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Paddle Florida is nothing if not a future-facing organization, but for this month's issue, Donald Forgione, the former director of the Florida Park Service, writes of his memories concerning the beginnings of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail and Paddle Florida, thirteen years ago. We also wanted to remind our readers of our increased presence on social media, as we are now posting every day on both Facebook and Instagram. Please 'like' and follow us for great photos and stories. Also, we want to encourage everyone to visit Paddle Florida's YouTube channel where you will find sixteen videos that illustrate trips we have done over the years and across the Sunshine State. You will also find Rod MacDonald's great show from June and Grant Peeples show from May. The July edition of our Summer Music Series will feature another of our favorite artists, Katherine Archer.
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Paddle Florida Summer Music Series
Katherine Archer
Date: July 23, 2020
Time: 7 PM
Click here to read Katherine's bio.
To access by computer:
To access by phone:
One tap mobile:
+13126266799,,86119676963#,,,,0#,,894600# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,86119676963#,,,,0#,,894600# US (New York)
Dial by your location:
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 861 1967 6963
Password: 894600
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbI2ijZ6Fk
Katherine Archer and Linda Thornburg have just released their iBook Snorkel McCorkle and the Lost Flipper, an Eco Adventure with 7 original songs, for kids and their parents!
Available at the Apple bookstore for download. Coming soon in print to Amazon!
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If you can't make the show, please consider making a donation to our non-profit organization. There are links in the right column which describe the really cool thank you gifts you will receive for your donation. At the $25 level, you get a PF buff, which can be particularly useful during this time of COVID-19. At the $50 level, you get a PF dry bag, which every paddler/camper can use. At the $75 level, you get a super cool, long-sleeved, white dri-fit PF shirt, which will be great sun protection for the coming summer. At the $100 level, you get two Fracture glass printed images of our favorite Paddle Florida photos.
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An Idea
By Donald Forgione
Executive Director, Tailgate-Talks and co-author of The Ecotourism Provider’s HANDBOOK: 180 Techniques for an Exceptional Park, Preserve, or Nature-based Attraction
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From 2005 to 2010, I was the District Manager for The Florida Park Service in the Northeast Region of Florida. I had the responsibility of managing 40 state parks and a new concept we called the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail. I had experience with managing linear parks and blueways but in those situations, the state owned the uplands and it had defined boundaries. This new concept was not tangible and based on combining, in spirit, several state, county, and city parks along the Suwannee River as well as water management district land and private property without management control, but rather with an idea.
I visited each site and met with community leaders in the hope that they would buy into the concept and help make it a reality. Some were more supportive than others and the building of a coalition began. We established monthly meetings with all the stakeholders invited to the table. I remember some holdouts would not attend so we had the next month’s meeting in their community. Within a couple of years, each entity would request to host a monthly meeting. They would all be so proud of their part of the river and of the program they were a part of. This delicately assembled group of partners were now dedicated to the concept. [Read more...]
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Florida's Lost Springs
By Keith Williams, Earth Island Journal
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Cannon Springs on the Ocklawaha River.
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Last year, right around the time of the winter solstice, I found myself standing alone on the crest of the Kirkpatrick Dam in north-central Florida looking upstream at the almost empty Rodman Reservoir. The reservoir had been drawn down about ten feet a month earlier, exposing a wasteland of waterlogged grey tree stumps, ghosts of the forest that used to be before the dam was built. The reservoir bottom was exposed in places, dried white like a salt flat. Remaining water was choked with green mats of nonnative plants. As a chill wind blew across the water on this overcast December day, I couldn’t help but think that the reservoir looked more like a desolate wasteland than a river.
The Kirkpatrick Dam sits atop the Ocklawaha River, a twisting 74-mile tributary of the St. Johns River that is fed in part by clear freshwater springs. Behind me, downstream, the Ocklawaha still runs free, a shadowy flood plain filled with a tangle of live oak, cypress, gum, maple, and sable palm, with buttressed trunks draped in Spanish moss. A primal wild forest. A reminder of what used to be. [Read more...]
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Prevent further damage to our imperiled springs
By Dr. Robert Knight
Executive Director, Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute
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Science tells us that it has been about 4.5 billion years since the Earth cooled from a cloud of primordial gases. Earliest life appeared on this rocky planet sometime after the appearance of liquid water — about 3.5 billion years ago.
The first humans came into the picture less than 2 million years ago.
Earth has always had ups and downs – volcanoes, comet strikes, ice ages and extinctions. These cataclysmic events came and went, and each time nature established a new harmony and stability. Life on Earth was humming along just fine, as evidenced by millions of plant and animal species that were in balance, air not sullied by smog, and waterways and oceans free of plastic and other pollutants.
The first sign of people living in this land we call Florida was less than 30,000 years ago. For most of that time humans and their environment were compatible. [Read more...]
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EPA Removes Protections For Some Wetlands and Streams
By Jessica Meszaros, WUSF
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Protections for some wetlands and streams have been rolled back by the Environmental Protection Agency, under the Trump Administration. The affected areas are ephemeral streams, which only flow part of the year, and isolated wetlands, which are not directly connected to larger bodies of water.
They are no longer considered “waters of the United States” under the Navigable Waters Protection Rule within the Clean Water Act. Advocates came up with their own name for this: The Dirty Water Rule. [Read more...]
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Flora & Fauna Spotlight
In a Nutshell: Getting along with gators on a lazy river
By Brian Thompson, The St. Augustine Record
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Alligator at Silver Springs State Park.
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Only in Florida do you float along next to one of nature’s most dangerous predators and think to yourself, “Hey, look at that ... now, where did we put the pretzel chips?”
And it was upon that realization that I started to wonder if we’re alright. We Floridians.
There we were, kayaking along Silver Springs. Paddling through the turquoise waters and lazy river grass. My daughter had asked if I thought we would see any alligators. My wife had warned us both. She had a bit of a dream about it. Not a good one. More of a nightmarish premonition. I think it somehow involved us being devoured by a gator on some kind of fancy cracker. [Read more...]
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