SOQUE BULLETIN
April 12th, 2011
With it's new official name - The Green Way Garden, planting time is here and there's just one plot left! (Scene from the Garden June 2, 2010)
1) Great American Cleanup of Camp Creek Reservoir - Saturday, April 16th
2) UPDATES a) Community Garden - now named Green Way Garden
b) Rain Garden / Rain Barrel class - begins April 26
c) Willow Stake Harvesting / Planting
d) Locally Grown - sales exceeded $1,000 this week
3) Winter Campaign Goals exceeded!
1) Great American Cleanup of Camp Creek Reservoir - Saturday, April 16th
Once again the Soque River Watershed Association is teaming up with the City of Cornelia and the City of Mount Airy for the Great American clean-up along Cornelia's drinking water supply, the Camp Creek reservoir. This is a great opportunity to get out and explore the seldom scene southern tributaries to the Soque River and help to beautify the area in the process.
The clean-up is this Saturday, April 16th and runs from 9am to Noon. Directions - From Old 441 in Cornelia you'll turn left onto Camp Creek Road (just across from the Dairy Queen). It's about 1.3 miles to Wilson Road on your right. You'll pass the dam and reservoir on your right. To find us just look for Mount Airy's pump station at the back end of the lake closest to the Dip (another .5 miles). We'll be parked on the right side of the road. If you think you're coming send us a quick e-mail at soque@windstream.net.
2) UPDATES a) Community Garden - now named Green Way Garden
b) Rain Garden / Rain Barrel class - begins April 26
c) Willow Stake Harvesting / Planting
d) Locally Grown - sales exceeded $1,000 this week
a) Community Garden - now named Green Way Garden
The Clarkesville Greenway Organic Community Garden is up and running again and after our delicious potluck last week we gave the garden a new name. We're now called the Green Way Garden, a name we all agreed captures the essence of our efforts to do everything in as sustaianble way as we can. The name also highlights the fact that we're in the middle of Clarkesville's beautiful 19 acre greenway park all in a lush bottomland. We also adopted the tag line "a sustainable community garden."
Planting has already begun and summer time veggies will be going in any day now. We're down to just one plot left so if you want it, first person to e-mail a request will get to join us for our year two. You'll be in plot #28 labeled Community Plot.
The garden wouldn't be possible without the generous donations of many people that have helped us get it started. Here's a short list of our principal supporters: FIELDALE farms donated funds to help us purchase a riding lawn mower, the HOME DEPOT donated nearly all the start-up supplies such as tools, hoses and fencing, Joe Wilbanks of WILCORPS donated compost last year, Keith Gossett donated pine straw for our blueberries, Danny Otter donates storage space, use of the mill pond, and the water pump, the City of Clarkesville donates the land that we use, United Community Bank donates their community room for our meetings, local farmers donate their expertise to help us learn gardening skills and solve problems, Sidney Roland donated time to help us plant 50 blueberry plants last winter, and of course our 40 or so gardeners have donated numerous hours to fence mending, weeding, promotions and potluck cooking and other tasks that have made it a success so far. Thanks to all!
If you haven't seen the garden yet, feel free to come to our Spring Garden class at the garden on Thursday, April 21st about 6pm. Linda Lovell of Moonshadow farms will be giving a talk and demonstrations on an array of gardening tips, particularly growing perfect tomatoes.
b) Rain Garden / Rain Barrel class begins April 26
The SRWA and North Georgia Technical College have been talking about teaming up to offer a series of sustainability themed classes for quite some time. We're pleased to announce the first in this series will be offered starting later this month and is entitled "Capturing and Reusing Rainwater with Rain Barrels and Rain Gardens." This 3 week in-depth course will teach you everything you need to know about managing rainwater around your home or business in ways that reduce stormwater and increase groundwater supplies and water efficiency. Participants will learn about the importance of reconnecting rainfall to groundwater supplies and how to use soil and native plants to increase water infiltration. You'll also learn how to physically construct a raingarden, including which plants to use, and even how to propogate these plants for future rain garden projects. In addition the course will cover capturing stormwater for reuse in outdoor irrigation using rain barrels, cisterns and other storage systems. This component will include learning very basic outdoor plumbing skills, and how to construct and install a rainbarrel from scratch.
