WWALS Acting Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman said:
These are all the tickets that we sold. And these are the ones that Shirley sold. These are the ones that came from Phil. These are the ones that came from Hulaween. These are the ones that came from Skillet Fest….
Look, a bird!
Shirley Kokidko at the WWALS Okefenokee Outing, Sunday, December 10, 2017, refocused the camera on the proceedings. Then more ticket sources: Continue reading
If you weren’t among the small but hardy group of paddlers yesterday, you missed more birds than I’ve ever seen in the Okefenokee Swamp on a sunny cold December morning. We did draw the winner for the kayak raffle; we’ll announce that once we get a return telephone call.
Before even entering the Stephen C. Foster State Park, we saw a great blue heron, the bird on the WWALS banner, plus a wild hog. Inside, we saw Continue reading
You can see on these maps that the Suwannee River Basin is massively agricultural, except where it’s forestry or swamp or other wetlands. Thus it’s no wonder that most of the nitrate runoff problem here is due to agriculture, as shown in the Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs).
WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter points to this Global Croplands map to illustrate the BMAP issues. The question remains of whether agricultural best management practices as advocated in the recent BMAP meetings will be sufficient to deal with the problem, considering they haven’t decreased it in the past decade.
Global Croplands About: Continue reading
You may have seen this kayak at the Brooks County Skillet Fest, the Berrien County Harvest Fest, the Alapaha Station Celebration, the Hahira Honeybee, or Suwannee Hulaween, and now there are only a few days to get a raffle ticket for it, before we draw the winner 9AM this Sunday in the Okefenokee Swamp on the monthly WWALS paddle outing.
You can put your donation in online and get your kayak raffle tickets. All proceeds go to support the work of WWALS Watershed Coalition, because Malibu Kayaks generously donated the kayak.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Sent today. See also PDF, and previous posts about what you can do. -jsq
To:
Nick Wiley, Executive Director
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600
850-488-2975
nick.wiley@MyFWC.com
Emily Herschman Davis: 850-617-9577
emily.herschman@MyFWC.com
Colonel Curtis Brown, Chairman
Boating Advisory Committee (BAC)
Curtis.Brown@MyFWC.com
Captain William Griswold, Chairman
Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG)
WSGriz@aol.com
Re: Paid permits for non-motorized boats
Dear E.D. Wiley, Chairman Brown, and Chairman Griswold,
As the head of an organization that holds many paddle outings in Florida, I thank you for holding a public meeting tomorrow of the Boating Advisory Council that could finally put to rest the ill-advised idea of charging permit fees for paddle boats or boards. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, so I am sending this letter.
Stean Rayer, Ying Wang, Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR), University of Florida, 30 October 2014, Measuring Population Density for Counties in Florida
Thank you, FWC Executive Director Wiley, for saying back in February Continue reading
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Florida Boating Advisory Council (BAC). More below on what you can do, plus still more apparent term limit overruns, paddle boaters represented by a yacht business owner, the last NMBWG meeting, the paydirt of paddlers pay (for marinas), and what that would cost.
After a decade of BAC attempts to charge people for paddling (see yesterday’s installment), in 2015 the BAC decided it needed a sub-group:
“The Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG) was created by the Boating Advisory Council at its May 18, 2015 meeting. The purpose of the working group is to address four core areas of non-motorized boating: access, education, safety, and user pay/user benefit.”
It doesn’t take much reading of the NMBWG minutes to infer that the whole goal of this group was not access, education, safety, nor (non-motorized boater) user benefit, but “user pay”.
Yacht Octopus by Peter Sleeckx, 2 December 2006,
CC BY-SA 3.0.
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Boating Advisory Council.
For more than a decade, at least half its lifetime, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Boating Advisory Council (BAC) has been trying to find a way to charge permit fees for registration of non-motorized boats. Here’s the story so far, which will make clear there’s no reason to believe such efforts will stop. Also including not one, but two BAC members mysteriously serving longer than state-mandated term limits would seem to allow. Is it really about the children? Or is it about marinas, that paddle boaters don’t use? With a special appearance by the Florida state rep. who sponsored the law that expedited WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP.
The Boating Advisory Council (BAC) was created Continue reading
One group wouldn’t do it, so its parent may: require paid permits for paddle boats and boards in Florida.
When: 9AM, Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Where:
Mission Inn,
10400 County Road 48,
Howey-in-the-Hills, 34737
That’s a golf club resort halfway between The Villages and Orlando,
rooms $179 to $246 for Monday night.
Who: Boating Advisory Council (BAC) of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
Event:
On the agenda
under “Unfinished Business / Updates”:
“Non-Motorized Boat Working Group Recommendations Review — William Griswold”
TripAdvisor, Mission Inn Resort & Club, 10400 County Road 48, Howey in the Hills, FL 34737-3000
How to Comment: Continue reading
The center of the very extensive Twin Rivers State Forest, near the confluence of the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers at Ellaville.
The Florida Wildlife Commission says about Twin Rivers Wildlife Management Area:
Twin Rivers consists of more than 9,000 acres in 14 noncontiguous tracts in Madison, Hamilton, and Suwannee counties. Most of the land is in Continue reading
Despite what we heard at the BMAP meeting Tuesday, it turns out Best Management Practices (BMP) are not all that can be done to fix fertilizer nitrate runoff in the Suwannee Rier Basin. “More than $1 million of the Pilgrim’s penalty would fund a program to help nearby farmers reduce their pollution as well.” The Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDACS) could also ask the legislature for further such funding, in addition to recommending BMPs. Congratulations, Environment Florida and Sierra Club, for doing what the state of Florida has not!
Photo: Dominic Gheesling for WWALS on Southwings flight 22 October 2016,
Pilgrims Pride, US 90, 30.3648380, -83.1636130
Another chicken breeder is setting up in the Suwannee River Basin, near Quitman in Brooks County Georgia, next to Okapilco Creek, which flows into the Withlacoochee River and then the Suwannee River. We’ll be watching.
