By Georgia Ackerman
April 21, 2021–Last week, author Michael Lister of Wewahitchka joined 
me on a visual survey trip along the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers and a site visit to Spiders Cut. I launched from Bloody Bluff, traveling over 20 miles upstream without encountering any other boaters. This is typically a quiet stretch of river, especially on weekdays. I met Michael at Bryants Landing on the Chipola River and we traveled out to the Apalachicola River then back to catch up with the slough project team. We were delighted to hear buzzing from healthy beehives on a platform apiary. The tupelo trees will be in bloom soon.
The Slough Restoration Project team has been hard at work on Spiders Cut conducting core sampling. We met up with Ken Jones there. The flow from Spiders Cut moves from the Chipola River to the Brothers and Apalachicola Rivers. The project team will continue coring at Douglas Slough and East River this month.  
Specifically, vibracoring is a technique used for collecting samples of saturated sediments. A core tube is attached to a source of mechanical vibration (the power head) and lowered into the sediment. Ken Jones, project manager explains the vibracore process here. In action are Lauren Williams, Steve White, Love Kumar and Jeff Causey.  Williams and Kumar are UF graduate students working with hydrologist Dr. Matt Deitch. 
Learn more about the Slough Restoration Project, including more on endemic mussels of the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers. The Slough Restoration Project is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Georgia Ackerman is Riverkeeper and Executive Director at Apalachicola Riverkeeper. She can be reached at [email protected]
