Tag Archives: VLPRA

Entrance cleared to Langdale Park Boat Ramp 2023-10-10

Langdale Park is back open to drive in, since Monday. Join us at Langdale Park Boat Ramp on ~~Saturday,~~ Friday, October 20, 2023, for a boating cleanup. Don’t worry: if you don’t have a boat or don’t want to use one, you can clean up on land.

You may recall that back on September 28th I thought I’d collect a water quality sample at Langdale Park, and I found downed trees all along the entrance road.

A week later, I checked again, and all that Hurricane Idalia debris was still there.

So I called Lowndes County Public Works. They agreed they did maintain Hyta Mederer Road, and they would open a work order. They asked if it was urgent, or would Monday do? I said Monday would be fine.

Thanks to Lowndes County Public Works for reopening Langdale Park

And on Monday they got all the impediments off the road. Gretchen Quarterman tood these pictures Tuesday. She got there in her low-slung Prius C.

On the way back out, she took a video.
https://youtu.be/mbIY1uMhzos

Continue reading →

Langdale Park Withlacoochee River Cleanup 2023-10-20

Update 2023-10-26: Pictures: Langdale Park Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2023-10-20.

Update 2023-10-19: Mostly on land: Langdale Park Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2023-10-20.

Join us for a WWALS paddle cleanup during United Way Day of Caring.

Outings leader Russell Allen McBride will scout the Withlacoochee River upstream and down from Langdale Park Boat Ramp, and will let us know the exact route at the outing.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 1 PM, Friday, October 20, 2023

Put In: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602, in Lowndes County.

GPS: 30.88747, -83.32395, -83.32395

Langdale Park Boat Ramp 2022-11-03, Withlacoochee River upstream and down 2022-11-13, and Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail sign

Continue reading →

Freezer full of meat at Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp 2023-07-05

Suzy Hall found this smelly trash yesterday, July 5, 2023, at Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp.

Ravine, freezer, Withlacoochee River under Clyattville-Nankin Road Bridge –Suzy Hall 2023-07-05

She says it’s in the “infamous ravine”, which I’m assuming to be the one south (left) of the boat ramp, about here: 30.674710, -83.394021. Continue reading →

OVL ED around Troupville River Park 2023-05-31

Mary Beth Brownlee, new Executive Director of One Valdosta-Lowndes (OVL), got to see the site of the future Troupville River Camp and Nature Park.

Around Troupville River Camp and Nature Park –jsq

She and Georgia Power Southwest Regional Director Joe Brownlee and their daughter Elizabeth are only about the third party who have followed me around the entire river circumference of the site, down the Little River to its Confluence, and then up the Withlacoochee River back to GA 133.

WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman took many of these pictures. WWALS provided the visitors information about Troupville Nature Park and Troupville River Camp including letters of support from Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber, Madison and Hamilton Counties, Florida, the Suwannee River Water Management District, and others.

Troupville River Camp is top of the project list for OVL, which is an economic development and well being organization. Continue reading →

Correction: Pickleball courts to be on other side of Two Mile Branch from 2007-proposed detention pond 2023-03-07

Update 2023-03-29: Trash still dribbling from 2695 N Ashley St into Two Mile Branch 2023-02-24.

At the cleanup Saturday of Two Mile Branch at Berkeley Drive, Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd poinged out a mistake in the post on Trash in Valdosta Two Mile Branch Watershed Management Plan, November 2007.

The pickleball courts will not actually be at the same location as the detention pond between Roosevelt Drive and Two Mile Branch at Oak Street. Instead, they will be on the other side of Two Mile Branch, next to the tennis courts.

Pickleball Courts Location, Groundbreaking, 2007 Detention Pond

My mistake. I should not have gone by hearsay, even though two people independently told me the location they thought the pickleball courts would be. Thanks to the City Engineer for pointing out my mistake.

Which doesn’t change the main point of the previous post: sixteen years later, none of the four detention ponds on Two Mile Branch in the 2007 implementation schedule have been built, nor have any other trash detention facilities been put on Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive or Oak Street.

I thank Ben O’Dowd for promising to put trash traps at those locations.

But why were those people who told me that confused?

There’s nothing ambiguous about where the 2007 plan put the Oak Street detention pond: between Two Mile Branch and Roosevelt Drive east of Oak Street. Continue reading →

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

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.

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 →

Two new VLPRA trash cans for Naylor Beach on the Alapaha River 2022-12-29

Kimberly Tanner wrote three days ago, “Looks like there are two new cans; one close to parking and one on the beach. Great news!”

Trash cans at entrance to and on Naylor Beach –Kimberly Tanner 2022-12-29

This is speedy action by Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA). And of course these two new cans at Naylor Beach are in addition to the one at the nearby Naylor Boat Ramp. Continue reading →