Soque River Watershed Association

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Current News and Events

Headwaters Hike | Saturday, January 25th

SRWA will soon be making our semi-annual trip to the place where it all begins- the spring at the headwaters of the Soque! We will hike to the summit of Tray Mountain, then descend to the place where the Left Fork of the Soque River begins. We will meet to carpool in Helen (location TBD) at 10:00 a.m. and return around 3:00 p.m. Wear comfortable shoes, dress appropriately for the weather, and bring plenty of water and a sack lunch to eat along the way.

The journey is approximately 4 miles round trip. Much of the hike is moderate along the Appalachian Trail, however there are some very strenuous stretches off trail on steep slopes to reach the spring.

The hike is limited to the first 25 registrants. More details to follow upon registration. Please e-mail SRWA@soque.org or call (706) 754-9382 to register or with questions.

HIdden Rivers - Sautee Nacoochee Center - February 29th, 2020

FEBRUARY 29TH | 7:30
SAUTEE NACOOCHEE CENTER

The rivers of Southern Appalachia: home to a greater diversity of fish, mussels, crayfish and salamanders than anywhere else in the temperate world. Come explore these remarkable waters and their people through the new film Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia, now on tour through the Southeast. This film will take you beneath the surface of our most precious natural resource and introduce you to the spectacular variety of life that relies on it. A reception and Q&A with local experts will follow. Click here for tickets and more information!

Past Events

7th Annual Tree Sale | Until Dec. 31st, pickup Jan. 9th

Click here for tree order form

It's back! SRWA is selling a great selection of native trees at very low prices again this year. Planting a tree is a great thing to do for the environment and for stormwater management, a major concern in our watershed.

How can trees alleviate stormwater problems? Take a look at these great resources for how trees can make a big impact!

What it stormwater pollution and why should we reduce it?

How do trees tame stormwater?

Green Infrastructure Volunteer Day | December 14th

Enjoyable Fall Celebration!

Rivers Alive Clean Up
October 12th

Save the date for our annual Rivers Alive Cleanup at the public fishing area at Jackson Bridge! Rivers Alive is Georgia's annual volunteer waterway cleanup event that targets all waterways in the State including streams, rivers, lakes, beaches, and wetlands. The mission of Rivers Alive is to create awareness of and involvement in the preservation of Georgia's water resources. Please RSVP by emailing becca@soque.org or by calling 706-754-9382 and check back for more details. Participants will receive a t-shirt in addition to the great feeling that comes from all good deeds!

Trout Talk with Anthony Rabern
August 22nd

Anthony Rabern, Wildlife biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, will join SRWA to give a talk about emerging issues and diseases facing trout populations in the southeast. Rabern will focus particularly on the threat of whirling disease, a highly contagious disease affecting salmonids which causes them to "whirl"- i.e. swim in circles, preventing them from eating and escaping predators. Please join us to hear the latest about whirling disease and preventing its spread. We will meet at 6:30 in the Ruby Fulbright Aquatic Center's meeting room.

Join SRWA to wander the Clarkesville wetland, learn how important wetlands are to water quality, catch some cool critters in the water, and learn about our local birds from Joel Volpi. We'll be out exploring from about 9:30 to noon. Come prepared for the heat and to get a little muddy!

Brooks Garcia Wins Bass Kissin' Competition

Many thanks to Becky Portwood for the great photos!

Brooks Garcia of Sole Farms won this years Bass Kissin' contest after raising over $1,200! This was an amazing feat and he was a real charmer too... Brooks brought his "date" a bouquet and a can of worms. I think the bass was quite surprised to see him! Our other contenders did great, helping us raise a total of $3,156! Thanks so much to our competitors: Tammy Caudell, Rev. Sam Buice, Deana Brooksher & Riverdog, Brooks Garcia, Becca Risser, and Coach Jim Van Hooser. Thanks also to all of you for contributing to our cause!

Why a Bass Kissin'? The hard work SRWA does helps protect all the fish and fauna in our waters, including the Shoal and Chattahoochee Bass, two under appreciated natives in the Soque River. Each year we are delighted to find them in new locations, a great sign for a species whose habitat has been reduced by dams on the Chattahoochee River. Work is currently underway to to document the range and genetics of Shoal Bass in the Soque River. For more information about this program, check out the Habersham Extension Office's web page. Updates on the program can be found on the initiative's Facebook page.

