Soque Bulletin - March 16th, 2011

SOQUE BULLETIN

March 16th, 2011

Despite questionable weather, 25 brave souls came out for our Soque Farm Projects Field Day yesterday.  

A dozen new potential farm partners attended, as well as three county staff and a commissioner.

Here the group observes Lamar Whiting's brand new cattle stream crossing.  (see article)

1) Winter Campaign on the cusp of meeting all 4 goals!

2) Soque River Watershed Association receives Watershed Group of the Year award

3) Farm Field Day draws a crowd despite rain

4) Plant trees on a farm stream - TODAY - Thursday, March 17th - 10am - NGTC

5) Other Updates

                                                              

1) Winter Campaign on the cusp of meeting all 4 goals!

Back in January the SRWA set some very simple goals to raise $4,000 dollars, gain 50 new members, regain 50 renewals, and reach 1,000 e-mails on our Soque Bulletin by April 1st. With just two weeks left in our little campaign, and the Winter definitely transforming into a magnificent Spring we want to celebrate our goal making and push one last time to get just a little further.  

Check it out, thanks to a handful of very generous gifts our $4,000 goal has been met and exceeded. As of March 15th, 2011 we've:

·        Raised $4,252 dollars  

·        Gained 24 brand new members

·        Received 45 renewals

·        and Added 54 new e-mails to the Bulletin

Even though it feels great to have gotten this far we want to keep pushing in these last two weeks to meet ALL FOUR GOALS! We can only do that if you help today. Even if you just send us one e-mail of someone you think should receive the Soque Bulletin that's a start. If you've been receiving Soque Bulletins for a few weeks, a few months, or a few years and think that our little group is accomplishing good things in the community PLEASE JOIN or DONATE. Even $10 makes a big difference and we've received several gifts of this kind already.

Here's one last reminder of our current status:

$4,252 raised - goal $4,000 (exceeded)

24 new members - goal 50 new members

45 renewing members - goal 50 renewing members

54 new e-mails - goal reach 1,000 (just 75 to go)

you can now join or donate online, right now

or printout the Winter Campaign donation form attached

Check out who is supporting the SRWA

We'd love to add your name to this list before April 1st!

Donor	Membership	Donor Category
Alice and Brooks Roseman	New Member	Partner
Ben and Delores Anderson	New Member	Family
Dick and Theresa Martin	New Member	Family
Dwight Ogier	New Member	Senior
Ellery and Faye Queen	New Member	Guardian
Harry and Marie Wohlert	New Member	Family
Ivy Rutzky	New Member	Individual
J. Kenneth Weldon Jr., DMD, LLC	New Member	Business
Jack and Kathy Molnar	New Member	Guardian
James Sullivan	New Member	Guardian
James Weidner /  Oliver & Weidner, LLC	New Member	Business
Jeff Moore	New Member	Individual
Jennifer Obert /126 Greenway Salon Studio	New Member	Business
Jerry Breazeale	New Member	Individual
John and Cheri Luhn	New Member	Guardian
John W. Hudson	New Member	Business
Michael E. Mixon, CPA, PC	New Member	Business
Rodger Wilson	New Member	Guardian
Sam Irvin	New Member	Individual
Sidney and Suzanne Roland	New Member	Senior
The Northeast Georgian	New Member	Business
Tina and Terry Turner	New Member	Family
Tom and Andra Knecht	New Member	Guardian
Willard Ferguson	New Member	Guardian
Alexis Chapman	Renewal	Individual
Angelia and David Sosby	Renewal	Family
Anne Callaway	Renewal	Guardian
April Ingle	Renewal	Guardian
Barb and John Misner	Renewal	Protector
Barbara Moore	Renewal	Senior
Ben and Wendee Maxwell	Renewal	Guardian
Bill and Mattie Robinson	Renewal	Family
Bluegraphics	Renewal	Business
Brian and Tonie Reynolds	Renewal	Guardian
Calvin and Mary Wilbanks	Renewal	Family
Cheryl Lusnia	Renewal	Individual
Claire Hicks	Renewal	Guardian
Dee Anderson	Renewal	Partner
Diane and Carl Hett	Renewal	Family
Elizabeth and Larry Jamison	Renewal	Guardian
Floyd and Lou Turk	Renewal	Family
Frances Bulluck	Renewal	Guardian
Gail Hayden	Renewal	Protector
Habersham Hardware	Renewal	Business
Harry and Eleanor Thompson	Renewal	Guardian
Helen Albrightson	Renewal	Business
Helen Norton	Renewal	Guardian
J.D. and Marcia Wellons	Renewal	Guardian
Jenna Wilson and Tom Hensley	Renewal	Partner
Jim and Lynn Mack	Renewal	Guardian
John and Emily Smith	Renewal	Guardian
John and Nancy Kollock	Renewal	Protector
John Shaw	Renewal	Individual
Judy Taylor	Renewal	Business
Ken and Hope Weldon	Renewal	Family
Lela Griffin	Renewal	Senior
Lincoln and Lisa Blackwood	Renewal	Guardian
Margaret and John Philip Ballard	Renewal	Family
Millie G. Stevens	Renewal	Guardian
Ralph Singer	Renewal	Senior
Randy and Barbara Moser	Renewal	Guardian
Sally Bethea	Renewal	Protector
Sandy Reid	Renewal	Individual
Ted Doll	Renewal	Family
Terry and Marilyn Murphy	Renewal	Guardian
Tom Dunken	Renewal	Protector
Tom Smith	Renewal	Guardian
Tony and Berma Hamilton	Renewal	Senior
Wally and Robin Warren	Renewal	Family
Ed and Kimberly Brown	river signage donation	Family
Gail Hayden	river signage donation	Protector
Ralph Singer	river signage donation	Senior
Joe Gatins	river signage donation	donation
Justin Ellis	river signage donation	Life

