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UCR partners with LaGrange College on West Point Lake cleanup

UCR has hit the ground running in the West Point Lake region, on the heels of the official opening last month of our new office on the square in LaGrange. We recently partnered with LaGrange College to clean up the Cross Roads Park area of West Point Lake with students led by Professor Randy Colvin and UCR staffers.

UCR Regional Outreach Manager Jill Sistino, who heads up our West Point Lake office, welcomed UCR Technical Programs Director Jason Ulseth and Events and Outreach Director Tammy Bates for the cleanup. The partnership with LaGrange College began three years ago when UCR’s Sally Bethea delivered the commencement address for the college and received an honorary doctorate. Bethea now serves as a member of the school’s Board of Trustees.

The cleanup was supported with a grant from Charter Foundation that also has funded student lake monitoring projects, as well as workshops and a lecture. Read the newsletter article here. Check out the photo gallery here.

Lanier cleanups remove tons of trash


On Sept. 17, UCR and the Kayak Fishing Club of Georgia joined forces to help the city of Gainesville’s Water Department clean Longwood Cove and Park for the city’s annual Rivers Alive event. We returned to the lake on Sept. 24 to partner with the Lake Lanier Association and 80 volunteers who helped clean up the lakeshore near Aqualand Marina as part of the 23rd Annual Shore Sweep around Lanier.

The cleanup with the Kayak Fishing Club pulled out 500 pounds of trash and UCR’s partnership with Shore Sweep yielded 5,000 pounds of trash, contributing to Shore Sweep totals of 1,000 volunteers and 40 tons of trash.

We plan more cleanups this fall. Sign up to volunteer here, and we’ll help you get involved! For other volunteer cleanup opportunities please visit www.riversalive.org, October is Rivers Alive Month, and there are cleanups scheduled all over the state!

Using pervious pavement to protect our watershed, drinking water supply

UCR recently published an informative fact sheet that explains the benefits of using pervious pavement, an innovative solution for sustainable development. The fact sheet contains useful information to guide decisions in site development and lessen the impacts of hard surfaces, such as roads, parking and roof tops, on our watershed, and thereby allowing rain to restore underground water supplies.

Pervious pavement provides porous alternatives to conventional pavement and helps improve water quality and supply. Examples include parking lots such as the 450-car lot at Stone Mountain Park (pictured).

Learn more about UCR’s sustainability work and download the fact sheet here.

Paddle trip tours the Chattahoochee’s headwaters

Blessed with near-perfect fall weather on the first of October, UCR took more than a dozen paddlers on a river trip above Lake Lanier from Duncan Bridge (Highway 384) to Belton Bridge. The first part of the trip – Duncan Bridge to Mossy Creek State Park – featured rocky shoals that were fun for the paddlers to navigate, but the extremely low water levels and exposed sand bars in the lower portion of the river section near Belton Bridge were a surprise

Low water levels from the drought revealed plenty of tires and cans and other debris that will make for an ideal cleanup in the future. But that didn’t distract the paddlers from an otherwise fun trip.

“Everybody kept going on and on about how gorgeous it was out there, even with how low the water level was,” said UCR’s Tammy Bates who organized the trip with Headwaters Outreach Manager Bonny Putney.

Click here for more beautiful photos. Click here for more information on our paddle trips!

Save the date: Riverview Fall Festival, Nov. 5 in Mableton

UCR will be the beneficiary of an exciting new fall event when Riverview Landing teams up with Georgia Cup Health & Wellness for the Riverview Fall Festival on Nov. 5 in Mableton. There will be a Gran Fondo Cycling Event with several heat lengths up to a 100-mile race, a 5k and 10k foot race, and a fun run for young runners.

All race events will feature winner’s circle t-shirts and other prizes donated by local sponsors. The Fall Festival starts at noon, with local food trucks, a BBQ cook-off, and fall harvest vegetables. Tree Sound Studios will provide musical entertainment on our new River Stage featuring local bands: Side Effects Project, Donna Hopkins, Copias Jones, and Caroline Aiken (pictured).

The festival will have a family-friendly component including hay rides, pony cart pull, crew/kayak and fishing demonstrations on the river, corn maze, and local wood workers will be on hand to show off their craft.

Learn more about the Riverview Fall Festival here. Learn more about Riverview Landing here.
OCTOBER 5, 2011



Fish
Bites

4th Annual Rivers Rock! Ogeechee River Jamboree (Savannah), Oct. 6

Flint Riverkeeper Taste the Flint Lower Flint Canoe & Kayak Paddle Trip (Camilla), Oct. 8

Hemlock Fest, Nov. 4-6

Riverview Landing Fall Fest, Nov. 5



WKA Earthshare Georgia Water Coalition

Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (UCR) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3),environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Chattahoochee River, its tributaries and watershed, for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on the river system.