Tag Archives: Troupville Boat Ramp

Schedule for 2023 Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP) grant applications 2023-01-11

I’ve heard differing opinions about various deadlines for submitting a grant proposal this year to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP), such as for Troupville Nature Park and River Camp at the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, just west of Valdosta, Georgia.

[GOSP, Helen Tapp, Land Between the Rivers]
GOSP, Helen Tapp, Land Between the Rivers

So I asked GA-DNR, who replied that grant pre-applications will open this fall, and will be announced this spring. The earliest anything might need to be done with GA-DNR about GOSP is informational webinars, which may be scheduled for May or June.

I’m sticking to my opinion that there’s no point proceeding with a grant application until ongoing park maintenance is lined up. It’s my understanding that Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and One Valdosta-Lowndes have the token to find that maintenance money as well as the rest of the required cash match.

Lowndes County already made a huge step forward by buying Helen Tapp’s Land Between the Rivers for eventual addition to the land already owned by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreational Authority (VLPRA) to form the park. I don’t know of anything else pressing the county needs to do at the moment.

Here is this morning’s response from GA-DNR: Continue reading →

Lowndes County buys Troupville land for Nature Park and River Camp 2022-12-30

Suwannee Riverkeeper features in the image the Valdosta Daily Times used with the story.

County acquires Troupeville[sic] land for nature reserve, By Malia Thomas, Valdosta Daily Times, Dec 30, 2022,

VALDOSTA — Lowndes County is doing its part to preserve nature with the purchase of 71.47 acres of land between the Little River Confluence and the Withlacoochee River.

[Suwannee Riverkeeper banner at a Troupville cleanup. Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter is second from right, back row. WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman is by the left end of the banner.]
Suwannee Riverkeeper banner at a Troupville cleanup.
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter is second from right, back row.
WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman is by the left end of the banner.

The county purchased the land from Between the Rivers LLC. for $121,500 with the intention of setting it aside as a nature preserve. The Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority owns the land between that property and Highway 133.

In her letter to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board of Trustees, sixth generation owner and property seller Helen Tapp spoke of Continue reading →

Lowndes County to purchase land for Troupville Nature Park and River Camp @ LCC 2022-12-13

Update 2022-12-12: Videos: Dollar General rezoning legally must be tabled, Troupville land purchase is for a park @ LCC 2022-12-12.

Lowndes County tomorrow will take a big step and buy 77.14 acres down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, adjoining the 49.36 acres including Troupville Boat Ramp already owned south of GA 133 by Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA).

The idea is to combine the two tracts into a 126.5-acre Troupville Nature Park, the dream of landowner Helen Tapp, with trails, signage, and an educational pavilion. It will include a Troupville River Camp on the Withlacoochee just upstream from the Confluence. The project still needs ongoing maintenance funds, but this purchase clears a big hurdle after four years of preparation.

That’s 5:30 PM, Tuesday, December 13, 2023, at 327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor, Valdosta, Georgia, 31601.

[Agenda item, map]
Agenda item, map

The price of $121,500 is dirt cheap at $1,575 per acre, because it’s all flood plain, and there was also some discount from the tax-appraised value of $127,347 because of the conservation easement.

Many thanks to landowner Helen Tapp for organizing the conservation easement and for being willing to sell at such a price. This purchase ensures the land won’t turn into a shooting range or some other inappropriate facility. (There already is a shooting range slightly upstream on the Little River.) Continue reading →

Troupville at flood with dogs 2022-01-20

Me and the dogs were curious to see what the site of future Troupville Nature Park looked like at high water.

[Collage, Troupville River Park site, 2022-01-20]
Collage, Troupville River Park site, 2022-01-20

We did not make any exciting new discoveries; we just went to see how far we could go south and east at that water level. Well, we did find plenty of trash of various kinds.

The water level has been higher, but it was pretty high:

  • 14.5′ (147.3′ NAVD88) on the Folsom Bridge Gauge (Little River @ GA 122).
  • 14.16′ (124.56′ NAVD88) on the Valdosta Gauge (Withlacoochee River @ US 41 or North Valdosta Road)

Many pictures are on the WWALS website.

You can trace our path be the loop of binoculars on this Continue reading →

Trash, Withlacoochee River, Troupville 2022-11-13

Hot Damn! It’s the Trashy Bottom Boys!

[Trash, Boats, Shoals]
Trash, Boats, Shoals

I went down to Troupville Boat Ramp to collect a water sample, and who should I spy? Bobby McKenzie and Russell Allen McBride, the Trashy Bottom Boys.

