There’s a bill in the Florida House to drill for oil
in a state park in the same aquifer we drink out of.
A group is organizing through facebook and reddit and elsewhere to oppose this bill:
Continue readingSave Blackwater River State Forest
An alliance of citizens committed to protecting the beautiful Blackwater River State Forest from proposed House Bill 431, that would allow oil and mining in the forest.
The Tifton Gazette carried the WWALS press release on Page 8A, Tuesday, January 15, 1013:
WWALS Watershed Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Adel, GA, 9 January 2013 — A local watershed group formed in June 2012, WWALS Watershed Coalition, invited Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, to its first meeting of the new year to bring his experiences with the Altamaha, Satilla, and Flint Rivers to its conservation efforts on behalf of local blackwater rivers in south central Georgia.
Three newcomers, Garry Gentry, Dave Hetzel, Al Browning, Bret Wagenhorst, Gordon Rogers, Karan Rawlins, Gretchen Quarterman
Continue readingUpdate 2016-03-03: Please see Streamer on the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha.
Here in our WWALS watersheds
in south central Georgia,
instead of a single big river like the Flint or Altamaha, our many
small blackwater streams meander through cypress swamps and remnants
of longleaf pine forests. Tannin from oak roots produces the tea color
that is one of many attractive features of our streams.
Maybe you, like me, have trouble keeping track of the watersheds of the Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha and Little River Systems. U.S. EPA has much useful information about every U.S. watershed. On the right is a map I got EPA’s My WATERS Mapper to make by clicking on a point near Valdosta (a point just north of Tifton also works) that was close to all three WWALS watersheds known to that Graphical Information System (GIS):
WWALS had a brief canoe and kayak outing at Reed Bingham State Park Sunday, led by Bret Wagenhorst. Heading out, and some coppices of native trees.
Here are videos of
Tom Baird’s talk for
WWALS hosted at VSU by
Blazer Gardens,
about the
Y-shaped Withlacoochee, or Suwannee, or
Swithlacoochee,
from
the dry Paleo-Indian era 14,000 or more years ago
through
atlatls in the woodland period
and
Troupville queen city
through the
Ellaville log boom
to
current-day over-pumping of the aquifer.
Here’s a playlist.
Students getting water from creek for Adopt-A-Stream water quality testing training.
Angela Bray of the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), assisted by Richard Battenn of SGRC and Al Browning, taught an Adopt-A-Stream water quality testing workshop Saturday 25 August 2012 in Valdosta.
Here’s a video playlist.
A few highlights:
Continue reading
