Chattahoochee, Flint, & Ochlockonee Rivers
Locals Help Locals Protect Land and Water in Southwest Georgia
Since 1962 with the passage of the federal Food and Agriculture Act, Resource Conservation and Development projects have empowered locals to improve conditions in rural communities through better soil, water and land conservation practices. In 2011, budget cuts eliminated direct federal funding to the councils, but today many councils persist as non-profit organizations supported through contracts, state and federal grants and private funding. Georgia is home to 11 councils, but few are as active as the Golden Triangle RC&D which operates in 15 Southwest Georgia counties. The work of the staff at Golden Triangle—which ranges from mitigating erosion on the region’s many dirt roads to improving irrigation efficiency on local farms, has directly benefited the Flint, Chattahoochee and Ochlockonee rivers and improved the lives of their rural neighbors.
The Chattahoochee, Flint and Ochlockonee rivers—along with the Floridan aquifer that interacts with them—are critically-important to the agriculture-based economy of the Southwest Georgia, irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres in the region. Producers there grow a large share of the state’s more than $13 billion in annual farm products sales. The rivers and creeks of the area are home to several mussel species on the brink of extinction. Agricultural water withdrawals causing reduced stream flows and sedimentation from land uses that disrupt mussel habitat, reproduction and feeding are among the factors in the demise of these species. Aside from having colorful names like purple bankclimber and shinyrayed pocketbook, these federally protected creatures play an important role in maintaining stream health by filtering nutrients from the water. They are yet another example of the nexus between sustainable water and land management and the health of Georgia’s rivers.
Golden Triangle RC&D Council is the literal boots on the ground in Southwest Georgia addressing some of the most pressing land and water management issues impacting the region’s economy as well as stream health and imperiled aquatic species.
Among its programs is an effort to tackle erosion and sedimentation from unpaved roads that damages area streams—there’s upwards of 1500 dirt roads in the Golden Triangle’s 15-county service area. Under an agreement with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, the Council conducts regular technical workshops with county road maintenance crews and completes erosion control projects to reduce the flow of dirt into streams.
Earlier this year, state regulators tasked the Council as the lead organization in updating the Georgia Better Back Road Field Manual, a guide to best management techniques for controlling sedimentation from dirt roads.
The Council has also secured grants to improve farm irrigation efficiency. This summer it embarked on a program to install soil moisture sensors on area farms to help producers adjust and target their irrigation, putting water only where it is needed. It’s a first step in more widespread use of this water-saving technology.
For the past nine years, the region’s imperiled mussels have also gotten the Council’s direct attention. Through a partnership with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, a stream flow augmentation facility is maintained on Spring Creek to protect endangered mussels.
While conducting these projects, Council staff is also involved in water resource education. It partners annually with Georgia Pacific for a Waterways Festival in Early County; supports a summer H2O camp for school children at the University of Georgia C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park in Mitchell County; participates in Rivers Alive cleanups; and partners with Flint Riverkeeper and the Flint RiverQuarium to enlist citizens in the state’s Adopt-A-Stream program.
Along the Chattahoochee River in Early County, it even developed an outdoor classroom and interpretive signs in Fannie Askew Williams Park at Coheelee Creek, site of one of Georgia’s remaining covered bridges.
Beginning last year, the Council embarked on a project to produce a series of videos highlighting the cultural and natural history of the Flint River basin. The goal is to educate communities about the importance of the river and promote tourism along its route. A partnership with the Georgia Water Planning & Policy Center at Albany State University and Flint Riverkeeper was created to accomplish this task.
Involved in water and land protection on multiple fronts, the Council is incrementally making a difference.
“It’s drop by drop; every drop counts. You get there one drop at a time,” said Rhonda Gordon, Executive Director. “A little here and a little there, it all adds up. Helping people understand why it’s important to keep the watershed clean—that’s important to us and we know we are making a difference.”
Read Golden Triangle RC&D’s full project write-up here, and visit their website for more information on their other projects.
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