Hidden Treasures of the Panhandle: Trip 1

Published Apr 30, 2008
It’s the perfect place for a leisurely scenic stroll. The quarter mile trail at Apalachicola’s Nature Center carries you over the Apalachicola River's flood plain.

The Nature Center is located at the far north end of Market Street in Apalachicola. It’s open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. It is free to enter.

Once in Apalachicola, drive north on Market Street past the yellow blinking light to the end. Turn left and go through the entry gate to the first building on the left. You can call the Nature Center at (850) 653-8063.
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Weeki Wachee Springs Would Still Run Like A Business

Published: April 29, 2008
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the state park system, will be able to submit an amendment request for the 2008-09 budget to secure the money to run Weeki Wachee Springs, according to language in the state's budget conference report finalized this week.

DEP would get funding equal to the revenue that the park is expected to bring in next year, and the budget amendment must be "accompanied by a detailed business plan for operation of the attraction" and include an itemized list of revenue and the costs to operate and maintain the 60-year-old landmark, the report language states.
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The Ichetucknee Partnership to umbrella various groups

Published April 25, 2008
Some would say that history was made Thursday morning as local government, business and civic leaders and environmentalists joined to celebrate the official launch of The Ichetucknee Partnership (TIP).

For many in attendance, TIP is the culmination of a decade of springs protection initiatives, backed by concerned environmentalists and naturalists who have toiled for nearly a decade to raise public and political awareness about the necessity to protect the extremely rare beauty of the Ichetucknee River and springs.

...many fragmentary but successful springs protection efforts have been ongoing, but TIP hopes to bring all facets together in a combined voice so that it can talk more effective in its presentation to politicians in Tallahassee.
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Grant to fund answers about St. Johns River

Published Apr 25, 2008
The St. Johns River Management District (SJRWMD) has contracted with Florida Tech scientists for a two-year, $300,000 project to obtain additional data regarding the fish larvae and eggs (ichthyoplankton) that inhabit the St. Johns River. The study is part of a comprehensive SJRWMD effort to address public concern regarding the cumulative impact of possible water withdrawals from the St. Johns River.

“We’ll get baseline data over an almost-two-year time span,” said Shenker. “Ultimately we will use this information to model what would occur if specific volumes of water were extracted and identify the boundaries of the environmental conditions we associate with significant environmental effects.” The final report is due Dec. 31, 2009.
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Blue Springs Old Timers Day

Published April 25, 2008
Blue Springs Old Timers Day is set for Saturday, May 3, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Blue Springs Recreation Area. (Jackson County, FL)

The Blue Springs Working Group is hosting the event. Allan Tidwell, Working Group leader, says, “The purpose is to assemble those who have known and cherished Blue Springs in order to hear their stories of the ‘old days’ at the spring. We are especially interested in stories before 1970.”

The event begins at 11 a.m. with an informal visit with friends and interviews. A fish fry and covered dish picnic begins at noon. A storytelling session kicks off at 1 p.m.

All who want to tell stories or hear them are invited. Guests are asked to bring: a covered dish, a lawn chair, old photos of Blue Springs, and stories to share or an ear to listen.

For information, call Tidwell at 526-2761, Ext. 3248.
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Plans filed to restore Blue Hole to natural state at Florida Caverns

Published: April 26, 2008
Three state agencies have filed plans to fill in part of Blue Hole at Florida Caverns State Park and do away with the small beach that surrounds the popular but currently closed swimming hole.

The proposed work is an effort to restore Blue Hole and the surrounding land to its “natural configuration,” according to the “Joint Application for Works in the Waters of Florida” filed last week with the Department of Environmental Protection.

Officials seeking permission to do the work indicated the beach has sent sand into the spring and the Chipola River stream that feeds the water body.
For almost a year, Blue Hole has been closed to swimming because a long-term drought, muddy conditions and bacteria levels have made it unsafe for that activity.

If conditions improve, the area could be re-opened to swimming.
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Project Ice Age Nears Completion at Wakulla Springs

Published 04-25-2008
Florida's Bureau of Archaeological Research, with funding from the National Geographic Society, is ending up a month-long project at Wakulla Springs on Saturday, May 3. Jim Dunbar (pictured with hat in hand) of Wakulla County headed the project named "Project Ice Age." Scientists hope to obtain data that shows a continuing human habitation East of the Mississippi dating to the end of the last ice age, between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.
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House Balks At Weeki Wachee Funding

Published April 22, 2008
The state House of Representatives has balked at a funding request by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to operate and maintain Weeki Wachee Springs as a state park.