Take a look at the flier below and sign up today. Space is limited. Actual class schedule will be 4-6pm on Tuesdays April 26-May10 with some days extending to 6:30pm.
If this class is successful we hope to offer a Intro to Local Food Production course sometime within the next year and continue to expand course offerings in sustainability.
c) Willow Stake Harvesting / Planting
On March 14th, a small group of us went out for our first streamside planting project using black willow and alder stakes. Planting woody vegetation adjacent to streams is one of the program areas we will be diligently focusing on over the next few years. One of the most inexpensive ways to revegetate streambanks is to take cuttings of willow trees and replant 18" long stakes along eroding banks, where they will re-root and form a dense network of roots holding streambanks in place.
The SRWA was involved in some streamside plantings of willow way back in 2003-2004 and based on the success of those plantings we're now identifying areas to both harvest the willow stakes and streamside properties that could benefit from planting. In the meanwhile we wanted to trial a harvest and planting in a couple of areas to see how well it works. The Habersham Mills Lake homeowners association generously let us cut their willows from one of the sediment bars that are forming in the lake. We then experimented with storing them for awhile to see how hearty they are and then one month later replanted along one of the cattle fencing Farm Projects we worked on with farm partner David Barnes. In addition to about 30 willows and alders we also planted 10 bald cypress that were donated to us by GA DNR commission member and local resident Joe Hatfield.
Next time you're in Pitts Park you might also spot some additional plantings there wrapped in green tape. We'll be monitoring all of these plantings over the coming year, and if successful when the dormant season comes again in December, we plan to harvest many, many more for planting projects next year.
d) Locally Grown - sales exceeded $1,000 this week
If you haven't checked out the online farmers market that has generated over $30,000 in income for local sustainable farmers since it first opened April 24th of last year, we think you should! We've got just one last week before we open up for sales every week rather than our winter schedule of every other week. We’re off to a roaring good start this spring with 181 products listed from over 20 different growers. Lettuces, kale, sprouts, herbs, seeds, milk, cheese, bread, meat, cakes, cookies, plants, soap, eggs, and much, much more. I guess the season is officially beginning because our sales we're back up above $1,000 (first time since Christmas). You can go ahead and check it out now, open an account, and then just be patient. Next order day will be on our anniversary, Sunday night, April 24th around 10pm. Here's the link. http://northeastgeorgia.locallygrown.net/welcome
3) Winter Campaign Goals exceeded!
Well it's official, we surpassed almost all of our Winter Campaign goals thanks to your help! Since December we gained 58 renewals (many of these were long expired and we're glad to have you back), added 27 new members, obtained 120 new e-mails for the Soque Bulletin (this was a great feat and we're only 39 e-mails away from making it to 1,000 subscribers), and earned $5,192 (which was $1,192 above and beyond our goal). All and all an awesome success!
The SRWA obtains over half our budget from supporters like you so don't underestimate the impact that your membership and donations have in our ability to affect powerful change towards environmental susstainabilty. Everything that we do is because of your help. If you're not a member yet it's not too late, you can join today by clicking on our new online donations page.
One of the focuses of this campaign was to raise money for streamcrossing signs and because of your support we're working now on placing at least 5 or more signs at some of the more prominent stream crossings in the county. We'll try and have a priority list soon and maybe even let our supporters suggest crossings they would most like to see signs at. Additional donations towards this project will allow us to place even more of these.
