BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 179: Justinn Overton, Executive Director of the Coosa Riverkeeper

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring

Zack Williams

Outdoors, Wilderness, Sports, Fishing, Outdoor, Hunting, Sports & Recreation

4.6 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alabama’s iconic Coosa River was recently named America’s fifth most endangered river. It’s vast watershed, all 280 miles of tributaries and lakes, begins in the mountains of north Georgia and flows south through the very heart of Alabama. The Coosa, like so many American rivers today, faces intense pollution from industrial-scale poultry production and other agricultural runoff, as well as an array of other threats. The Coosa is also one of Alabama’s most popular rivers for fishing, powerboating, kayaking and swimming. To clean it up, and keep it that way in the face of everchanging and growing challenges, the river needs tireless defenders who can be out on the water, day after day, mile after mile, in every season. Join us today to meet one of them, award-winning Coosa Riverkeeper Justinn Overton, born and raised on the rivers of Alabama, an outdoorswoman, hunter, forager, and a fierce advocate for the waters of her home.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	People are looking to come to my system and build really nice lake houses.
0:08.9	tournaments are looking to come to my system and catch a ton of largemouth bass and give out a lot of money to
0:15.1	anglers and you know at the end of the day this river deserves to have a group or a voice that can speak for it.
0:24.0	Like you can build transformers without pouring PCBs into somebody else's water.
0:30.0	Well, and I mean, they say they want to be good neighbors. Well, then acts like a good neighbor.
0:34.0	I mean, that's like one of the most southern things.
0:37.0	If you protect your wetlands, you don't let people drain them, and you don't let people pour PCBs in the creek.
0:44.8	You'll have the fishing.
0:46.4	That's your interest on your principle.
0:49.5	And hunting is the same on landscapes, right, or on waterfowl with wetlands.
0:54.0	We need clean water advocates like we need people that are willing stand up and
0:59.9	speak out for these waterways I say this all time, like my staff gives me the biggest
1:05.2	hard time about this that I say all the time rivers have a head and a mouth, but they don't have a voice
1:10.7	to speak for themselves and that is why I do this job.
1:16.4	Hey everybody, Hal hearing,
1:18.4	Backcountry Hunters and Anglers podcast and Blast.
1:21.4	Hey, I'm fired up this morning to announce that Savage Arms is
1:26.1	going to be sponsoring this podcast and it has a special significance to me
1:31.2	because I'm sitting here holding the
1:34.2	savage arms Stephen's model nine theories M 20 gauge single barrel
1:41.9	shotgun that I got for my ninth birthday.
1:44.3	I have had that since 1973.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -289 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Zack Williams, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Zack Williams and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.