Don't forget. We're raising $1,000 just for our river signage project.

Special donations to that project will be permanently listed on our website.

2) Soque River Watershed Association receives Watershed Group of the Year award

SRWA staff and board Justin Ellis, Terry Parker, Bill Gresham, Randy Moser, Duncan Hughes, John Bigelow,

Scarlett Fuller, Charle Statler, and Walter Matlock at the Association office on the square in Clarkesville.

The SRWA received one of the top honors (or we guess the top honor) that a watershed group can receive this year when we received the WATERSHED GROUP of the YEAR award. The award was given by the Georgia River Network at their Feb. 25 conference in Roswell. Thanks goes to everyone that supported the SRWA or partnered with us this year. This award belongs to the whole Soque Community. For the full article about the award click the photo above or right here.

3) Farm Field Day draws a crowd despite rain

After over six years of hard work on our 319 grant, now renamed the SOQUE PARTNERSHIP, we were finally able to show off the success of our efforts working with local farmers on projects to improve water quality all over the Soque Basin. The event was on a very wet Tuesday, March 15th. Fortunatley 25 attendees (including the County Manager, County Planning Director. the Chair of the Commission, and the Farm Bureau president) all braved the weather to hear about and observe firsthand the impacts of the these projects. Under the leadership of Duncan Hughes our watershed coordinator we've been able to complete 15 cattle exclusion projects, fencing 523 cattle on 765 acres of farmland on 45,000 linear feet of stream. The project also installed seven stream crossings and 4 water wells. Even if those numbers don't sound as impressive as they are, consider that 29 miles of the Soque River that has been listed as impaired for fecal coliform bacteria since 2002 is very likely to come off of that list of polluted waters in 2012 based on our post-project monitoring. In other words, in just 2 and a half years of project implementation, the Soque Partnership, and the hard work of 15 farm owners has effectively reduced bacteria pollution to within state standards. That's cool.

Big, big thanks goes out to all the farms that have participated so far. And the even better news is that the Partnership has received funding to implement at least 20 more projects over the next three years. If you, or someone you know has cattle and lives in the Soque Waterhsed Basin, have them take a look at our NEW BROCHURE

Soque Farm project site locations relative to known bacteria hotspots.

These voluntary projects are likely to lead to the Soque coming off of the list of GA's impaired waters in 2012.

Click on the map to see the brochure.

4) Plant trees on a farm stream - TODAY - Thursday, March 17th - 10am - NGTC

It doesn't get any  more last minute than this, but if these farm projects sound good to you and you'd like to get personally involved in their benefits, join Duncan and I on Thursday (that's likely today) and help us plant about 75 willows, alders and even some bald cypress at one or two farm sites.

Meet us at North Georgia Technical College at 10 behind the Greenhouses (drive around the back of campus). We'll be by the brick building. Bring gloves, a shovel, and post hole digger and rubber mallet if you got one. Hope you can join us. Should be a beautiful day.

If you'd like some Bald Cypress to plant at your house let us know.

We have 200 that need to go in the ground ASAP.

If we don't plant them all. They're free to first takers.

5) Other Updates

These are just a few brief fun tidbits.