However, a DEP spokeswoman said Tuesday that the department still expects to honor its side of a bargain struck earlier this year with the Weeki Wachee Springs LLC to fold the attraction into the state park system on Nov. 1.

Officials never imagined that the Legislature wouldn't fund the DEP's request for some $2 million to run the park next year, said Dale Adams, a Tallahassee lobbyist for the attraction.
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St. Johns River: More attention

Published 4/23/08
To the naked eye, the St. Johns River doesn't look threatened.

But then we need to remember the summer of 2005 when a massive algal bloom turned much of the river into a green, smelly mess.

The river can only take so much wastewater, even the treated kind.

In an e-mailed statement, Mayor John Peyton said, "Duval County and Northeast Florida are working hard to improve conservation by expanding the use of reclaimed water, establishing a storm water utility that will pay for much-needed drainage improvements to improve the quality of storm water, and providing enhanced citizen education about the health of the river through a report card - the first of which is due out later this month."
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2 kayak trips offer different adventures

Published April 22, 2008
Juniper Creek is a place that makes you forget the plague of development that has swept away the wild places of Florida. It's a wilderness jewel I discovered by accident. Within the Ocala National Forest, the 7 1/2-mile Juniper run can be a crowded hotspot for canoeists and kayakers on the weekends.

The creek that feeds off the spring is considered a moderate run by most paddlers. But don't let the concessionaire stand deceive you, said Heather Callahan, a spokeswoman for the USDA Forest Service. Just because there are canoe rentals at the spring head doesn't mean this is going to be easy for everyone.

Unless you have some experience, it's pretty easy to capsize a canoe going down this narrow winding channel. A kayak, in this instance, is easier to maneuver and more stable. Alice Alexander, vice president of the Recreation Resource Management company that runs concessions at the park, encourages beginners to try the Alexander Springs run, a wider, slower stream, located about 18 miles from Juniper on County Road 445. It's an easier paddle with short-term rental options for canoes. If you want a peaceful ride on Juniper, she also recommends making the trip on a weekday. "Its much more relaxed," she said.

If you're looking for a more secluded adventure with less human traffic, the Oklawaha River is a beautiful waterway to find yourself alone with a variety of wildlife -- especially alligators. I lost count at about 30 gators during a February trip. With so much fauna to see, don't let these reptiles make you wary of the northern-flowing blackwater river. I saw lots of white ibis, limpkins and a red-shouldered hawk and kept a watchful eye out for rhesus monkeys.
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On this Earth Day, thank a legislator

Published April 22, 2008 (Opinion)
The Florida Forever Program has been a national model of this great work for the past 18 years. Today, as we celebrate Earth Day 2008, the Florida Legislature is considering legislation that is essential to Florida Forever — and to the future landscape of our state.

The Senate and House have given initial passage to legislation to renew and improve Florida Forever for an additional decade. Furthermore, the Legislature has agreed — at a time of serious economic and fiscal constraints for Florida — to appropriate the funding necessary for another year of the current program to buy critical lands in the coming year.

Thus, Florida Forever will continue uninterrupted next year and will be authorized through the year 2020.
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Wakulla expands springs protection

Published 4/22/08
Wakulla County leaders on Monday unanimously approved new protections for Wakulla Springs that greatly expand the area where the county regulates the storage of certain chemicals, such as gasoline.

Monday's action, which environmental activists heralded as a major victory for the springs, amends a 1994 ordinance by expanding the Wakulla Springs Protection Zone fivefold, from 17 to 85 square miles. It comes after months of scientific research showing that the basin contributing to Wakulla Springs is much larger than previously thought and extends into Leon County and beyond into Georgia, said Chad Hanson, president of the Wakulla Watershed Coalition.

Hanson said much of the new zone was undeveloped except for one gas station
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Six-day kids’ summer camp planned at Wekiwa Springs

Published 4/21/2008
The Florida Federation of Garden Clubs sponsors a six-day camp in June and July in Wekiwa Springs State Park near Apopka.

It is open to boys and girls who have completed fourth through sixth grades. For information, call 259-9162.
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Ginnie Springs

Published 4/21/2008
UF students can find true paradise just 40 minutes outside of Gainesville.

Ginnie Springs Outdoors Campground & Dive Resort, located on 7300 N.E. Ginnie Springs Road, is made up of seven freshwater springs that run through an area of 200 acres of woodland, according to the resort's official Web site.

The water in the springs is discharged daily and remains at a temperature of 72 degrees throughout the year. The resort offers aquatic activities like scuba diving, canoeing and kayaking, according to the Web site.
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Volunteer wins governor's award

Published April 21, 2008
Jim Clark, who has cleared as many as 25 dump-truck loads of vines from the entrance to Rainbow Springs State Park and coordinates a team of patrol boat captains, has been named a Point of Light outstanding volunteer by Gov. Charlie Crist.

