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 2023-11-17: Mostly clean Withlacoochee River 2023-11-16.
The rivers were still clean, in yet another week with no rain: the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers. Even famously filthy Crawford Branch was clean. However, notoriously dirty Sugar Creek was dirty, but it did not seem to affect the Withlacoochee River much.
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 2023-11-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-09--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-11-09
Heather Brasell got good results for Continue reading
“Beyond Trail Ridge, cities and counties in the Suwannee River Basin value the Okefenokee Swamp and the Suwannee River, and are passing resolutions supporting the Okefenokee Swamp and legislation protecting it, including the City of Valdosta and Clinch and Echols Counties,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
Douglas Now, November 10, 2023, GEORGIA CONSERVATIONISTS MEET IN WAYCROSS TO PROTECT THE OKEFENOKEE FROM MINING,
The Georgia Water Coalition hosted its Fall Member meeting in Waycross November 8—10, 2023. Conservationists from around the state learned more about the Okefenokee and how to protect it from risky mining operations.
Attendees toured the Okefenokee Swamp Park, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and the St. Marys River. During the member meeting at South Georgia State College, Georgia Water Coalition members learned about how mining proposals along Trail Ridge threaten the Okefenokee.
![[Boats and inside]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-11-10--gwc-waycross/many.jpg)
Mike Worley, CEO, Georgia Wildlife Federation welcomes Georgia Water Coalition members at the Okefenokee Swamp Park, and inside Okefenokee NWR Manager Michael Lusk, Alice Keys of One Hundred Miles, St. Marys Riverkeeper Emily Floore, Local resident CharleneMcIntoshCarter of Okefenokee Pastimes Cabins and Campground, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. Photo: Southwings.“The Okefenokee touches everyone that touches its dark waters,” 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/
Congratulations to DeKalb County for passing a resolution supporting the Okefenokee Swamp.
You can encourage your city council or county commission to pass such a resolutin. Local government resolutions help encourage state legislatures to pass bills.
And you can still ask GA-EPD to reject the permit applications for that strip mine for titanium dioxide for white paint.
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining/
You can help save the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers.
![[DeKalb County Okefenokee Resolution 2023-10-24]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-24--dekalb-okefenokee/dekalb-county-okefenokee-resolution-final-0001.jpg)
DeKalb County Okefenokee Resolution 2023-10-24
PDF
Thanks to all those who got it done. I would name them, but I’m not sure who they all were. Continue reading
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/
National Geographic lists the Okefenokee Swamp among “The World’s most beautiful places, 100 Unforgettable Destinations,” along with the Everglades, the Amazon River, Yosemite and Grand Canyon National Parks, the Pyramids, and the Great Wall of China.
![[Okefenokee Swamp among the 100 Most Beautiful Places, National Geographic 2013-06]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-06-01--okefenokee-national-geographic/many.jpg)
Okefenokee Swamp among the 100 Most Beautiful Places, National Geographic 2013-06
Seems like that should help the UNESCO World Heritage Site bid for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR). Many of those 100 places are already UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
ONWR Manager Michael Lusk explained the Refuge, and then held up that copy of National Geographic. Continue reading
Update 2024-01-29: Cancelled: Hike Camp Branch to Suwannee Springs 2024-02-03.
Join veteran Florida Trail hiker Randy Madison for a winter hike along creeks and over a historic bridge to Suwannee Springs on the Suwannee River near Live Oak, Florida.
Update 2023-10-30: Meet and park at Suwannee Springs and Randy will lead a small caravan to the trailhead.
This hike will take us down beautiful Camp Branch, also know as Disappearing Creek. Disappearing Creek tumbles down a narrow canyon and disappears into a 15 foot high limestone rock wall before resurfacing and then going under ground again to resurface finally just before emptying into the Suwannee River.
After the descent of Camp Branch and a break at Disappearing Creek, we’ll head down the Suwannee on the Florida Trail to cross Crooked Branch, accend the Greasy Gully to summit Devils Mt, elevation 137ft, then follow the River passing through a scenic area with the hike ambling along the edge of some open cliffs, then a couple nice sandbars before coming in to the Graffiti Bridge, old 129.
We’ll take the blue trail from the Graffiti Bridge back to the Suwannee Springs ruins and our cars. Bring lunch, plenty of water, bug spray and appropriate clothing for the outing.
The hike down Camp Branch is through open forest and can be strenuous, so if you’re not up to uneven terrain and a little bush whacking this may not be a hike for you.
When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 4 PM, Saturday, February 3, 2024
Meet and Take Out Here: Suwannee Springs, 3243 91st Dr., Live Oak, FL 32060
![[Map and about]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-03--hike-camp-branch-to-suwannee-springs/many.jpg)
Camp Branch and Suwannee Springs
in
the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail.
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
![[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)