What is WWALS?
WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS) is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation, founded in June 2012. WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the surface waters and groundwater of the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, in south Georgia and north Florida, among them the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River watersheds, through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.
Who is involved?
WWALS is made up of volunteers plus one paid staff position, the Suwannee Riverkeeper®. WWALS is governed by its board of directors, with most activities organized by committees, including for outings, science, water quality monitoring, membership, and events. You don’t have to be on the board or a committee to attend events, to volunteer, or to donate. Outings are free to members.
Where do you meet?
WWALS holds a publicized paddle outing, hike, or other event each month; see wwals.net/outings/. Plus, the board meets quarterly. Board meetings are open to the public.
Which counties or cities?
Most WWALS members live in the 30-plus counties that are all or in part in our watersheds. Lowndes County, Georgia, and Columbia County, Florida, are our most populous that are entirely within our watersheds.
Our biggest cities entirely in our watersheds are Valdosta, Tifton, and Lake City, FL, although parts of Moultrie and Waycross, GA, and a tiny bit of Gainesville, FL, are in our watersheds. All are listed here: wwals.net/maps/wwals-counties-cities/. WWALS also has members in far-away places including California, Illinois, New York State, Atlanta, Georgia, and Martin County, Florida.
Which rivers?
Our longest rivers include the Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Suwannee. Flowing into the Withlacoochee are the New and Little Rivers. Flowing into the Alapaha are the Willacoochee, Alapahoochee, and Little Alapaha Rivers, with the Dead River flowing out of it. Flowing into the Suwannee are the Black River, another Little River, and the Gopher River. Flowing into the Santa Fe are the Ichetucknee, another New River, and the Sampson River. So that’s sixteen rivers plus many creeks, swamps, lakes, and ponds within our watersheds.
wwals.net/maps/
How is this different from Rivers Alive or Adopt a Stream?
WWALS is an educational organization, working with the community at large to provide information about the conservation of the watersheds to landowners, recreational users, interested citizens, farmers, corporations, and other interested parties, as well as advocacy for issues that are an integral part of our watershed. Every WWALS outing is a cleanup. WWALS does have a water quality testing program and invites you to participate. Training is required. wwals.net/issues/testing/
Are you a Riverkeeper?
Yes. Since December 2016, WWALS is the WATERKEEPER® Alliance Member for the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary as Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®, which is a project and a staff position of WWALS.
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Your mailing address (for us children of the sixties who’d prefer to contribute the ole’Fashioned way)
Thanks for your interest.
WWALS Watershed Coalition
P.O. Box 88
Hahira, GA 31632
https://wwals.net/donations/contact/
Greetings John,
I was thinking of doing a paddle on the Alahapa or the Alahapahoochee one day over Memorial Day weekend. The routes I was debating was the Statenville Boat Ramp down to the Sasser Landing take out. Or the other was the GA 135 Alahapahoochee Landing to Sasser Landing.
Any general information you might provide on these routes? I know the Alahapa route is considerably longer so would think that would be a full day of paddling, yes? Whereas the Alahapahoochee route would be mayve a few hours paddle?
Thank you in advance for any information or direction you might provide!
Kevin Bickers
904-608-8414
kevinbickers@yahoo.com
Kevin,
Here are pictures of a recent WWALS outing on the Alapahoochee 2021-06-05:
https://wwals.net/2021/12/26/pictures-alapahoochee-river-ga-135-to-sullivan-launch-2021-06-05/
And another 2022-07-09:
https://wwals.net/2023/01/26/pictures-many-deadfalls-shark-teeth-and-rapids-alapachoochee-adventure-2022-07-09/
As you can see, expect many deadfalls and some significant rapids.
Best not to go alone.
Also, that Alapahoochee route is not long in miles, but takes longer because of deadfalls.
Yes, Statenville to Sasser landing is longer in miles.
There are no known deadfalls, but Class II rapids: Jennings Defeat.
Really don’t try that alone.
Recent WWALS outings on that stretch.
2022-07-09:
https://wwals.net/2022/05/09/statenville-to-sasser-landing-alapaha-river-plus-turket-creek-waterfall-2022-07-09/
2019-07-06:
https://wwals.net/2019/07/08/waterfalls-rapids-and-a-lawn-chair-statenville-to-sasser-landing-2019-07-06/
2015-02-15:
https://wwals.net/2015/06/14/statenville-to-sasser-landing-with-turket-creek-waterfall-jsq-wwals-2015-02-15/
Good news: water levels should be low enough that you can paddle up the Alapahoochee far enough to see Turket Falls.
Have fun, but please take one or more paddling partners and wear PDFs. -jsq