"Jim's efforts help make Florida's parks accessible to everyone," Crist stated in a press release issued last week. "By sharing his enthusiasm for Florida's natural beauty, he promotes environmental awareness among all Rainbow Springs State Park visitors."

Rainbow Springs, the state's fourth-largest spring, was developed into a popular, privately-owned attraction during the 1930s. After a number of years it closed down and lay dormant until the early 1990s, when volunteers began to clean it up and get it opened again, this time under state ownership.
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Expanding protection zone around Wakulla Springs

Published 4/20/2008 (Opinion)
Originally passed as part of the Water Quality Ordinance in 1994, the current protection zone was based on the best available science and information from the early 1990s. Essentially, the zone encompasses a mile swath around the known cave systems of that time and totals about 17 square miles.

After numerous studies and various research, including tracer dye studies by Hazlett-Kincaid Inc. and dives by the Wakulla Karst Plain Project, the area that is now known to contribute to Wakulla Springs (i.e., Wakulla Springs Basin) is much more extensive than currently protected by the ordinance. In fact, we now know that much of the basin extends north through Leon County and into southern Georgia.

Expanding this protection area is merely a reflection of the latest science and is an effort to incorporate the best available information into county policy and law. If approved, the protection zone would expand to about 85 square miles, half of which would be in areas already publicly owned.
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$138 mistake led to release of 22 billion gallons from Lake Lanier

Published 4/20/2008
More than a year before Georgia's historic drought demanded the Atlanta area's attention, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accidentally released about 22 billion gallons of water downstream from Lake Lanier in 2006, while trying to save taxpayers $138.

That's the cost of a simple metal pulley the Corps decided not to replace when workers thought they fixed a gauge that measures the water level at Lanier, the Atlanta area's main source of drinking water.

Because of a miscommunication over whether that part was replaced with a different-size pulley, the Corps calibrated the gauge incorrectly, according to a Corps investigative report obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. As a result, the gauge indicated the lake level was higher than it actually was, causing the Corps to release too much water downstream over a 52-day period ending in June 2006.
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Orlando-area students join fray to conserve St. Johns River water

Published 4/20/2008
Central Florida high-school students are entering a contest to create the most compelling public-service messages to conserve the beleaguered river.

According to the Riverkeeper Web site, each resident along the St. Johns waterway uses as much as 150 gallons of water daily, about 50 gallons more per day than the national per-person average. The organization wants lawmakers to look at other means before tapping the St. Johns River to solve the water crisis.
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Workshop will dive into St. Johns River topics

Published April 20, 2008
The St. Johns River will take center stage at a four-day workshop sponsored by the St. Johns River Alliance.

The St. Johns River Classroom will kick off at Blue Spring State Park on Tuesday and feature a variety of speakers, including an experienced fishing captain, an author and an ecologist from Stetson University

The cost of the workshop, including lodging, food and socials, is $295 per person for two people sharing a cabin. Six cabins are available.

For more information, conact Herb Hiller at 386-467-8223 or view the schedule at the alliance's Web site, http://stjohnsriveralliance.com
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Our position: If legislators don't act now, region's springs could be ruined

Published 4/20/08 (Editorial)
Don't be fooled by the seeming clarity of the waters at Wekiwa Springs -- as pictured above -- or Rock Springs or Silver Springs. Or springs further out, such as at Weeki Wachee, home to generations of mermaids. Studies increasingly show that nutrients chiefly from fertilizers and septic tanks entering those and other springs are choking eel grass and spawning algae blooms. In 10 to 20 years, many of the springs Floridians consider irreplaceable, that support sportsmen and threatened species alike, could resemble your neighborhood blue-green, algae-filled retention pond.

But the importance of getting lawmakers to set up the task force that can make recommendations on how the state can address threats to the springs can't be overstated. Uniform state standards on the amount or kind of fertilizers landowners should use, for instance, don't exist. Without them, the fertilizers continue invading the springs by feeding them in storm runoff or through the aquifer.
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Plan to tap St. Johns River alarms eco-activists; water district downplays fears

Published April 17, 2008
A national environmental group today named the St. Johns River one of the 10 most-endangered rivers in America because of Central Florida's growing thirst for drinking water.

The American Rivers organization acknowledged that its "endangered" label is based partly on science and partly on an attempt to gauge political, social and economic pressures that could impact a waterway.