Streambank Restoration
April 24th

SRWA has been hard at work restoring the streambanks along a stretch of Rocky Branch, but we need YOUR help to complete it! Please join us on Wednesday, April 24th to plant the banks along Rocky Branch. This is a perfect opportunity to learn about streambank restoration and management and to do something great and lasting for the health of the Soque River.

We will meet at the corner of Rocky Branch Rd and Gabrels Dr at 4:30 P.M. on Wednesday, April 24th. We expect to spend about 1 hour planting the site. Bring gloves and sturdy boots- we’ll provide planting materials and instruction on how to plant live stakes and transplants.

Salamander Bioblitz with Dr. Carlos Camp
April 27th

Spring Salamander, Gyrinophilus porphyriticus. Photo by Todd Pierson.

Would you like to see some beautiful, amazing salamanders? Join us April 27th for a bioblitz with local expert and Piedmont Professor Dr. Carlos Camp!

What is a bioblitz? An event where volunteers try to find and identify as many species as possible over a short period of time. Experts and novices welcome! We'll see how many species we can find and Dr. Camp will help us to identify them.

We will meet at 9:30 at the Clarkesville Mill (583 Grant St, Clarkesville GA) and carpool to Chastain Branch, a tributary to Raper Creek. Bring lunch and a snack and be prepared to tromp through the woods and streams. We will arrive back at the mill around 2:30.

Great American Cleanup
March 23rd

Join us for a day of good works and good company! SRWA volunteers and community members will be picking up trash from around the Camp Creek Reservoir, a tributary to the Soque River and the drinking water source for the City of Cornelia.

When: 10-12 on Saturday March 23rd
Where: Camp Creek Reservoir (park at 947 Wilson Rd, Mt Airy)
What to bring: work gloves, a water bottle, and dress appropriately for outdoor work. SRWA will have extra gloves if you need them.

Refreshment, trash bags, and litter pickers will be provided.

Please let us know if you are coming by email or on our Facebook event page. Since this is an outdoor event, we will post weather updates here and on Facebook.

Member meeting
February 21st

Thanks to Hannah Warner of CRK for presenting at our member meeting! We had a good turnout and a great buffet of food. If you missed this one, never fear, we will have more interesting speakers coming later this year.

Headwaters Hike
February 9th

Thanks to everyone who joined us on a fun hike to the headwaters! Great views, a great stream, and great company were enjoyed by everyone. We're already thinking of our next hikes, so stay tuned!

Annual Tree Sale

Thanks to everyone who purchased trees from us this season! We sold 73 trees which will now go off to do good work beautifying our community and preventing erosion. This was the 7th year of our annual tree sale and we look forward to seeing what these trees look like 7 years from now.

Special thanks to Barry Gay for providing our trees, The Northeast Georgian for getting the word out, the City of Clarkesville for letting us use the Maudlin Gardens, and our board members for their work to make this possible.

Starry night for soquee
November 2nd

A HUGE thank you to the curator, Clara Madigan, and the entire Kollock family for such a lovely and successful event. A night filled with music, food, wine and best of all...art! Thank you to everyone that came and shared the evening with SRWA and we hope you had a great time.

Thank you for Another Successful event
Soque Celebration, October 20th

The Soque Celebration was a success! Thank you to all our sponsors, donors, and attendees. The music provided by Honeywood and Joe Higgins was wonderful, the fajita bar provided by El Jinete was delicious and the raffle items donated by so many of our local merchants were awesome!

SRWA is 20!

SRWA was founded in 1998 thanks to a group of dedicated local citizens who were concerned about water quality. We have been fortunate to have had support from and collaboration with many organizations and individuals through the years, but special thanks go to Sally Bethea and Katherine Baer with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper for helping us get started and to the Turner Foundation for their generosity to help keep us going. In honor of our 20th Anniversary, we have several special events and activities planned and have designed the 20th Anniversary logo above (thank you Jason Fowler!) that you will soon see on new SRWA merchandise. On the subject of merchandise... please visit our watershed store by clicking here.

During 2018, we will celebrate our history and look forward to our future as we continue our work to protect and restore the Soque River, its tributaries, and watershed. Please see the historic photographs below (thanks to Dr. Dudley Sisk for the images). Click on the photo to see the caption, and please stay tuned to our website and upcoming Soque Bulletins for more information on how you can engage with and support SRWA to ensure a clean water legacy for 20 more years and beyond!