Three Farms Visited
The Citizen Committee for Water Resources and its guests on Saturday got a chance to see Greenbriar Creek and one of its tributaries up close in a field trip to three farms just east of Bishop.
The creek, and the three farms, could be impacted by construction of a U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop if the Georgia Department of Transportation opts for a route east of the small city.
GDOT officials have stressed that they have not selected a route, but one that was listed as under review when the state resurrected the U.S. 441 widening project back in June of 2015 would affect the three farms visited.
During the walk on Saturday, the 10 participants did some preliminary stream sampling and got a sense of the current characteristics of the stream.
Chris Greer, who does drone photography, joined the group when the rain cleared to record some still and video images of the creek.
Greenbriar Creek
Greenbriar Creek originates on the north side of Bishop, crosses under the existing U.S. 441 and flows south on the east side of Salem Road–and U.S. 441--in Oconee County on its way to Lake Oconee.
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| Ken Morneault, Dave Wenner, Diane Windham With Samples |
The stream is fed by a variety of tributaries in the farms just east of Bishop, including one on the farm of Carole Ludwig off Old Farmington Road.
The tour yesterday started on Ludwig’s farm, followed the tributary on her property to where it joins Greenbriar Creek, and then followed Greenbriar Creek to the farm of Del and Marian Finco.
Finco’s farm also is on Old Farmington Road.
The route also crossed the farm of James and Kathryn Poulnott, which has a U.S. 441 address.
Ludwig and the Fincos led the tour.
Citizen Committee
The Citizen Committee for Water Resources consists of representatives of Friends of Barber Creek, Friends of Calls Creek, Positively Oconee, and Oconee Waters, as well as others who have joined.
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| Finco Says One Route Would Pass Here |
I was one of the organizers of the group.
The goal of the group is to give citizens an additional voice in matters involving water and its use in the county.
The field trip on Saturday is the first step in developing a broader discussion of Greenbriar Creek and its potential role in selection of routes for a bypass of Bishop. Our plans are to develop a public program on the topic.
The route discussed back in June of 2015 involved numerous crossings of Greenbriar Creek in the area east of Bishop.
All three of the farms visited on Saturday would be affected by that route.
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| Hunter Helping Greer Land Drone |
1 comment:
Appreciate you all taking the time to do this important work.
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