The group has put out an annual list since 1986 and during that time has labeled nearly 250 of the nation's rivers and waterways as endangered. Among them were the Florida Everglades and the Peace and Caloosahatchee rivers.
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Lake owners, Florida doubt corps’ Lanier plan

Published April 17, 2008
The proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for an interim operating agreement on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system was met with lukewarm enthusiasm by the president of the Lake Lanier Association.

At issue once again are protected species in Apalachicola Bay. The corps is proposing discharge levels of less than 5,000 cubic feet per second from the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam at the beginning of the Apalachicola River.
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Too much Lanier water was released, Corps says

Published 04/16/08
District planning and environmental division chief Curtis M. Flakes said the corps learned two lessons during the ongoing, record-breaking drought:

First, the corps needs a drought contingency plan for operating its Chattahoochee dams;

Secondly, more water should be held in the reservoirs when they are low.

"The prolonged exceptional drought conditions experienced in the [Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint] basin throughout the spring and summer of 2007 resulted in impacts to the basin and composite storage within the basin that were unanticipated by the previous [operations plan] analysis," Flakes said in the letter.
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State of the springs

Published April 14, 2008
Florida lawmakers are considering assembling a short-term task force to assess the conditions of Florida’s springs.

The bill, with twin versions in the House and Senate, has not reached the floor of either legislative chamber. If eventually approved, the Florida Springs Stewardship Task Force will access existing data on the state’s 33 largest springs and identify ways to curb the nutrient runoff.

“It’s a very short-term task force,” Bersok said, explaining the team’s work probably would begin before the end of summer and end by January 2009.
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City To Get Tough On Overwatering Lawns

Published 4/15/2008
"There's so many people who water indiscriminately and have these systems that turn on whenever and you see watering during heavy rains, it's time to start monitoring, we have serious water problems in the state," said Conrad.

And he isn't the only one who wants to see some action.

It has been encouraged for years but now if passed, a new city ordinance will enforce twice-a-week watering.

Odd numbered addresses would only be allowed to water on Wednesday and Saturday, even numbered addresses would be given the green light only on Thursday and Sunday
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Deep water challenges

Published April 13, 2008
For more than a decade, concerned citizens have banded together in an attempt to get legislation passed that would help protect Florida’s springs and rivers before the life within them disappears — and along with it, much of our quality drinking water.

Each attempt at a legislative solution has been thwarted by lobbyists for two powerful groups, developers and agricultural interests.

“Everybody really likes the idea of springs protection, but when you start picking on the worst polluters, that’s when the fear factor comes in, and the bill usually dies,” said Annette Long, president of Save Our Suwannee. “Every bill that I have followed has failed to make it out of committee.”

The protection of Florida’s springs should continue to garner support from its residents as long as there are groups willing to show up at meetings and ask the tough questions.

“Instead of studying the springs some more — we know what the problems are for at least five or six of those 33 springs from previous studies — let’s stop the bleeding and save Florida’s springs,” Long said.
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Operations plan for Woodruff under review

Published 04/14/2008
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District has reinitiated consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on modifications to the Interim Operations Plan (IOP) at Jim Woodruff Dam to include a drought contingency plan and additional opportunities to conserve storage as we enter and exit drought conditions while still providing support for listed species and their critical habitat in the Apalachicola River.

"The current Exceptional Drought Operation Plan expires on June 1, 2008," said E. Patrick Robbins, public affairs officer, Mobile District. "Based upon review of the current species information, basin stakeholder input, lessons learned from 2006-07, and continuing discussions between the Corps and USFWS, the Corps has requested reinitiation of formal consultation under the Endangered Species Act on proposed modifications to the IOP at Jim Woodruff Dam. Consultation discussions between the Corps and FWS over the coming weeks may identify additional modifications that provide for further avoidance and minimization measures."

The Corps proposal and supporting documents are available on the Mobile District Web site at http://www.sam.usace.army.mil

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National Geographic funds team to look for artifacts at Wakulla Springs

Published April 14, 2008
A team of archaeologists is hoping to unearth clues at Wakulla Springs that might prove people lived in the area earlier than initially believed.

The project began last week and will continue through May 5. It's funded by National Geographic , and a short segment is slated to be featured in the show, "Wild Chronicles," said Jim Dunbar, senior archaeologist for the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research.

A core group of about 15 volunteers and professionals has been working on the project. They're hoping to determine the age of artifacts from the Paleoindian period, which lasted from 13,000 B.C. to 7,900 B.C. The artifacts include arrowheads, sharpened stones and tools.
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Legislature looks at protecting springs with task force

Published April 12, 2008
Bills moving through both chambers of the Legislature would create a task force to study some of Florida's largest springs. It would recommend changes to the way nearby land is used and preserve them.

