Joanne Tremblay says, “I was inspired to create a visual of the river’s path so folks could get a better understanding of its changes it goes through before it becomes the spring-laden stretch that most are familiar with. All my own footage, paddles are a composite from my own at different times.”
My favorite is this slide, “I will not repeat this journey”, about Worthington to Bible Camp Road: “Seven miles through tangled woods”. Continue reading
Update 2024-04-01: Done: Eddyline Kayak Raffle 2024-04-01.
Each $100 donated to the WWALS Day of Giving 2023 gets a kayak raffle ticket:
https://www.gagives.org/story/Wwals-Gagives2023
![[Eddyline kayak in Hahira Honeybee Parade, and WWALS Day of Giving this month]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-10--day-of-giving-kayak-raffle-ticket/fbmany.jpg)
Eddyline kayak in Hahira Honeybee Parade, and WWALS Day of Giving this month
That’s until all 30 tickets are taken for the Eddyline Sandpiper kayak with paddle, PFD, lock, and straps.
It’s slightly used. New, it retails for $1,749.00.
So donate to WWALS in #GAGIVES!
This is in addition to the other kayak raffle of a Vibe Sea Ghost 130, for which tickets are $10 and the drawing will be November 27, 2023.
-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/
In yet another week with no rain, the rivers were clean: the Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers. Not so clean was Sugar Creek that runs into the Withlacoochee River, but even that was below the 410 cfu/100 mL one-time test E. coli limit. That’s 14 WWALS test sites on three rivers and one creek in two states. Good baselines for later when there is contamination.
No rain is predicted for this weekend.
In the last week, no new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.
So happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-11-02]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-02--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-11-02
Joanne Tremblay got clean results for the Santa Fe River at High Springs Ramp @ US 41 and at US 27.
Reina Lingle got clean results for the Suwannee River at Ivey Metropolitan Park in Branford and at Royal Springs.
Kimberly Tanner says about the Alapaha River at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach, “Great results at both locations this week. And both areas were as clean as a whistle, too.”
Cindy Vedas got good results for the Withlacoochee River at Franklinville, Crawford Branch (yes, really), Staten Road, and US 41 (North Valdosta Road), with trash at US 41.
WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall tested Sugar Creek, and got too-high results, but clean at Knights Ferry and Nankin Boat Ramps on the Withlacoochee River. She also double-checked everybody else’s results. And the other testers cross-checked each others’ results.
Russ Tatum got clean results for the Withlacoochee River at Holly Point, between Allen Ramp and the Suwannee River.
WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman delivered testing supplies to several testers. She is also our testing trainer.
If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084
The most recent Valdosta results we have are for Wednesday upstream, which were good. As usual, Valdosta’s last week upstream results corroborated what WWALS saw Thursday last week.
And, as previosly noted, Valdosta’s last downstream tests were September 1, 2023. Continue reading
Update 2923-11-10: Eddyline kayak raffle tickets for each $100 in WWALS Day of Giving this month 2023-11-10.
You can donate anytime this month to help support the mission of WWALS
in this #GAGives day of giving fundraiser:
https://www.gagives.org/story/Wwals-Gagives2023
WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the surface waters and groundwater of the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, in south Georgia and north Florida, among them the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River watersheds, through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.
WWALS Vision: A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.
Your donation will help WWALS encourage citizens to become more active in watershed conservation, benefiting our local economy, ecology, and community, including boating, fishing, and hunting. If you like, you can also donate more in time to help us all with boatable, fishable, swimmable rivers and clean drinking water.
-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/
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.]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2015-08-15--redeye-chubs/1697252552021blob.jpg)
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/
Update 2023-11-03: Clean rivers, dirty Sugar Creek 2023-11-02.
This was another week with no rain, and the rivers were mostly clean: the Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers. Not clean were Franks Creek that runs into the Little River and Sugar Creek that runs into the Withlacoochee River. Crawford Creek of the Withlacoochee was just below the E. coli one-time test limit. That’s 11 WWALS test sites on three rivers and three creeks in two states.
No rain is predicted for this weekend.
In the last week, no new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.
So happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-26--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-26
Joanne Tremblay got clean results at High Springs Ramp @ US 41 and at US 27, both on the Santa Fe River.
Reina Lingle got very clean results at Ivey Metropolitan Park in Branford and at Royal Springs, both on the Suwannee River.
