SOQUE BULLETIN
December 11, 2012
It's Christmas Party time again! If you're receiving this e-mail you are invited to our Party.
All that's required is a potluck dish and at least two beers.
And bring a friend too. See below for all the details.
1) SRWA Christmas Party - Friday, December 14th
2) End of Year CAMPAIGN - Goal $4,000 by December 31st
3) Help us Plant 2,000 TREES in January - Order $1 Trees & /or VOLUNTEER
4) Upcoming Events - 1st Annual North GA Winter Bluegrass Jam - Feb. 22 and 23
1) SRWA Christmas Party - Friday, December 14th
It’s Back! The SRWA Christmas Party is back this Friday December 14th and it’s another BEER TASTING POTLUCK. Sounds fun doesn’t it. To participate just bring a craft beer (defined as a beer made by a brewer that is small, independent, and makes yummy beer) at least one large 24 oz bottle, or two 12oz bottles and a potluck dish (veggies, meats, snacks or sweets). We'll do blind taste tests of beers to see which one's you like and help you navigate the wonderful world of craft beer. Anyone who gets this post is invited (and feel free to invite good beer-loving friends). Of course we highly encourage you to consider joining the SRWA (online at https://www.donationpay.org/soqueriver/ or at the party). Encouraged but not required. It’s a great way to support your local river loving group, and have some good beers, food, and laughs.
Party is at Justin and Ching-Yu's (and Cheetos and Whiskey’s) house at 237 Wilson Street, Clarkeville, GA. That’s right across from Grace Calvary Church. In fact you’ll want to park in their parking lot. Starts at 6pm.
If you’re wondering how to get your hands on good craft beer, here’s a few suggestions. Betty's in Helen, Hillside Beverage in Gainseville, Beverage Superstore in Suwanee, 5 points bottle shop in Athens, or Smitty's in Clayton (they've got Terrapin 4 packs). Very limited selections are of course at Ingles but try and surprise us. If you like the taste of beer in a glass rather than a plastic cup, please bring your favorite mug to show off. RSVP if you can and let us know how many and what you're bringing so we can tempt everyone - soque@windstream.net
Don't miss the best 2012 Christmas Party in Clarkesville!
2) End of Year CAMPAIGN - Goal $4,000 by December 31st
We know that everyone (and their brother) is asking you for money during this season of giving. We also know that quite a few of you who really love the SOQUE RIVER and the dozens of projects and events that we host throughout the year are not yet members of the SRWA!
Your TIME is precious so we want to simply list 12 quick reasons we think you might be glad you BECAME A NEW MEMBER or GAVE AN EXTRA GIFT to the SRWA.
TWELVE REASONS TO SUPPORT THE SRWA before December 31st.
- 22 farm projects have fenced close to 13 miles of streams (since 2008), resulting in the upper Soque River being removed from the state's impaired waters list for fecal coliform bacteria by EPD in November. That's a tangible difference in the quality of our drinking and recreational waters.
- Next Month we're planting 2,000 trees, stabilizing a school, stabilizing a farm's streambanks, making trees available to the public and planting two fruit orchards (see below for details)
- 3 Innovative Stormwater Features are being constructed at the County Courthouse that will increase stormwater infiltration, and serve as models for years to come of progressive stormwater management.
- We THROW REALLY GOOD PARTIES and EVENTS - this year we had a Paddle Festival, a Farm Tour of 18 sustainable farms, an annual membership party at a Historic Grist Mill (with Carribean food), and now a Christmas Party.
- Close to 500 rainbarrels have been distributed thanks to support from great partners like North Georgia Technical College, Habitat for Humanity and Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.
- The Northeast Georgia Locally Grown farmers market has helped to sell roughly $100,000 worth of locally produced food since April 2010.
- In addition to envisioning the Clarkesville Greenway way back in 2004, we recently helped to acquire $100,000 to expand the trail by one half mile into Mary Street Park.
- Organized and sponsor a 28 plot - quarter acre Community Garden on the Greenway that practices organic gardening. We're planting a fruit orchard there next month.
- Conduct Regular River Clean-Ups including our first ever paddle clean up this past September.
- Host Sustainability Tours to educate the community on a wide range of topics including: streambank restoration, innovative stormwater, water conservation, sustainable farms and grist mills. We also host hikes and other interesting outings.
- We recently absorbed the Keep Habersham Beautiful program meaning that waste reduction, litter education, recycling, composting, adopt a road, and a host of other conservation minded programs are now part of our regular programs. Our first success, a $1,000 grant from Keep Georgia Beautiful to plant an Edible NeighborWoods orchard.
- Every year we educate many young people about watershed conservation, most notably with a weeklong Soque Camp that takes kids from the headwaters, to the water plant, to local farms, catching fish and on a canoe paddle trip.
We hope that at least one or more of these catch your attention as something that you are glad we have in our community. If so please help insure these programs continue.
If you'd rather not imagine a Habersham County without
a SOQUE RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION please
JOIN
RENEW
or DONATE
TODAY
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3) Help us Plant 2,000 TREES in January - Order $1 Trees or VOLUNTEER
Speaking of big projects to help the Soque and the beauty of our area….we couldn't be more excited about our TREE PLANTING PROJECTS in 2013. Even though we haven't focused a lot of energies on planting trees in the past, I think you'll agree, that's about to change in a big way. We have FOUR, yes FOUR different tree planting projects coming up next month in January and we need your help to make them successful.
- 1500 Trees will be planted at Fairview Elementary on Thursday, January 10th to enhance the school grounds and increase rainwater infiltration (we'll need 15 volunteers from 10am until 2pm, and possibly again after school from 3pm until 4pm). Trees will mainly be pines with about 200 persimmons and white oaks.
- <350 Trees will be planted at a Farm in the Beaverdam Creek basin on Friday, January 11th from 9am until were done by lunch or just after. We need about 8 volunteers. Trees will be river birch, red maple, persimmon, white oaks, and about 50 container trees such as sycamore and others.
- Order Bare Root Seedlings for just $1 Each - you can contribue towards our goal of planting 2,000 trees by buying as few as one or as many as 50 of four species of trees we'll have available to order now, for pickup on Friday, January 11th, from 3-6pm. But don't delay, we may sell out of the most desirable species. First read a brochure on the tree types and where and how to plant at http://www.soque.org/pdfs/TREE_PLANTING.pdf . Then order by visiting this ordering webpage http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LRKSDG
Please help us spread the word by clicking on the above FLIER to link to a PDF file.
Print it out (in color if you can) and post it anywhere and everywhere you think folks may be interested.
Brochures are available online and at the Clarkesville and Cornelia libraries.
- Last but not least. We recently obtained a grant to plant two fruit orchards one at Clarkesville Elementary and one at the Clarkesville Greenway. We'll be planting Asian Persimmons, Figs, Paw Paws and possibly one other variety of fruit that requires no chemicals to maintain. We don't have these planting dates scheduled yet but we'll let you know when we do.
4) Upcoming Events - 1st Annual North GA Winter Bluegrass Jam - Feb. 22 and 23
Mark your calendars for a great new collaboration between the Grant Street Music Hall at Clarkesville Mill and the SRWA. We're fortunate that this local business is hosting a bluegrass festival Feb. 22 and 23 with a portion of the proceeds to benefit SRWA and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. We'll post more details as the event approaches. However if you or your business are bluegrass fans and would like to consider being a sponsor for the event please contact Paul Rampulla: 706.318.7530 / prampulla@yahoo.com
Justin Ellis
Executive Director
Soque River Watershed Association
706-754-9382
