Tag Archives: Sugar Creek

Chainsaw cleanup, Withlacoochee River @ Sugar Creek 2022-05-29

Let’s clear some more of the deadfalls blocking the Withlacoochee River between Langdale Park Boat Ramp and Troupville Boat Ramp. We will probably float around right near Sugar Creek, although if we get everything there, we might paddle down towards the Little River.

This is a cleanup, so there’s plenty for everyone to do. You do not have to use a chainsaw, and we recommend you do not unless you have experience with them. Everyone near a chainsaw please wear safety eyeglasses.

Yes, Valdosta has ordered a trash boom for Sugar Creek, but we do not yet know when it will arrive and get installed. We want to go ahead with the deadfall clearing while volunteers are enthusiastic, so once the trash is more contained there can be more paddling on the Withlacoochee River.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 12 PM, Sunday, May 29, 2022

Put In: Salty Snapper parking lot, 1405 Gornto Road, Valdosta, GA 31602.

GPS: 30.8625, -83.31875

Bring: Chainsaw or sawzall if you are experienced with using them. Everyone bring the usual personal flotation device, boat, paddles, snacks, drinking water, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags. If you do not have a boat, there will probably be plenty to pick up along the shore, and we may have extra spots in boats.

Free: This outing is free because it is a cleanup.

We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations

Event: facebook

[Movie: Phil Hubbard sawing a log in a kayak, 09:36:09, 30.8632605, -83.3193490 (71M)]
Phil Hubbard sawing a log in a kayak, 2022-05-07 30.8632605, -83.3193490

Continue reading →

Clean Rivers again 2022-05-19

Update 2022-05-28: Clean All Rivers 2022-05-26.

Happy swimming, fishing, and boating on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers this weekend.

There has been no rain and no sewage spills reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. All WWALS sampling sites tested clean. No significant rain is predicted, so no cattle manure is likely to wash down Okapilco Creek, nor even much trash down Sugar Creek. So this is about as unqualified as we can get on a positive river quality report.

[Chart, River, Swim Guide]
Chart, River, Swim Guide

Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for her Continue reading →

Videos: Valdosta Mayor announces first trash trap @ VCC 2022-05-19

Update 2022-06-21: Valdosta Watergoat installed in Sugar Creek 2022-06-21.

Update 2022-05-21: QUARTERMAN in VDT: Sewage situation better, trash needs work 2022-05-21.

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman asked for action about trash at the Valdosta City Council meeting yesterday, and two elected officials vied to announce that there was some action already.

[Suwannee Riverkeeper, Andy Gibbs, Mayor James, Richard Hardy]
Suwannee Riverkeeper, Andy Gibbs, Mayor James, Richard Hardy

You can see it for yourself: Continue reading →

Trash at No Water No Beer 2022-05-07

Update 2022-05-20: Videos: Valdosta Mayor announces first trash trap @ VCC 2022-05-19.

WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman spoke about WWALS at the Valdosta Public Works No Water No Beer festival at Georgia Beer Co.

[Booth, speech, kayak]
Booth, speech, kayak

Here’s the video of Valdosta Public Works Director introducing and WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman speaking. Continue reading →

Mayor, Council, volunteers, helped WWALS clean up Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River 2022-05-07

Update 2023-07-22: Pictures: Sugar Creek Withlacoochee River on-land cleanup 2023-07-22.

Update 2023-05-18: Sugar Creek to Troupville, Withlacoochee River Cleanup 2023-07-22.

Update 2022-05-16: Trash at No Water No Beer 2022-05-07.

When Russell says don’t bring a boat to a cleanup, bring a boat for use as a garbage scow. Fortunately, Valdosta Mayor Scott James brought a boat. He and Council Andy Gibbs helped clean up at Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, in that Council district. We filled that kayak with trash, floated it down the river, loaded it on the Mayor’s truck, and he drove it straight to No Water No Beer at Georgia Beer Co. (his idea).

The Mayor and Phil Hubbard sawed off some deadfalls, clearing passage in the creek. Thanks to them and all the other volunteers for this cleanup. Special thanks to Russell for organizing it.

[Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, trash, Valdosta Mayor and Council]
Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, trash, Valdosta Mayor and Council

Of course, cleanups don’t solve the trash problem. Fortunately, Continue reading →

Videos: Trash and river paddles, Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2022-04-29

This morning, Valdosta Mayor Scott James and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman talked trash and river paddling on 92.1 FM talk radio.

[Movie: BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham State Park 2022-04-30]
Movie: BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham State Park 2022-04-30

Get your tickets today to join us tomorrow (Saturday) morning for the annual 3-mile WWALS BIG Little River Paddle Race down the idyllic blackwater Little River from Red Roberts Landing into Reed Bingham State Park Lake.

And another paddle next Saturday, May 7, 2022, on the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park Boat Ramp to Sugar Creek. The Mayor promised to bring nets for trash. I’ll bring sawzalls for any deadfalls.

