Winder Is Growing Fast. Here's How We Keep the Mulberry River Clean for the Next Generation
Drive almost any direction out of downtown Winder and you'll see it: new rooftops, fresh asphalt, and subdivisions where pasture used to be. Barrow County is one of the fastest-growing counties in Georgia, and that growth is a sign of a community people want to be part of. But every new road and parking lot also changes something we don't always think about — where the rain goes. And in our corner of the state, the rain goes to the Mulberry River.
At NuRich, our mission is built around clean water and the communities that depend on it. The Mulberry River is part of our backyard, and the River Project is our long-term commitment to helping protect it. This post is a practical guide for Winder and river-area families: why the Mulberry matters, how rapid growth puts pressure on it, and the simple, proven things each of us can do to keep it healthy.
The Mulberry River: A Local Treasure Worth Protecting
The Mulberry River winds through Barrow, Jackson, and Gwinnett counties before joining the Apalachee and feeding the Upper Oconee basin. At the long-running U.S. Geological Survey monitoring station at Georgia Highway 11 near Winder (USGS site 02217380), the river drains a watershed of roughly 142 square miles — a basin that includes much of the land our families live, work, and play on.
That's the key idea behind a watershed: everything that touches the land eventually touches the water. Fertilizer on a lawn, oil on a driveway, litter in a ditch, sediment from a bare construction lot — when it rains, all of it can wash downhill into the creeks that feed the Mulberry. The health of the river is, quite literally, a reflection of how we treat our own yards and streets.
Why Growth Is Both a Blessing and a Challenge
Winder's population has climbed to roughly 21,700 residents, an increase of more than 18% since the 2020 census, and the city is still growing at about 2.6% a year. Barrow County as a whole is now home to an estimated 99,773 people, up about 20% over the prior decade. More neighbors means more energy, more local business, and more reasons to be proud of where we live.
It also means more impervious surface — the rooftops, roads, and parking lots that rain can't soak into. This matters more than most people realize. Research summarized by the Center for Watershed Protection found that stream health begins to decline once impervious cover in a watershed passes about 10%, and streams show clear degradation between 11% and 25%. The U.S. EPA likewise identifies polluted stormwater runoff as a leading remaining cause of water-quality problems in American rivers, because hardened surfaces send rain rushing into streams fast and dirty instead of filtering slowly through soil.
None of this is a reason to fear growth. It's a reason to be intentional about it. Communities that pair smart development with active stewardship can grow and keep their waterways clean. That's exactly the future the River Project is working toward in Winder.
How Winder Families Can Make a Real Difference
Protecting the Mulberry isn't only a job for engineers and city planners. Some of the most effective water protection happens one household at a time. Here are practical, science-backed steps any river-area family can take.
1. Join Georgia Adopt-A-Stream
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, run by the state's Environmental Protection Division, trains everyday volunteers to monitor a local stream, wetland, or lake and log their findings in an open, statewide database that anyone can search by city, county, or watershed. Volunteers learn to track chemical, bacterial, and macroinvertebrate indicators — and that citizen-collected data helps officials spot problems early. It's a perfect weekend project for families, scout troops, and school groups who want to give back to the Mulberry.
2. Keep pollutants out of the storm drain
In most neighborhoods, storm drains flow straight to the nearest creek with no treatment in between. Sweeping grass clippings off the driveway instead of hosing them into the gutter, picking up after pets, never pouring oil or paint down a drain, and using fertilizer sparingly all keep nutrients and toxins out of the river. Small habits, multiplied across thousands of Winder households, add up to a measurably cleaner Mulberry.
3. Volunteer for a river cleanup
Litter that collects along roadsides and ditches eventually becomes river litter. Community cleanup days — and simply carrying a bag on your next walk near the water — keep plastic and debris out of the current. It's an easy, visible way for kids to connect their own actions to the health of a place they love.
4. Cut single-use plastic at the source
The most reliable way to keep plastic out of the Mulberry is to stop buying so much of it in the first place. Switching your family to a durable, refillable bottle removes dozens of disposable bottles from circulation every month — bottles that too often end up as roadside and river litter. A reusable habit is good for the river, good for your wallet, and good for your family's health.
Clean Water Starts at Your Kitchen Sink
Here's the encouraging part: protecting the Mulberry River and taking care of your own family's hydration are the same project. When you fill a reusable bottle at home instead of grabbing a disposable one, you're cutting plastic pollution and making it easier for everyone in the house to drink enough water through Georgia's hot, humid summers.
That's why NuRich builds gear designed to make the reusable habit effortless. Our 18 oz Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle — The Original keeps water cold all day on the ballfield or the job site, the Wide-Mouth Straw Lid makes hands-free sipping simple for kids and commuters, and our Heavy-Duty Bottle Cleaning Brush keeps every bottle fresh so your family actually wants to reuse it. Every refill is one less piece of plastic that could end up in the Mulberry.
Local Pride, Local Jobs, Local Water
The River Project is about more than water quality readings. It's about the kind of town Winder wants to be as it grows — one where families can fish, paddle, and picnic along a clean river; where local stewardship creates pride and, over time, supports local work tied to conservation and water infrastructure; and where the next generation inherits a Mulberry that's healthier than the one we found.
That future is well within reach. Winder has the people, the momentum, and the sense of community to pull it off. The river just needs us to show up for it — one cleanup, one refill, one informed neighbor at a time.
Join the River Project
Want to be part of keeping the Mulberry River clean for the next generation? Start with the easiest step of all: ditch the disposable bottle. Shop the NuRich 18 oz Insulated Bottle and make your family's daily hydration part of the solution. Together, Winder, we can keep our river running clean.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, Mulberry River at GA 11 near Winder (Site 02217380); Georgia Environmental Protection Division & Georgia Adopt-A-Stream; U.S. EPA, Nonpoint Source Pollution & "Soak Up the Rain"; Center for Watershed Protection, Impervious Cover Model; U.S. Census Bureau / World Population Review (Winder & Barrow County population estimates).