They were just back from a mile-and-a-half roundtrip down the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers to clean up trash. That location is now in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail as Trashy Shoals. Continue reading →

Pictures: Dam, Troupville, Little River, GA 133, 2022-11-03

Update 2022-11-07: a few more dam pictures in here: Troupville River Park Scouting 2022-07-02.

About halfway between Troupville Boat Ramp and the Troup Bridge (the GA 133 Little River Bridge), are these remains of an old dam.

Phillip Williams pointed this out some time back.

Maybe Don Davis can turn up some records of this dam.

[Timbers seen from downstream, 11:05:42, 30.8519297, -83.3472014]
Timbers seen from downstream, 11:05:42, 30.8519297, -83.3472014 in the WWALS Map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail

Bridge pilings are vertical, not horizontal.

Horizontal timbers would make sense to hold a dam in place. Right next to Troupville would be a good place for a mill, which would need a dam. Continue reading →

Rescheduled: Chainsaw Cleanup Withlacoochee River, 2022-10-16

Rescheduled due to fish kill.

We need volunteers to pick up trash while a few people chainsaw some deadfalls.

We aim to collect the trashjams we didn’t have room for last time, and to chainsaw the remaining Withlacoochee River deadfalls between Sugar Creek and the Little River Confluence. Then we’ll paddle up the Little River to take out at Troupville Boat Ramp.

Unlike last time, we’re scheduling seven hours for the shuttle, for chainsawing and trash collecting, and for the four-mile paddle. With luck, nobody will get stuck this time.

All dependent on the weather, of course. Could be hurricane season finally by then, or could be plenty low to make this easy.

When: 9 AM to 4 PM, Sunday, October 16, 2022

Put In: Meet at the back of the Salty Snapper parking lot, 1405 Gornto Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602.

GPS: 30.861764, -83.318854

[Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws]
Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws, 2022-07-30; Photos: John S. Quarterman.

Continue reading →

Chainsaw Cleanup Withlacoochee River, 2022-09-25

Update 2022-09-24: Rescheduled: Chainsaw Cleanup Withlacoochee River, 2022-10-16.

We need volunteers with boats to pick up trash while a few people chainsaw some deadfalls.

We aim to collect the trashjams we didn’t have room for last time, and to chainsaw the remaining Withlacoochee River deadfalls between Sugar Creek and the Little River Confluence. Then we’ll paddle up the Little River to take out at Troupville Boat Ramp.

Unlike last time, we’re scheduling seven hours for the shuttle, for chainsawing and trash collecting, and for the four-mile paddle. With luck, nobody will get stuck this time.

All dependent on the weather, of course. Could be hurricane season finally by then, or could be plenty low to make this easy.

When: 9 AM, Sunday, September 25, 2022

Put In: Meet at the back of the Salty Snapper parking lot, 1405 Gornto Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602.

GPS: 30.861764, -83.318854

[Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws]
Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws, 2022-07-30; Photos: John S. Quarterman.

Continue reading →

Chainsaw Cleanup Returns, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, 2022-07-30

A few people with chainsaws will saw off some deadfalls, while other people pull the pieces aside and clean up the trash caught in the deadfalls.

This outing will depend much on the water level. Right now the Withlacoochee River is too high to reach the lower deadfalls, and in two weeks it could be very low again, so watch the facebook event or the meetup.

[Last tree section drops, 13:15:39, 30.8447282, -83.3476157]
Last tree section drops, 13:15:39, 30.8447282, -83.3476157 2022-06-25

Remember, you do not have to use a chainsaw to come on this outing. We need people moving limbs and picking up trash. Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River OK water quality except GA 133 2022-07-02

Update 2022-07-06: Withlacoochee River water quality good again 2022-07-03.

By WWALS samples Friday and Saturday, the Withlacoochee River appears clean from State Line Boat Ramp downstream, with tests also at Florida Campsites and Cleary’s Bluff between Allen Ramp and the Confluence.

Upstream at GA 133, it’s still bad. Possibly some of Valdosta’s Thursday sewage spill is still seeping into the river, or we’re just seeing residual contamination from that or from whatever got into the river from upstream of US 41 before that spill.

Around the corner at Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River, that’s OK.

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

There was quite a bit of rain in Colquitt County on Okapilco Creek, so more cattle manure may wash down from there.

Where all that previous contamination went is Continue reading →