The Riverkeeper Report

Chris Bertrand has been named the new Satilla Riverkeeper. He grew up in Alpharetta, Ga., splashing around in backyard creeks. His passion for protecting the environment began in the Boy Scouts and his love and interest in protecting the environment has grown since. He recently spent time near the Satilla watershed while backpacking on Cumberland Island and canoeing in the Okefenokee.

In college, he worked at the Chattahoochee Nature Center teaching middle and high school students how to be good stewards of the Chattahoochee River. As a canoe instructor, he learned of the importance of water quality firsthand as he often had to cancel river trips due to unsafe levels of E. coli in the river. His interest in protecting clean water and wild places drove him to attend law school at UGA, focusing on environmental law. This summer, he is working to draft a bill with The Nature Conservancy for the Georgia General Assembly.

“The Satilla River is an amazing resource and together we can ensure that it can be enjoyed for generations to come,” says Bertrand. “I am eager to meet all of you, and I look forward to spending time paddling, fishing, and hanging out on the river with you."

The mouth of the St. Marys River has been the center of attention recently due the June 9 grounding, abandonment, and disintegration of the shrimp boat Catharine Lane. The commercial shrimp boat was run solidly aground at the North Jetty near Cumberland Island Seashore across from Ft. Clinch, and boat owners were fortunately rescued by a passing fisherman. The U.S. Coast Guard removed fuel from the boat before it broke apart, but subsequent wreckage continues to disperse unchecked in local waters.

If the boat had run aground a few meters to the south, it would have been in Florida, where the state legislature just passed a tough new law giving agencies greater funding and authority to prevent and salvage abandoned and derelict vessels. But the Catharine Lane wrecked on the Georgia side, where the legislation and funding designated for abandoned vessels is non-existent today.

According to the GADNR, more than 130 abandoned or derelict shrimp boats, barges, cranes and recreational boats litter the tidal water bottoms and coasts of the state, creating a hazard for boaters and wildlife. In the case of Catharine Lane, no one knows what happened to the giant nets on the shrimp boat. Are they still down in the water ensnaring turtles and other wildlife?

With no program in place, the state of Georgia is trying to figure out what to do instead of taking action, and now, more than a month later, it’s still impossible to get answers.

According to NOAA, "Georgia law does not indicate who is responsible for the removal of the vessel once determined that it meets requirements for being abandoned."

Georgia should take a hint from its neighbor to the south and be prepared for boating disasters. St. Marys Riverkeeper encourages Georgia lawmakers to revisit and fund the Derelict Vessel Fund which was defunded in 2008. Savannah Riverkeeper, with partners Ogeechee Riverkeeper and the Phinizy Center for Water Sciences, is excited to announce the launch of Know Your River. Combining more than 6000 data points along the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers, Know Your River is a powerful resource that brings multi-state, and multi-agency water data together in one place.

Know Your River uses information gathered by federal and state agencies along with trained and recognized civilian water science organizations to generate easy-to-navigate, selectable layer data maps, freely accessible to anyone.

From real-time water levels, up-to-date water quality details, tracking tributaries, finding a publicly accessible boat launch, hunting down a spot to hunt on public land, to researching the latest on federally tracked contaminated and hazardous sites along the waterways, Know Your River online at knowyourriver.com is the site to search first.

A smartphone app is in the final stages of production and will soon accompany this powerful data resource.

While the first phase of Know Your River only includes the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers, it is the hope that future funding will allow the incorporation of other waterways.

Maggie Van Cantfort loves nature. Her pursuit of a life and career well-lived in service to nature and community has led her on an incredible journey - from starting as a zoo intern on St. Catherine's Island through many years working as a science educator in forests, on farms, and in classrooms in the southeast, midwest, Pacific coast, and Alaska, to now becoming Watershed Specialist for Altamaha Riverkeeper.

The compass guiding Maggie’s journey has always been protecting and enjoying our natural environment and working to ensure that all people can do the same. She believes that access to clean water is a basic right for all beings and that we must all contribute to being effective caretakers of our natural resources.

Raised in middle Georgia, with a master's degree in science education from Piedmont College and a bachelor's degree from UGA, Maggie's roots throughout Georgia provide a strong foundation of relationship building across the state.

Maggie loves being on the water; especially on the Georgia coast where she gets just as excited as a kid going to Disney World every time she sees dolphins, manatees, or sea turtles. When not paddling, she attempts to grow food and play bangolele.

Compiled by Meaghan Gerard Communications & Administrative Director Ogeechee Riverkeeper meaghan@ogeecheeriverkeeper.org