Tag Archives: Suwannee River

Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council Meeting 2018-03-22

Received today. -jsq

PUBLIC NOTICE:

SUWANNEE-SATILLA
REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING

Announcement Date: March 5, 2018

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
The Suwannee – Satilla Regional Water Planning Council is holding its
next council meeting
at the following date, time, and location:

Thursday, March 22, 2018
Registration: 10:00 A.M. — 10:30 A.M.
Meeting: 10:30 A.M. — 2:00 P.M.

Flyin’ Cowboy
1645 South Peterson Avenue (Hwy. 441 S)
Douglas, GA 31535

Map of SSRWPC

For additional information Continue reading →

Pictures: Fargo to Roline, Suwannee River 2017-03-18

Cold and foggy to warm and bright, a fine spring morning on the Suwannee River from Florida to Georgia. Plus Canadians!

Here are pictures by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman and a Google map.

Pictures by John S. Quarterman

Ninety-nine pictures are on the WWALS website.

Here we go
Under the US 441 bridge.

Continue reading →

WWALS at Suwannee Spring Reunion at the Music Park 2018-03-22-25

Come down to the Suwannee River with Suwannee Riverkeeper, listen to music, and talk about the rivers and the aquifer, outings and advocacy, education and fun. If you want to come all four days, we have a deal with camping if you help out at the WWALS booth. If you want to help just one day, we have a way for that, too.

When: March 22-March 25, 2017

Where: Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park
3076 95th Dr, Live Oak, Florida 32060

Event: facebook, meetup

What: Suwannee Spring Reunion, featuring The Infamous Stringdusters, David Bromberg Quartet, Donna the Buffalo, Larry Keel Experience, Dar Williams, Billy Strings, Amy Helm, Jim Lauderdale, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp, The Grass is Dead, Rev. Jeff Mosier and Biscuit Tragedy, Jon Stickley Trio, Front Country, Roy Book Binder, Grayson Capps, Ralph Roddenbery, Grandpa’s Cough Medicine, Nikki Talley, Quartermoon, Sloppy Joe, Big Cosmo, Suwannee Spirit Kids, and Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus.

WWALS banner, Thursday

It looks like all but four of the acts from last year Continue reading →

FGT pipeline noise, Suwannee County 2018-02-25

It sounded like a jet engine Wednesday evening, said a WWALS member as a pipeline let loose in Suwannee County. (Hear it for yourself in WWALS videos four days later.) Was it a leak? A planned release? A road construction break? We get no answers, just runarounds, from the federal and state agencies that permitted all the interstate natural gas pipelines into Florida. They passed the buck to Suwannee County Fire Rescue. At least Suwannee BOCC opposed the Sabal Trail pipeline and approved a solar farm.

Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS 2018-02-25 of FGT pipeline at Suwannee Oaks Drive.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS 2018-02-25 of FGT at Suwannee Oaks Drive.

Neighbors preparing to evacuate February 21, 2018, confirmed the location: just north of 208th Street, at Continue reading →

Committee meeting in Cedar Key for Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-25

This weekend in Cedar Key, a meeting of the organizing Committee for the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. And we’re going to hold the actual contest in Cedar Key; stay tuned for details.

When: 1PM Sunday, February 25, 2018

Where: 83 West, 310 Dock St, Cedar Key, FL 32625

What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. You do not have to be a Committee member to come to the meeting, but if you want to be on the internal forums where decisions are also made, you can apply to join the Committee.

Event: facebook

83 West by Ken E.
Photo: Ken E., Yelp review of 83 West.

The Story So Far

Decisions so far include:

When: June 2018.

Where: Cedar Key, Florida.

What to submit: Lyrics and sound (mp3) about any river, creek, spring, sink, swamp, or pond in the Suwannee River Basin (except not the Santa Fe River nor creeks, sinks, etc. on it, because it has its own contest). Nature, people, or events, are all good.

Songwriting Contest Committee Members, Picture
The Committee at the Crossroads, Feb. 18, 2018. We could use some musicians on the committee.

The Committee decided to invite submissions from every genre on this extensive music genres list, from Art Punk to Zydeco. Hip hop, K-pop, rock, reggae, R&B, and solo cello classical are all invited, among many others, including of course folk and country. You can even sing a capella, and if you’re really brave, maybe recite poetry. But remember that while lyrics are the most important aspect, this is a songwriting contest, so playing an instrument would be good.

What not to submit: Avoid politics, religion, or flamingos. While we’d be hard put to reject Robert Johnson’s Crossroads (if it mentioned one of our rivers), it is just a tad religious. While Butch Hancock’s Give Them Water is a great a capella song, it is more than a bit political. And please don’t just cover somebody else’s song: while Ray Charles’ Swanee River Rock is nice, the lyrics were already known.

How to submit: Ready to submit a song? Well, soon, the Committee is still working out the details.

Before the event: Submissions will be narrowed down to half a dozen or so, in two categories: from within the Basin, and from elsewhere.

The event: Finalists will perform live, and judges will decide. Contestants and especially winners will get prizes. Food, song, sunshine, and a fine time.

Do you want to be a judge, or suggest who should be? Let us know.