New WWALS tester Debbie Smith got too-high results for Franks Creek at GA 122 just west of Hahira. Which is interesting, because that is upstream of Hahira’s Land Application Site.
Cindy Vedas got good results at Franklinville, Crawford Branch (well, OK results there), Staten Road, and Langdale Park, on the Withlacoochee River. She photographed the trash still at Langdale Park Boat Ramp from at the WWALS Langdale Park Withlacoochee River Cleanup of last Saturday. I will nudge Lowndes County Public Works to pick it up.
WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall tested Sugar Creek, and got too-high results. She also double-checked everybody else’s results. And the other testers cross-checked each others’ results.
If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084
The most recent Valdosta results we have are for Monday upstream, which were good. As usual, Valdosta’s last week upstream results corroborated what WWALS saw Thursday last week.
And, as previosly noted, Valdosta’s last downstream tests were September 1, 2023. Continue reading
Update 2023-10-27: Clean Rivers and some dirty creeks 2023-10-26.
With no rain this week, the rivers were mostly clean: the Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, plus Sugar Creek in Valdosta and Alligator Lake in Lake City. Except not clean were Langdale Park Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River, and Crawford Creek upstream.
No rain is predicted for this weekend.
In the last week, no new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.
So happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-19--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-19
Please welcome new WWALS testers Joanne Tremblay and Reina Lingle.
Joanne got very clean results at High Springs Ramp @ US 41 on the Santa Fe River.
Reina got very clean results at Ivey Metropolitan Park in Branford on the Suwannee River.
Kimberly Tanner got very clean results at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach on the Alapaha River.
WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall tested Sugar Creek, just upstream from the Withlacoochee River, and got suprisingly clean results.
Cindy Vedas was out sick, but she reviewed most everybody else’s results. I tested her sites at Franklinville, Crawford Branch (bad), and Langdale Park (worse), plus Hagan Bridge and GA 133, all on the Withlacoochee River, and Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River.
WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman tested at Clyattville-Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps, plus Sullivan Launch, all on the Withlacoochee River, and at Alligator Lake Boat Ramp in Lake City, where she taught some students and delivered a test kit to Joanne.
About Nankin, she notes, “The pile of trash just off to the side of the turn around drive is still there.” Continue reading
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
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
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-09-12--srwmd-board/many.jpg)
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
Cedar Key is getting high winds from Hurricane Idalia, and Steinhatchee’s weather camera is offline, while the National Weather Service has added more Georgia counties to its Hurricane Watch; all Florida Suwannee River Basin Counties were already in Hurricane Watch.
If you’re in Florida, hunker down. If you’re in Georgia, you may have time for some last-minute preparations. Either way, most schools and businesses are closed today in the Hurricane Watch counties, so there’s not much need to go out in the rain and wind.
Also, don’t buy water in plastic bottles. Fill pots, jugs, buckets, and bathtubs with tap or well water.
Watch your local county or city Emergency Management Agency. Have your power utility outage number handy.
Dear central and south Florida urban sophisticates: we know you’re used to this. In the rural Suwannee River Basin a Category 3 hurricane is unusual, especially one making landfall where it is, and likely to stay a hurricane so far inland.
Also, many of us remember Hurricane Michael, which only five years ago devastated the Florida Big Bend and trashed Albany, Georgia, on a path only a bit farther west than Hurricane Idalia. So this is not a joke to those of us who live here.
Better safe than sorry.
Since our last post, NWS JAX has added to the Hurricane Watch Suwannee River Basin Georgia counties Thomas, Cook, Berrien, Atkinson, and Coffee, along with more counties northeastward, Jeff Davis, Bacon, Pierce, Brantley, Apppling, Appling, Wayne, Tatnall, Long, Evans, and along the coast McIntosh, Liberty, Bryan, and Chatham Counties. All the Florida Suwannee River Basin Counties were already on Hurricane Watch.
All the nearby Georgia and Florida counties are on Tropical Storm Warning, as far west as Albany in Dougherty County. Continue reading
![[Cover]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-03--exploring-the-santa-fe-river-origins/many.jpg)
![[FB: WWALS #GAGives 2023]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-02--day-of-giving/fbmany.jpg)
![[SRWMD, NFRWSP]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-09--nfrwsp/many.jpg)
![[Hurricane Watch in more Georgia Counties, High winds at Cedar Key, Hurricane Idalia, 2023-08-30 06:00]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-08-30--hurricane-idalia-landing-florida-expanding-georgia/many.jpg)