWALS Watershed Coalition hold demonstration,
WWALS Watershed Coalition sponsored the demonstration.
Members and demonstrators met in the median of Highway 84 at the Withlacoochee River Bridge to listen to the Georgia Water Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen 2016” conference call.
The “Dirty Dozen” list is an attempt to “put a spotlight on ongoing pollution problems, pending threats to Georgia’s water as well as state and federal policies and failures that ultimately harm — or could harm — Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers,’ according to organizers. Continue reading
The only other Waterkeeper to straddle the GA-FL line,
the new St Marys Riverkeeper Rick Frey, is hosting a big do in Florida Saturday,
WWALS will be there to help
“celebrate the roll-out of this non-profit effort to engage and educate our community about the benefits of a clean St. Marys River and to conserve this historic and scenic natural resource now and for generations to come.”
This is the same day after Okefenokee Pioneer Day with Satilla Riverkeeper. Lots of Riverkeepers will be at this St Marys Bash.
When: 5-9PM Saturday 19 November 2016
Where:
White Oak Conservation,
581705 White Oak Rd,
Yulee, Florida 32097
Tickets: Sold out.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Cane syrup boiling, mule grinder, endangereed species puppetry, and more at the Okefenokee Pioneer Day Festival. With the froggie toss game, WWALS will be on the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday November 19th 2016, travelling out of WWALS territory to visit our good neighbor to the east, Satilla Riverkeeper.
When: 9AM – 3PM, Saturday, November 19th 2016
Where:
Richard S. Bolt Visitor Center
Suwannee Canal Recreation Area (East Entrance)
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
30.73870100, -82.14000600
Directions: Continue reading
People and news media turned out from Florida and Georgia at the Withlacoochee River US 84 bridge in cross-state-line solidarity about the Sabal Trail pipeline and its recent drilling mud leak. They heard the Georgia Water Coalition announce that Sabal Trail is, for the third year running, on the Dirty Dozen 2016.
Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016,
Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline,
Folks from North Florida and South Georgia held a protest at the Withlacoochee River Wednesday and listened to a news conference announcing the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen.
The report highlights the worst offenses and greatest threats to Georgia’s bodies of water.
And the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is on the GWC Dirty Dozen 2016, as Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee Rivers and Floridan Aquifer: Gas pipeline company, federal agency run roughshod over state, local residents property rights, with this What Must Be Done: Continue reading
Do you think Sabal Trail’s excuse that it was “inadvertent” is enough? Come on down to the US 84 bridge 9:30 this morning, hear more, and have your say.
Nick Evans, WUSF, 14 November 2016,
Drilling Mud Leak In South Georgia Raises New Sabal Trail Pipeline Concerns,
Water activists are raising the alarm over a South Georgia drilling leak in the Withlacoochee River. Sabal Trail is drilling beneath the river to build a more than 500-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Alabama to Florida.
WWALS Watershed Coalition works to protect Continue reading
In January the water should be up like a year ago at this three-hour tour of the idyllic Little River between Brooks County and Cook and Lowndes Counties, Georgia.
There should be no need to drag boats, like there was in July.
When: 10 AM Saturday January 14th 2017
Put In: Cook County Landing (GA 76) between Adel, Cook County and Barney, Brooks County, Georgia
GPS Coordinates: Continue reading
Update 2016-11-22:
Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016,
Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline (WWALS blog post),
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira GA, November 14th 2016 (updated with directions and detail Nov 15th) —
WWALS is holding an in-person press conference at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge to hear and participate in the announcement Wednesday morning of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) Dirty Dozen 2016: a dozen of the worst threats to Georgia’s waters.
WWALS will then offer a hike up the riverside to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing location, where Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud leak up into the river.
Please arrive by 9:30 to be ready for the GWC teleconference at 10AM. On the phone call, details of the Dirty Dozen will be announced, with WWALS members assisting for one of them, and another also directly relevant to WWALS watersheds.
After the phone call, people from Florida and Georgia will have an opportunity to speak, because the Withlacoochee flows downstream into Florida, where Sabal Trail also plans to drill under the Suwannee River, as well as the Santa Fe, where 14 people got arrested recently protecting, and the other Withlacoochee (south) River. Let’s see a little cross-state-line solidarity against this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. Call your local press before you come, and bring signs.
When: 9:30 AM Wednesday November 16th 2016
Where: US 84 bridge, east side, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, 30.793747, -83.450167
It’s in the median of a busy highway, so be careful.
What:
Press Conference for Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen,
with hike up the river.
It’s a rough hike, so come prepared with sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Or just participate at the bridge. Bring signs if you’ve got them, or make them on the spot.
This is a completely peaceful nonviolent first-amendment press conference.
Event: facebook
Directions: from Live Oak or Gainesville, FL or farther south, or from Albany, Tifton, or Macon, GA or farther north, take I-75 Continue reading
![[VDT front page, 2016-11-18]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2016-11-18--vdt-stt-wwals/20161118_103117.jpg)