·         The SRWA has a brand new website in development thanks to Kimberly Brown our Admin and Outreach Director. Check it out at www.soque.org. There's a lot more improvements to come but it's looking good.

·         Our annual clean-up of Camp Creek reservoir with Cornelia is coming up Saturday, April 9th. Mark your calendar and visit Cornelia's drinking water supply.

·         Chastain Branch hike possibly coming soon. Stay tuned for a weekend spring hike to the beautiful chastain branch.

·         Our spring event the 5 in 5 is just around the corner. Date and location coming soon.

Justin Ellis

Executive Director

Soque River Watershed Association

706-754-9382

Soque Bulletin - February 10th, 2011

SOQUE BULLETIN

February 10th, 2011

SRWA director Justin Ellis leads a tour Saturday January 29th of Rocky Branch at the Clarkesville Greenway.

Ellis and numerous participants gathered to tour several streambanks in order to learn about restoration efforts. See ARTICLE #4

Photo by SARA GUEVARA, the GAINSEVILLE TIMES

1) Winter Campaign Update

2) Willow Stake Harvesting - Sat. - February 12th -  (FREE STAKES for TRIAL)

3) Clarkesville Greenway Garden pre-meeting - Thurs - February 17th

4) Gainesville Times covers Tour of Sustainble Streambanks

5) Other Items - Greenhouse Moving Continues / Saying Grace conf. 2/18-19 / Friends of Library 2/19

1) Winter Campaign Update

Our Winter Campaign to gain 50 new members, 50 renewals, 150 new bulletin subscribers and $4,000 is off to a great start and we mightily appreciate those who have responded to our call already. Take a look at our progress…..

The SRWA would like to ask for YOUR HELP to meet our WINTER CAMPAIGN goals, so that come spring we have the financial means to accomplish all the great programs we have planned in 2011. Our campaign ends April 1st (just a month and a half away), and we'd love your help in meeting one or all of the following goals.

·         Gain 50 new members - we'd love to add 20 new businesses and 30 new individual and family members by April 1. If you're not a member but have been watching us and like what we're doing, now is the perfect time to join.

THANKS NEW INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS - (13% of goal attained)

Willard Ferguson	New Member	Guardian
Dwight Ogier	New Member	Senior
Ben and Delores Anderson	New Member	Family
Tina and Terry Turner	New Member	Family

THANKS TO NEW BUSINESS MEMBERS - (20% of goal attained)

126 [greenway] salon.studio

Michael Mixon & Associates CPAs PC

·         Gain 50 renewals - if you've been a member before in the SRWA now is a great time to rejoin. We'd love to renew all our relationships in the community (30% of goal attained).

THANKS RENEWING MEMBERS

Donor	Campaign	Donor Category
Sally Bethea	Renewal	Protector
Helen Norton	Renewal	Guardian
Tom Smith	Renewal	Guardian
Calvin and Mary Wilbanks	Renewal	Family
Angelia and David Sosby	Renewal	Family
John and Emily Smith	Renewal	Guardian
Jenna Wilson and Tom Hensley	Renewal	Partner
Terry and Marilyn Murphy	Renewal	Guardian
April Ingle	Renewal	Guardian
John and Nancy Kollock	Renewal	Protector
Barbara Moore	Renewal	Senior
Jim and Lynn Mack	Renewal	Guardian
Wally and Robin Warren	Renewal	Family
Harry and Eleanor Thompson	Renewal	Guardian
Randy and Barbara Moser	Renewal	Guardian

·         $1,000 in donations from existing members towards STREAM CROSSING SIGNS- And if you're already a member of the SRWA consider making a special donation specifically to help us fund the installation of Stream Crossing Signs across the county to help make citizens aware of the names and locations of tributaries of the Soque River. Every dollar of this money will be spent on the signs themselves, so you can enjoy seeing your donation materialize. (10% of goal attained)

·         Add 150 new e-mails to our Soque Bulletin - (21% of goal attained)

Please help us meet as many of these goals as possible, make a donation today (use the attached donation form), or send us your friends' e-mails. Help our Soque River Lover paddle all the way up to our goal by April 1st!

2) Willow Stake Harvesting - February 12th - (FREE STAKES for TRIAL)

Woody vegetation is at least one key element to stable streambanks. One of the most interesting and inexpensive techniques for establishing woody vegetation that the SRWA is trialing is the planting of live stakes from species such as willow, redosier dogwood, and alders. This Saturday the SRWA is experimenting with harvesting live willow stakes and wants to solicit your help in trialing them on your streambanks. If you have a bare streambank and want to see if live staking is part of the solution, come on out this Saturday February 12th and help us harvest about 100 live stakes from the peninsula on Habersham Mills Lake. Even if you can't make it, give us a call or send an e-mail and we'll provide anywhere from 1-10 stakes for you to plant, including instructions. They need to soak overnight, and then will do best if planted within 24-48 hours after the harvest so contact us quick if you want to give it a try.

