Update 2023-03-02: Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Sewage spills, Trash, Okefenokee Swamp over stripmine @ Radio 2023-02-28.
Suwannee Riverkeeper will talk about the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle coming up this Saturday, saving the Okefenokee Swamp from a strip mine, trash, sewage, parks, and rivers on Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio this morning, Tuesday, 8:30 AM.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1471470606719880
Topics discussed will probably include: Continue reading
Here are a few pictures from last year’s Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, eleven miles on the Withlacoochee River.
This year’s paddle will be Saturday, March 3, 2023, on the same route, starting at Troupville Boat Ramp just west of Valdosta on the Little River, ending at Spook Bridge.
![[Scenes from Mayor and Chairman's Paddle 2022-02-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-19--mayor-chairmans-paddle-pictures/many.jpg)
Scenes from Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle 2022-02-19
Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson was there, in the red shoes, dead center of this picture. We hear this year Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter will be, as well. You can paddle up to them and ask questions. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-01: Boats provided by State Line River Outfitters at Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle 2023-03-04.
Water levels are coming down good for a week from Saturday, for the Fourth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle.
Today the Quitman Gauge at US 84 is about eight feet above the level of the 2022 Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. It looks like it will still be a couple feet above come this year’s paddle day. So easy paddling!
The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle is a fundraiser for WWALS,
so tickets are $30 per boat,
online or at the event.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mayor-and-chairmans-paddle-little-and-withlacoochee-rivers-tickets-518815951477
It’s free for elected officials. They can Continue reading
“What does “action stage” mean?” asked Christy Yates on facebook about Paddling in the treetops 2023-02-13 and for real two years ago 2021-02-27 2023-02-13.
This is relevant to the upcoming Fourth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River 2023-03-04.
I answered: Basically, watch out, the river is high. More formally: “Action Stage – the stage which, when reached by a rising stream, represents the level where the NWS or a partner/user needs to take some type of mitigation action in preparation for possible significant hydrologic activity. The type of action taken varies for each gage location. Gage data should be closely monitored by any affected people if the stage is above action stage.
![[Stages, US 84 Gauge, Treetop paddling]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-16--action-stage/many.jpg)
Stages, US 84 Gauge, Treetop paddling
See below for National Weather Service (NWS) terminology, which also defines several stages of flooding: minor, moderate, and major. That definitions web page is from Alaska, and it includes something called “bankfull stage” that I’ve never seen used around here. The rest of it is the same as in the Suwannee River Basin.
Right now paddling the Withlacooche River would be up in the branches like this picture, but higher. Don’t worry: the water level will probably go back down before March 4th. Continue reading
Update 2023-02-16: River Low, Action, and Flood Stages 2023-02-16.
“Right now we’d be paddling in the treetops,” joked Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, Monday at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session, about the upcoming Fourth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River 2023-03-04.
Well, five of us actually did that two years ago, February 27, 2021. As I wrote back then, “ it was smooth sailing for experienced paddlers. The overhanging branches would have been a problem for novices, and there were very few places to get out if you did capsize.”
![[Chairman says paddling in the treetops, and for real two years ago]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-13--paddling-in-the-treetops/many.jpg)
Chairman says paddling in the treetops, and for real two years ago
“It would be a very short trip, I promise you,” Lowndes County EMA Director Ashley Tye replied to the Chairman.
Two years ago it took about four hours to paddle those 11 miles from Troupville Boat Ramp to Spook Bridge, from 9 AM to a little after 1 PM, without rushing. That’s fast, 2.75 miles an hour, compared to our default estimate of 5.5 hours at two miles an hour.
Back then the Hahira Gauge, on the Little River at GA 122, read about 13.73 feet. Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-11--gosp/many.jpg)
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
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.
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
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.
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
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-01-20--troupville-boat-ramp-broad-street-dogs/many.jpg)
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:
Many pictures are on the WWALS website.
You can trace our path be the loop of binoculars on this Continue reading
Hot Damn! It’s the Trashy Bottom Boys!
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
![[Radio, Paddle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-28--scott-james-radio/many.jpg)
![[Quitman Gauge, many paddlers]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-22--levels-mayor-paddle/many.jpg)
![[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.]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-30--troupville-land-purchase/63ad4dcb0a3cb.image.jpg)
![[Agenda item, map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-13--lcc-purchase-troupville/many.jpg)
![[Trash, Boats, Shoals]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-11-13--trash-troupville-boat-ramp/many.jpg)