Woody Hicks

My name is Woody Hicks. My wife, Sharon, and I are native Georgian’s, grew up in the Atlanta suburbs, and both graduated from Cross Keys High School in the booming metropolis of Brookhaven. I grew up with a natural affinity to the woodlands and the water, and spent many a memorable day as a reckless “Georgia cracker kid” roaming with my trusty Daisy pump gun, or wade-fishing any free-flowing stream I could get to; so I remember how it was in the good ‘ole days.

I guess it was fate, or divine intervention, but I have been allowed to spend my entire professional career working in water science in the habitat I like to call home. From 1964-2000, I worked as a data gatherer and hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, and retired as Chief of the Hydrologic Studies Section for Georgia. Following my career with the USGS, I worked several years with the engineering firm of Paul B. Krebs & Associates, as their Senior Hydrologist and managed their office in Southwest Georgia. In 2002, I accepted an offer from the director of the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in Newton, Georgia, and continued my trade at the Center as a research Scientist until I retired in December 2014. During my water resources career, which has thus far spanned nearly 52 years, I have authored or co-authored more than 80 journal articles, proceeding papers, book chapters, magazine articles, and professional reports focusing on the water resources of the Southeastern United States. I have served on the Georgia Attorney General’s Water Law Advisory Council; Georgia Groundwater Association, President, 1993-96; Georgia Water & Pollution Control Association, Groundwater Program Chairman, 1997-99; Southwest Georgia Water Resources Task Force, Inc., Chairman, 2001-10; Albany-Dougherty Greenspace Advisory Committee, Chairman, 2008-2014; Upper Suwannee River Basin Task Force, member; Flint RiverQuarium Technical Advisory Board; Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders, Executive Committee and Governing Board (2009-present); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Drought Advisory Council, member; Lower Flint and Ochlockonee Water Council Technical Committee; and the Flint Riverkeeper Board of Trustees.

My wife and I live in Albany and are fortunate to have the Flint River as our backyard. Each morning as the rising sun casts mottled shadows through the Spanish moss, and the water surface sparkles like it’s covered with diamonds, we are in awe at the magnificent landscape and palette that God has created. Sharon and I are members of Flint Riverkeeper because we feel a deep responsibility for the stewardship of this special resource.