The Florida Springs Stewardship Task Force would study existing data on major threats to the state's 33 largest springs and develop ways to address those threats. It also would look for ways to fund its recommendations. The task force would make a report to the Legislature by January.
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Florida’s Flows of Clear, Cool Water

Published: April 11, 2008
Visit the natural freshwater springs of northern Florida, and you may find it impossible to resist plunging in, or at least riding along the surface in a kayak or tube. Typically surrounded by trees and lush vegetation, the springs are often an eerily beautiful blue or green. Some are so clear that kayakers photographed on them appear as if they were floating on air. The purity of the water at Ginnie Spring has attracted the Coca-Cola Company, which has a permit to extract up to 600,000 gallons a day from a deeply placed well there and bottles some of it as Dasani water. And with water temperatures a cool 68 to 72 degrees, these alluring springs are unlikely spots for a nervous Northerner’s meeting up with an alligator, or so their aficionados insist.

At Rum Island Springs, a cabin can be rented for the weekend beside a turquoise pool of water twice the size of a large Jacuzzi. Poe Springs, in a 200-acre Alachua County park, has concrete steps leading into clear blue water. Blue Spring, Naked Spring, Johnson Spring and Kiefer Spring are all accessible from the privately owned Blue Springs swimming area in High Springs. More springs are preserved in more than a dozen state parks, including Troy, Manatee, Ponce de Leon and Wakulla Springs.
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Proposed water bottling plant near High Springs on hold

Published 4/11/2008
The decision on whether to allow a proposed water bottling plant near High Springs on the Santa Fe River is on hold indefinitely.

Due to an illness of a commissioner on the Gilchrist County Commission, the decision is now on hold until a 5-member Commission can be present.

That Commission recommended that the County Commission deny the plant, citing safety and incompatibility as reasons for why the special exception needed by the plant should not be awarded.
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Conservation: Taking it seriously

Published 4/10/2008
It is a little embarrassing that only now is the city of Jacksonville taking steps, small as they may be, to codify and enforce the modest water restrictions set forth by the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Even as Northeast Florida leaders are carping - justifiably - about plans to siphon water from the river to slake the thirst of Orlando's poorly planned sprawl, the residents and businesses of Jacksonville waste millions of gallons on lawns, often in violation of public policy.

Guidelines for watering are provided by the water management district, but it has no enforcement authority. It is left up to cities to do that. Sadly, enforcement has received little attention in Jacksonville, except in times of drought.
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St. Johns River: A thirst for caring

Published 4/10/2008 (Letter to the Editor)
In Marjorie's Wake, a film produced by Orlando-based Equinox Documentaries that will air on PBS this month -- and in which I have a role -- is an effort to stir people to stewardship and show them the importance of the river's fragile ecosystems and its lasting impact on the state's literature, music and art. The film retraces a 1933 trip on the St. Johns taken by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her friend Dessie Smith. The two women traveled in a wooden boat from the marshy expanse of river in east Orange County north about 100 miles and then up the Ocklawaha River. Rawlings immortalized the experience in a chapter in her acclaimed book, Cross Creek, named for the small North Florida hamlet where she lived. It is a love poem to the river and a tale of rediscovering one's self by getting closer to the heart of nature.
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Osceola County joins fight over St. Johns River water

Published April 10, 2008
Osceola County has joined the water war over the St. Johns River.

A Tallahassee judge this week approved requests by Osceola and its Tohopekaliga Water Authority to enter the fray over pumping water out of the St. Johns.

Osceola County barely borders the 310-mile river, but officials at the county and the Toho utility think a victory by the northeast Florida coalition could jeopardize a separate and much more ambitious proposal by Osceola, Orange, Orlando and others to cooperate in using river water.
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Friends of Wakulla Springs 5K Run

Published 4/10/2008
May 17, 8:30 a.m. in the park sanctuary. First 200 registrants will receive a T-shirt. Fees: Pre-Registration (by May 16), $12; Day of race $15. To register, call (850) 926-0700.
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Leaders Discuss New Policies to Protect Wakulla Springs

Published Apr 10, 2008
Local leaders are working against the clock to come up with stricter rules to help protect Wakulla Springs. They have to submit their new policies to the state by this summer. On Thursday they tried to hash it all out.

Commissioners and city planners came up with some ideas for new policies, things like creating a Springs Protection Zone. It would make rules a lot tighter for those who want to develop in the area and possibly for those who already live here.

City and county planners have a July deadline with the state to submit those policies. They didn't vote on anything on Thursday, but they did agree that they're at least on the right track. They hope to also introduce the ideas to Gadsden and Jefferson County leaders as well.
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