Thanks again to all of these supporters of the Winter Campaign:
Donor
|
Campaign
|
Received
|
Donor Category
|
Soque River Property Owners Association
|
Bequest
|
100
|
Organization
|
Greenways Salon
|
New Member
|
37.5
|
Business
|
Willard Ferguson
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
The Northeast Georgian
|
New Member
|
100
|
Business
|
Michael E. Mixon, CPA, PC
|
New Member
|
100
|
Business
|
Dwight Ogier
|
New Member
|
15
|
Senior
|
Ben and Delores Anderson
|
New Member
|
35
|
Family
|
Tina and Terry Turner
|
New Member
|
35
|
Family
|
James Weidner
|
New Member
|
100
|
Business
|
James Sullivan
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Rodger Wilson
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Jack and Kathy Molnar
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Ivy Rutzky
|
New Member
|
25
|
Individual
|
Alice and Brooks Roseman
|
New Member
|
100
|
Partner
|
Harry and Marie Wohlert
|
New Member
|
35
|
Family
|
J. Kenneth Weldon Jr., DMD, LLC
|
New Member
|
100
|
Business
|
Tom and Andra Knecht
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
John W. Hudson
|
New Member
|
100
|
Business
|
John and Cheri Luhn
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Ellery and Faye Queen
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Jerry and Bobbi Breazeale
|
New Member
|
25
|
Individual
|
Jeff Moore
|
New Member
|
25
|
Individual
|
Dick and Theresa Martin
|
New Member
|
35
|
Family
|
Sam Irvin
|
New Member
|
25
|
Individual
|
Sidney and Suzanne Roland
|
New Member
|
15
|
Senior
|
Randy Schiltz
|
New Member
|
25
|
Individual
|
Jerry and Cindy White
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Susan and John Chapman
|
New Member
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Helen Norton
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Tom Smith
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Calvin and Mary Wilbanks
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Angelia and David Sosby
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
John and Emily Smith
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Jenna Wilson and Tom Hensley
|
Renewal
|
250
|
Partner
|
Sally Bethea
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Terry and Marilyn Murphy
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Guardian
|
April Ingle
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Barbara Moore
|
Renewal
|
15
|
Senior
|
John and Nancy Kollock
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Jim and Lynn Mack
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Wally and Robin Warren
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Harry and Eleanor Thompson
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Randy and Barbara Moser
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Barb and John Misner
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Millie G. Stevens
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Lela Griffin
|
Renewal
|
15
|
Senior
|
Margaret and John Philip Ballard
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Frances Bulluck
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Floyd and Lou Turk
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Brian and Tonie Reynolds
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Ralph Singer
|
Renewal
|
15
|
Senior
|
Lincoln and Lisa Blackwood
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Elizabeth and Larry Jamison
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Ken and Hope Weldon
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Tom Dunken
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Bluegraphics
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Business
|
Ben and Wendee Maxwell
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
J.D. and Marcia Wellons
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Judy Taylor
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Business
|
Diane and Carl Hett
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Bill and Mattie Robinson
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Anne Callaway
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Claire Hicks
|
Renewal
|
75
|
Guardian
|
Alexis Chapman
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
John Shaw
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
Sandy Reid
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
Ted Doll
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Cheryl Lusnia
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
Dee Anderson
|
Renewal
|
250
|
Partner
|
Jim and Marilyn Watson
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Gail Hayden
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Tony and Berma Hamilton
|
Renewal
|
30
|
Senior
|
Walter Matlock
|
Renewal
|
150
|
Guardian
|
Habersham Hardware
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Business
|
North Georgia Turf
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Business
|
William and Carolyn Gaik
|
Renewal
|
100
|
Protector
|
Brenda Adams
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
Judy Taylor
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Business
|
Bob and Betsy Eagar
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Ty and Kristin Akins
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Neal and Patty McEwen
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Habersham Electric Membership Corportaion
|
Renewal
|
150
|
Business
|
Mona Painter
|
Renewal
|
50
|
Guardian
|
Chandler and Sallie Lanier
|
Renewal
|
15
|
Senior
|
Mary Ellen Myers
|
Renewal
|
25
|
Individual
|
Rob and Brandy Aycock
|
Renewal
|
35
|
Family
|
Ralph Singer
|
river signage donation
|
10
|
Senior
|
Gail Hayden
|
river signage donation
|
50
|
Protector
|
Ed and Kimberly Brown
|
river signage donation
|
10
|
Family
|
Justin Ellis
|
river signage donation
|
100
|
Life
|
Joe Gatins
|
river signage donation
|
10
|
non-member
|
TOTAL
|
5192.5
|
Forward the Soque Bulletin to a friend and encourage them to sign up for sustainabilty.
Justin Ellis
Executive Director
Soque River Watershed Association
706-754-9382
