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<\/a>\nFebruary 4, 2013\n\nLowndes County Board of Commissioners\n
\n327 North Ashley Street \u2013 3rd<\/sup> Floor\n
\nValdosta, GA 31601\n
\nRE: Hotchkiss landing closure\n
Dear Commissioners:<\/p>\n
I have lived in the\nSouth Georgia region for the past 16 years. I am also a practicing\nphysician and have a love of the out of doors, especially canoeing,\ncamping and hiking. I also serve on the board of\n\nWWALS Watershed Coalition<\/a>,\na local river advocacy group trying to promote awareness\nand preservation of our local rivers. It has recently come to my\nattention that you are considering the potential closure of the\nHotchkiss landing site along the Alapaha River near Naylor. I would\nlike to put in a word in favor of keeping the landing site open.<\/p>\n I have canoed dozens of\ndifferent sections of the Alapaha River from north of Tifton all the\nway to Statenville, as well as portions that join with the Suwanee\nRiver in Florida. Without a doubt, one of the most fun and scenic\nsections to paddle is from the put-in near Burnt Church outside of\nLakeland down to the Hotchkiss landing. I have taken various groups\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n The Hotchkiss landing\nis the only take out in Lowndes County. If one cannot take out\nthere, it is another several miles to the next take out in Mayday,\nwhich would make it exceedingly difficult for the average paddler to\nenjoy a day trip on this section of the Alapaha River.<\/p>\n Let me point out that\nthere is a potential for economic benefit to the Lowndes County\nregion if this river were to be carefully developed for recreation\nboating. Water trails along rivers can be an economic boost to local\ncommunities. Water trails as recreation destinations can provide\nrural communities with income to local outfitters, motels,\nrestaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and shops. Research has\nshown that for every $1 paid to canoe outfitters, customers spend $5\nfor gas, food and lodging. In 2001 recreational boaters on the\nChattooga River in northeast GA spent $1.8 million in the six\ncounties along the waterway.(1)<\/a>\nIn 2006 over 1000 paddlers were\nsurveyed to determine the economic impact of paddler recreation along\nthe Northern Forest Canoe Trail (a 740 mile long paddling route from\nNew York to Maine). The median paddler group spent $215 per trip in\nthe local communities.(2)<\/a>\nAlthough there is no formal water trail on\nthe Alapaha River now, there is potential for this in the future.\n<\/p>\n In closing, let me say\nthat I hope you will consider keeping the landing open, to allow all\nof the people in South Georgia access to good, clean recreation on\nthis jewel of a river. If the access is closed, let me strongly\nencourage you to consider putting in a formal public boat ramp at the\nbridge across the river in Naylor.<\/p>\n Feel free to call me at\n229 392-5513 if you have any questions, or email me at\nbwagenhorst@hotmail.com.\n<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Bret Wagenhorst,\nM.D.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PS I\u2019ve attached a\nfew photos from a trip I guided on the Alapaha back in spring 2009.<\/p>\n (1)<\/a>\n\n\u201cUse and Economic Importance of the Wild and Scenic Chattooga River.\u201d<\/a>\nAmerican Whitewater, PO box 1540, Cullowhee, NC 28723.\ninfo@americanwhitewater.org<\/a>\n<\/p>\n (2)<\/a>\n\n“The Northern Forest Canoe Trail:<\/a>\n\nAn Economic Impact Study”<\/a>, Noah\nPollock, Lisa Chase, Jane Kolodinsky, and Clare Ginger. University of\nVermont, 2006-2007. Vermont Tourism Data Center.\nwww.uvm.edu\/toursimresearch<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n Canoe trip take out at Hotchkiss Landing, Naylor, GA spring 2009<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This letter demonstrates many public uses of the Alapaha River at Hotchkiss Crossing by everyone from Boy Scouts to doctors, and indicates economic benefits of water trails. -jsq February 4, 2013 Lowndes County Board of Commissioners 327 North Ashley Street \u2013 3rd Floor Valdosta, GA 31601 RE: Hotchkiss landing closure Dear Commissioners: I have lived […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,40,14,16,2,19,88,55],"tags":[8736,453,490,492,8717,8704,8706,8701,8699,8709,455,8702,12,7,8734,491,6,8727,493,8740],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-economy","category-environment","category-government","category-history","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-water","tag-activism","tag-alapaha-river","tag-boy-scout","tag-bret-wagenhorst","tag-community","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-history","tag-hotchkiss-landing","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-tifton","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-water-trails","tag-wwals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\ndown this section at least 5- 6 times in as many years, and everyone\nhas been impressed with the natural beauty and serenity of the river\nin this area. I am not the only person leading groups of paddlers\ndown the Alapaha River in this area. Boy Scout Troop 62 in Tifton\nhas done a paddle trip on this stretch of the Alapaha starting from\nthe scout camp outside of Lakeland for many years.<\/p>\n
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