Format: If the format sounds familiar, that’s because we are shamelessly copying the long-running Our Santa Fe River Songwriting Contest, which we recommend you also attend. The rivers are different, and the winners will get prizes.

We may make format changes because Cedar Key is far to go and people love any reason to stay there for a weekend.

You do need to be present to win. However, you do not have to sing your own song: you can have somebody else do that for you.

Come to the WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting on February 25th and help decide how we will pick some more songs about our rivers!

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Committee meeting: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-19

Remember, Stephen C. Foster never saw the Suwannee River before he made it famous in his song. So at its meeting last week, the Songwriting Committee decided to have two categories: submissions from within the Suwannee River Basin, and submissions from anywhere else in the world.

Come on down to the Crossroads Sunday afternoon and help us decide more about the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest:

When: 1PM Sunday, February 18, 2018

Where: Crossroads Market & Grill, Inc., 5463 State Rd 6 West, Jasper, FL 32052

What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. You do not have to be a Committee member to come to the meeting, but if you want to be on the internal forums where decisions are also made, you can apply to join the Committee.

Event: facebook, meetup

Ray Charles, Swanee River Rock

The Story So Far

Decisions and discussions so far include: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail troubled that the experts were right

“Without the certificate,
they cannot operate.”
—John S. Quarterman
of WWALS

Protesters turned out in St. Pete last year, and now a reporter from Tampa posts an update on double-sad news for Sabal Trail (I’ve added links).

Carmella Guiol, Kate Bradshaw, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, 15 Feb 2018, The experts were right: Troubles for the Sabal Trail pipeline: They warned us — correctly — about the pipeline’s dangers to the environment. ,

For years, environmentalists warned against constructing the Sabal Trail pipeline. Yet construction wore on, and the controversial natural gas conduit is functional — for now.

Photo: Terrence Smith. : TOLD YA SO: In St. Petersburg, protesters railed against the controversial project in 2017.
Photo: Terrence Smith. TOLD YA SO: In St. Petersburg, protesters railed against the controversial project in 2017.

The 515-mile pipeline snakes from Alabama to central Florida, and when it’s running, it brings natural gas (mined using the process of fracking) to power plants in the Sunshine State, where it generates energy that power companies sell to customers. The $3.5 billion project is a joint venture between Enbridge, NextEra Energy and Duke Energy Corporation, which make up the group Sabal Trail LLC.

The Sierra Club sued over that last one, but despite Continue reading →

It’s a Go for this weekend’s outings 2018-02-10-11

Update 2018-02-10: And it’s a go for Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee Sunday morning!

Definitely for today’s Five Holes Cleanup at the Suwannee River, and probably for tomorrow’s Hagan Bridge Withlacoochee River paddle (stay tuned for final word on that one).

5 Holes Clean Up at the Suwannee River
Outings Chair Phil Hubbard says: “We are a GO for the clean up at 5 Holes for this afternoon at 3 PM.”
Five Holes is also known as Seven Sisters Spring; see also Pictures by Alan Cressler from 2008.

Movie: Its cold! in Five Holes (23M)
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for WWALS at Five Holes, Suwannee River, 2015-08-15.

Withlacoochee River Paddle from Hagan Bridge to Franklinville Road
Phil says: “Like wise, as of the 8 AM forecast we should be a GO for the paddle outing tomorrow with a 25% chance that of now appears to be decreasing during the midday and increasing after sunset. However we shall revisit this one again this afternoon before making a final decision.”
More good news: Continue reading →

Rain and this weekend’s outings 2018-02-10-11

Update 2018-02-10: And it’s a go for Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River Sunday morning!

Update 2018-02-10: It’s a Go for Five Holes, and probably for Hagan Bridge.

Even the rain likes the weekend. Multiple weather forecasts show chances of rain ranging from 40% to 100% this weekend. Rain is not the best time to be clambering up and down steep slopes at Five Holes, and a thunderstorm is not a good time to be paddling the Withlacoochee River from Hagan Bridge. But we don’t want to call it early, because then both days would for sure be sunny.

Committee meeting: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-10

Singing Cedar Key in the summer? How many songs can you name about the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Little (which one?), Grand Bay, Banks Lake, the Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannacoochee Spring, Manatee Springs, or the Dead River Sink? Most people know only one song for all of that. Come on, songwriters, let’s hear more! WWALS members, come help organize the first Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest!

Update 2018-02-03: And you can join us afterwards for 5 Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration, at the Suwannee River but by land.

Sheet music cover of Way Down Upon the Swanee River, 1935, State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.
Sheet music cover of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River”. 1935. Color photoprint. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.

The WWALS Songwriting Contest Committee held its first meeting Sunday, January 28, 2018 at Crossroads Market & Grill in Hamilton County, Florida, with Eileen Box (Chair), Scotti Jay, Sara Squires, and John S. Quarterman. Numerous logistics were discussed, from submission format and content to venue: so far the leading contender is Cedar Key, in Levy County on the Gulf of Mexico.

When: 1PM, Saturday, February 10, 2018

Where: Crossroads Market & Grill, Inc., 5463 State Rd 6 West, Jasper, FL 32052

What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading →