Much improved, the trash situation in the two-acre cypress swamp the City of Valdosta owns at Barack Obama Blvd. and Ricardo Street; the one with the Pepsi Adopt-A-Spot sign.
I now give Valdosta Stormwater an A- for upkeep of this tract.
Maybe if you report a trash or other problem through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix, maybe they’ll do something about that problem, too.
With this drought, the swamp is dry enough to walk right through the middle. There is occasional trash. Continue reading
Phillip Williams has found and marked more trails and waterways in his continued exploration of Langdale Park on the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County just west of Valdosta, Georgia. As you can see, the trails are much more usable since Parks and Rec. has been cleaning them up lately. Yay, George Page, Jessica Catlett, and Jeff!
![[Dark Branch, trashjam, canebreak, island, log bridge, waterfall]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-12--langdale-park-trails/many.jpg)
Dark Branch, trashjam, canebreak, island, log bridge, waterfall
I’ve updated his material in the WWALS WLRWT map, so you can pan, zoom, and click.
He’s been communicating with the park owner, Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA). He’s updated many of the trail names. For example, the trail south from Langdale Park Boat Ramp by the Withlacoochee River is Trail B. Trail A runs all the way from the Pavillion just south of Hyta Mederer Drive down to Three Mile Branch. Supposedly it then turns right and goes west to the river, but apparently VLPRA hasn’t finished cleaning up that stretch. Continue reading
Update 2022-12-21: Pictures: Another Knights Ferry to Nankin Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2022-12-17.
Come help clean up more trash jams we found last time. It’s going to be cold, so dress warmly in layers and bring a change in a dry bag.
We found a new creek that we’re calling River Bend Plantation Creek because that’s the property it mostly runs through.
Speaking of which, the main big new trash pile is on the edge of River Bend Plantation. Could someone who knows them please ask them to contact WWALS about land access or closer river access?
When: Gather 9 AM, launch 10 AM, end 3 PM, Saturday, December 17, 2022
Put In: Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, 6499 Knights Ferry Rd, Valdosta, GA 31601.
GPS: 30.71205, -83.45554
![[Trash on land and river]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-17--kf-nankin-cleanup/many.jpg)
Trash on land and river 2022-12-03; Photos: John S. Quarterman
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
Thanks to Valdosta Utilities for speedily fixing a sewage smell issue that someone reported anonymously and vaguely through Click ‘n’ Fix. .
Once Valdosta Utilities addressed Click ‘n’ Fix report 13713615, they found the manhole that was open and put its cover on.
There is room for improvement. The report was on a Friday, and there was no response until Monday. It could have been an actual sewer spill, continuing all weekend. But it wasn’t.
And although Utilities asked for better location information, they found the problem anyway and fixed it.
They didn’t say it was somebody else’s problem.
They didn’t blame the person who reported it.
They didn’t ask for volunteers to clean it up.
They got out there and did their job in one day. Continue reading
Update 2022-12-18:Pretty clean rivers 2022-12-16.
As clean as we’ve ever seen, except for that lingering too-high E. coli for GA 133 on Monday from Valdosta.
All the more recent WWALS tests on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers have been very clean.
No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. No rain is predicted for many days.
So happy boating this weekend, except at GA 133, and there’s not enough water there anyway, and you really shouldn’t be putting in there at any time.
So clean that for the first time ever we observed the Withlacoochee cleaner than the Alapaha. But the Alapaha River still tested very clean. Continue reading
Update 2023-01-29: Lowndes County nixes planned Dollar General –VDT 2023-01-26.
Update 2022-12-09: Packet: Dollar General may be tabled @ LCC 2022-12-12. Go ahead and ask them to deny it.
We don’t need more clearcutting, impervious surface, petroleum runoff, and trash, uphill from the Withlacoochee River, setting a precedent for further sprawl into a forestry and agricultural area, costing the county money, and everybody downstream as well.
This Lowndes County, Georgia, rezoning decision affects the entire county and everybody downstream all the way into Florida, for drinking water, flood prevention, wildlife, river water quality, and quality of life.
You can write to the Lowndes County Commission: http://lowndescounty.com/181/Board-of-Commissioners. And in the public hearing Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM, you can speak, no matter where you come from.
If you live or own land in Lowndes County, you can sign the petition.
Malia Thomas, Valdosta Daily Times, December 8, 2022, (links and illustrations added by jsq), Rezoning sparks neighborhood petition,
VALDOSTA — More than 120 Lowndes County residents have signed a petition to keep Dollar General away from their rural community.
Continue reading
One item on the Lands Committee agenda seems slightly different from business as usual at the $68 million-annual-budget Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD).
![[Agenda and Stafford Tract, SRWMD Lands, 2022-12-13]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-13--srwmd-board/many.jpg)
Agenda and Stafford Tract, SRWMD Lands, 2022-12-13
As near as I can tell, even though this offer checks almost all the boxes, SRWMD doesn’t want to deal with it because it adjoins Suwannee River State Park (SRSP), while it’s across the Withlacoochee River from the SRWMD-owned land in the Twin Rivers State Forest Ellaville Tract. So SRWMD has sent the landowner to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
If you want to attend, it’s Tuesday December 13, 2022, at District Headquarters, or via gotowebinar. The Board meets at 9AM, and the Lands Committee meets afterwards, usually around noon. Continue reading
Turns out there are two Withlacoochee River landings inside the Ellaville Tract of the Twin Rivers State Forest.
One I’m calling Ellaville Landing, and it’s the last place to take out before Melvin Shoals.
The other, google maps calls Withlacoochee River Campsite, and it’s only a mile or so upstream from Suwannacoochee Spring.
If you have better names, locations, etc. for either of these, please let everybody know.
![[Map: Landings in Ellaville Tract in WLRWT]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-10-01--ellaville-tract/2022-12-05--map-ellaville-tract-in-wlrwt.jpg)
Map: Landings in Ellaville Tract
in the WWALS
map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
The Ellaville Tract is actually owned by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), whose map of it reveals when you mouse over Ellaville Landing: Continue reading
We got the big trash jam and discovered an even bigger one, on the Trashjam cleanup, Knights Ferry to Nankin, Withlacoochee River 2022-12-03.
Thanks to the eight people who came, and to Russell Allen McBride for organizing. We also saw posts of the old Knight Bridge sticking up in the river, some interesting plants, two dead deer, and a Great Blue Heron. Plus a creek that wasn’t on the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Wate Trail. And rocks. Many rocks.
Thanks to the two Valdosta city officials who did RSVP that they couldn’t. Don’t worry, we’ll be doing it again, with more advance notice. Pencil in Saturday, December 17th, for now.
This is mostly legacy trash from past years, now that the Sugar Creek Watergoat is catching much of it. But there’s more coming out of Three Mile Branch, and it’s still Valdosta’s responsibility even when it washes down the river, just like spilled sewage is Valdosta’s responsibility.
How do we know it’s Valdosta trash? Here’s some new evidence.
This was in the first big trash jam. Michael’s Deli has been closed since December 24, 2021, but it sat right on One Mile Branch, and its styrofoam cups washed down Sugar Creek into the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading
![[Collage 202-12-01]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-01--obama-ricardo-pictures/many.jpg)
![[Agenda item, map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-13--lcc-purchase-troupville/many.jpg)
![[Report and fix in Seeclickfix]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-11-18--valdosta-sewer-smell/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-08--wq/many.jpg)
![[Banners, trash, river]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-12-03--kf-nankin-cleanup-pictures/many.jpg)