On Saturday we'll meet at Old Clarkesville Mill around 10am in the parking lot on the left side of the building. Then drive out to Habersham Mills Lake. Harvesting shouldn't take longer than 2 to 2.5 hours. Some of us may grab lunch afterward. To use the stakes on your property all you need is either a bucket (5 gallon works best), or a long rubbermaid tub (at least 20" long) to keep the stakes wet until planting, and a rubber or wooden mallet. We'll provide all the instructions for planting.

Take a look at these simple instructions and some photos of how effective live staking can be.

Deep Creek, Alaska 1993: Severely eroded streambank at

popoular recreation site.

Bank resloping, brush mat and live staking after three growing seasons (August 1996).

3) Clarkesville Greenway Garden pre-meeting - Thurs - February 17th

The Clarkesville Greenway will be up and running again soon. Spots may already be gone before the meeting so act now. I'm attaching the Community Garden guidelines. We have a lot of returning gardeners so I apologize if you don't get a plot this year. Who knows maybe we'll expand the garden sometime during the year with your help. Here's the notice for the meeting.

Clarkesville Greenway Community Garden pre-meeting

The organic community garden located on the Clarkesville Greenway behind Old Clarkesville Mill will have their pre-meeting on Thursday, Feb. 17 at the United Community Bank's meeting room at 6pm. All former and potential gardeners are encouraged to attend. Plot applications will be available at the meeting and plots are available on a first come first serve basis. For more information e-mail the Soque River Watershed Association at soque@windstream.net or call 706-754-9382.

4) Gainesville Times covers Tour of Streambanks

The Gainesville Times did a great job covering our streambank tour, so we thought we'd share this article reprint from their Sunday Edition.

Watershed group teaches stability through nature

Soque River Association offers land owners lessons in battling stream erosion

By Erin Rossiter

erossiter@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED: January 29, 2011 8:40 p.m.

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/45131/

Alice Roseman knows it's just water. Still, her voice flows with despair when she speaks of the stream on her small Habersham County farm.

Roseman feels as though her land is under fire. Erosion is the primary aggressor.

"I think everyone wants to do the right thing," she said. "But they need to educate people on how to do it."

Since moving to the property in 2003, Roseman has watched the steady decline of the channel that cuts through her 6-acre farm. She has considered refortifying the banks with chicken wire, concrete and river rocks.

But making a wrong decision has her second guessing every step.

Roseman, 70, fears more government meddling in her life and property.

"The more I cried (to the county about this problem) the more frustrated they got, because they didn't have the answers," she said. "Right now, I'm afraid to do anything."

On Saturday morning, Roseman joined nearly 30 people who arrived to Old Clarkesville Mill for guidance on stream erosion, a problem most seemed to share as land owners.

Sponsored by the Soque River Watershed Association, the educational lesson featured a tour of properties in the organization's Habersham County focus area. Each place showcased a different look at erosion and repair.

All solutions hinged around copying nature, said Justin Ellis, who led the tour as director of the association.

"Nature is a great teacher for stability. You see that in all types of ecosystems," Ellis said. "Natural streams don't degrade in an undisturbed state. (So we need to) learn the principles of what makes a natural stream stable and apply that to the streams we're managing."

Calls from frustrated property owners like Roseman are among the most common his office fields, Ellis said.

Explaining the overall concept of "natural channel design" takes root quickly.

But relaying specifics on how exactly to engineer nature back into streams impacted by unnatural water flow can seem overwhelming.

Geography, sediment types, former and current land-use, natural ecology and water quality are all studied before planning any kind of natural restoration, Ellis explained to the group.

"We're kind of taught when you see a bank eroding, you put a bunch of rocks on it," he said. "At (one) time, that's what we thought was the best thing to do. ... We've learned mimicking nature is actually a better long-term solution and actually costs less in the longer term."

In Georgia, this method of restoring streams started in Habersham County in 1998, Ellis said, when land owner Justin Savage began improving a 1,300-foot section of the Soque River.

The method has grown over more than a decade, with a number of streams being improved this way, including grant-funded projects in Hall County, Ellis said. He added that many environmental firms know how to rebuild streams this way, too, for land owners who are willing to pay.

