Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Trash, Swamp: Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2020-01-20 2022-01-20 | WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 19, 2022. Everything else is as Valdosta Mayor Scott James and I discussed on his radio show last Thursday. We’ll be talking about it again this Friday, January 28, 2022, at 8AM, Talk 92.1 FM.

Thanks to The Langdale Company for access to take out at Spook Bridge, and for a mid-point lunch spot. Thanks to Georgia Power for water quality testing grants to WWALS.

Gather 9AM for the Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle, at the rescheduled Saturday, February 19, 2022.

Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle (since rescheduled to February 19, 2022)

We hope everybody’s favorite on-water painter, Julie Bowland, will join us.

WWALS is talking to Valdosta State University Deans and Faculty about Education and research at Troupville River River Camp and River Park. The paddle will go right by there.

On the radio, Scott James and I discussed the trash problem, coming mostly from parking lots with fast food outlets, down Sugar Creek, into the Withlacoochee River.

Arrow the talking puppy helped.

Don’t forget to tell GA-EPD no mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.

WWALS has a paddle on the last stretch of the Alapaha River, US 41 to Suwannee River, Saturday, February 5, 2022.

And a paddle from Langdale Park on the Withlacoochee River, to Sugar Creek, and on to Troupville Boat Ramp, May 7, 2022: the announcement will be up soon.

The Sugar Creek trash problem was described in the 2010 Valdosta Stormwater Master Plan, which said it should be fixed immediately.

Trash down Sugar Creek into Withlacoochee River since 2010: trash traps, etc.

Yet that fast food packaging still washes down our waterways. This Zacadoo’s cup is in a trashjam behind Wood Valley on the Withlacoochee River.

Zacadoos

The trash against this log is at the proposed boat takeout for Troupville River Camp. Not very attractive for eco-tourism.

Trash at Troupville River Camp site

The Mayor said Valdosta was shifting its focus from sewage (which seems to be much more under control) to trash as a problem that needs to be fixed. Valdosta is still working on the many things that need to be fixed in its sewer system. It is just also recognizing trash as a problem that needs to be dealt with.

Here’s a WWALS video playlist:

Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Trash, Swamp: Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2020-01-20
Video by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).