We mostly talked about the trash situation, in which the Mayor of Valdosta promised to get trash cans set out on the city’s own parking lots, starting with the ones across from City Hall. We discussed the cleanup award from GA-DNR I picked up in Atlanta Wednesday. Cleanups are great, but not enough. We also need trash traps to stop the stuff from getting out of the creeks into the rivers. And we need parking lot owners to keep trash from getting of their lots and to set out and clean out trash cans. Continue reading →

Residents can help keep rivers clean –Katherine Ball in Valdosta Daily Times 2022-04-15

Katherine Ball, Valdosta Daily Times, April 15, 2022, BALL: Residents can help keep rivers clean

I get excited, every year, as Earth Day approaches. Not only is it a great day to spend time preserving and enjoying our planet, it is also my birthday.

[Katherine Ball]
Katherine Ball

As I spend this Birth and Earth Day, in Valdosta, I am reminded of the many childhood memories I made playing in Three Mile Branch creek, off Country Club Road. Looking back, my experiences in those waters, directly shaped who I became as an adult and an artist.

Being the only girl in the Magnolia Plantation cul-de-sac, I often found myself, Continue reading →

Pictures: Two Mile Branch cleanup 2022-04-16

Eighteen people accepted Katherine Ball’s invitation to clean up Two Mile Branch behind Stone Castle.

Trash found in this Georgia Rivers Alive WWALS Earth Day cleanup included a Valdosta rezoning sign from 2007, a street-side trash bin, and many tires, as well as the usual bottles and cans.

Floridians, this is trash that would otherwise go down Two Mile Branch and Sugar Creek to the Withlacoochee River into Florida.

Some VSU students videoed the proceedings for a documentary. Nic Hathaway says he’s organizing Lowndes High students to help with trash.

[Creek, trash, banners]
Creek, trash, banners

Michael’s backhoe was necessary to pull some of that stuff out. The trash bin took a halfdozen to heave-ho.

Here’s a WWALS video playlist: Continue reading →

Waycross installed a trash trap before the Satilla River a decade ago 2020-04-20

“Well, it is unsightly, it is disgusting, and it’s been going on for years.”

No, he’s not talking about trash coming down Valdosta creeks into the Withlacoochee River, but he might as well be. It’s a report from Mobile, Alabama, about the Bandalong trash trap in a canal just upstream from the Satilla River in Waycross, Georgia. A trash trap with funding organized by the former Satilla Riverkeeper. These days, even less expensive trash traps are available. It’s time for the City of Valdosta to get on with buying some for Sugar Creek, Two Mile Branch, Three Mile Branch, and maybe other locations. There are less expensive, easier, and more flexible trash traps available now, which I will post about later.

And no, trash traps do not solve the whole problem. For that, the upstream fast food outlets and parking lots need to stop trash from getting off those lots and install trash cans and clean them out. Valdosta city ordinances say they must, and if business don’t do it voluntarily, they can be fined. Then people living along Valdosta creeks won’t have to worry so much about their children playing in trash health hazards on creeks.

We had a good meeting Monday with some Valdosta city departments about all this, with promise of followup meetings. We will supply them with options to move ahead with fixing the trash problem from upstream parking lots to trash traps to cleanups.

[Bandalong trash trap, canal before Satilla River]
Bandalong trash trap, canal before Satilla River

NBC 15 Mobile, March 28, 2012, Report on Waycross, GA’s Bandalong Litter Trap,

Every time it rains in Mobile, mounds of trash, litter, and debris end up in Dog River. Well, tonight, Local 15 News is looking at a possible solution to the problem. Andrea Ramey traveled to Waycross, Georgia, to take a look at a device there, Continue reading →

Still there: Two acres of trash on Valdosta City land at VLPRA HQ, above One Mile Branch 2022-03-09

Update 2022-04-13: Floating trash in cypress swamp below VLPRA HQ in Valdosta 2022-04-13.

As previously mentioned, there are two acres of trash on land owned by the City of Valdosta, just south of VLPRA headquarters, at the corner of Barack Obama Blvd. and Ricardo Street, Behind the Pepsi Adopt-A-Spot sign, near the top of One Mile Branch.

In Valdosta’s own Seeclickfix map, you can see the site just across Barack Obama Blvd. from a drainage canal that runs into One Mile Branch just upstream from Vallotton Park.

[Map: Seeclickfix VLPRA HQ, One Mile Branch, Vallotton Park https://seeclickfix.com/issues/12055148]
Map: Seeclickfix VLPRA HQ, One Mile Branch, Vallotton Park https://seeclickfix.com/issues/12055148

This water quality and public health problem was first reported through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app on March 9, 2022, it got some acknowledgement after another report on March 21st, but no cleanup seems to have happened.

Some of the city officials named in these comments are scheduled to be at a meeting with WWALS this afternoon. Maybe they’re waiting on that meeting to schedule a cleanup. We shall see.

Meanwhile, notice the variety of commenters who do not work for the city. First, all the comments from the March 21st report: Continue reading →