To assist Habersham County citizens directly, the association formed its Soque River Watershed Partnership. In addition to consulting work, the partnership secured a grant to manage its first restoration project with cooperating land owner Lamar Whiting.

"We feel like it's our obligation to be somewhat of a regional hub for information on sustainability and managing nature resources in a sustainable way," Ellis said. "I don't think it happens in a one-day tour, but I think even the skeptics can come around after seeing a few of them."

Whiting counted himself as one of those skeptics and described his reaction as "reluctant" when the partnership proposed restoring his stream, a tributary of Yellowbank Creek.

"I wanted to have as much information as possible," Whiting said.

His land, which includes a 60-plus-acre cow pasture, abuts Ga. Highway 115. A culvert guides water from one side of the busy road to Whiting's property. During periodic rain floods, the strength of flow is so great the water digs into his stream's earthy embankment.

Whiting planned to rebuild the bank himself with large concrete chunks.

But the SRWA and its partnership, led by Ellis, asked Whiting to consider the natural alternative.

It took three months of studying surveys and detailed plans before Whiting agreed. He has also welcomed experts, students and a number of visitors onto his property from various agencies, states and institutions, including the University of Georgia. Work begins this spring.

"If it would be an improvement to our property, we decided to go with it," Whiting said.

A 40-year resident on the family farm, he hopes the stream solution will last the rest of his lifetime and then some.

"They're trying to help me do more of a project than I planned to do," Whiting said. "We'll see what happens."

John and Emily Smith of Baldwin take a closer look at the streambank restoration site of Rocky Branch at the Clarkesville Greenway during a tour Saturday.

The Smiths recently purchased agricultural land with eroded streambanks. They participated in the tour in order to learn how to repair the eroded banks. By SARA GUEVARA

Ivy Rutzky of Sautee jots down notes Saturday during a tour of a streambank at the Clarkesville Greenway.

Rutzky, who owns property with a small creek, is interested in learning how to curtail erosion. By SARA GUEVARA

5) Other Items - Greenhouse Moving Continues / Saying Grace conf. 2/18-19 / Friends of Library 2/19

Greenhouse Moving Continues

The greenhouse has been disassembled (boy that went fast) and is ready to be moved. Slight change this week, if you can help out we'll meet 9AM on TUESDAY rather than Monday at the greenhouses at North Georgia Teck. Bruce Lane with the Truck Driving School at North GA Tech has graciously offered to help us move the parts down to the greenway using a longbed truck. If not already completed we'll also pull up the ground stakes (we hope). Then once down on the garden we'll break out the lawn mower and start prepping the site. Send us an e-mail if you can lend a hand.

Saying Grace: Food, Justice, and Sustainability - February 18-19

Piedmont College Athens Campus and 
The Classic Center 
Athens, Georgia

Representatives from Koinonia Farm and Georgia Organics will conduct workshops and keynote speakers will examine the ethical, social and practical issues related to what we eat. The conference will be held Feb. 18-19 at the Classic Center and at Piedmont College in Athens.

Author and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor, the Butman Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Piedmont, will lead the two-day symposium, which will include workshops examining decisions regarding food in the modern world.

Workshops will be conducted by Sarah Prendergast of Koinonia Farm, a Christian farm community near Americus. Koinonia was founded in 1942 by Clarence Jordan, author of "The Cotton Patch Gospel," to promote racial equality. Ed Taylor of Georgia Organics will discuss that organization's promotion of sustainable and locally grown foods in Georgia.

Barbara Brown Taylor will deliver the keynote address on the topic "Is the Bible Green?" Norman Wirzba, research professor of theology, ecology, and rural life at Duke Divinity School, will deliver the plenary address on "The Grace of Good Food: Eating and the Life of Faith." The conference will also include a concert by Mississippi singer/songwriter Kate Campbell.

The cost for the two-day conference is $150, which includes the keynote banquet and breakfast and lunch on the following day. For more information or to register, contact Brandy Aycock at Piedmont College at 706-778-8500, extension 1170; e-mail baycock@piedmont.edu ; or visit http://www.piedmont.edu/pc/index.php/saying-grace-home

Clarkesville / Habersham County Friends of the Library

…are featuring  Winton Porter and his book Just Passin' Thru at an author luncheon at Piedmont College.  The event will take place on February 19, 2011 at the the Piedmont College Brookside Dining Hall at 11:30. Tickets are $25.00 and are available at the Clarkesville Library or call 706-754-4413.

Justin Ellis

Executive Director

Soque River Watershed Association

706-754-9382