Current News

How Florida Turns Its Back on Our Springs: A Case Study Via the Ichetucknee MFL

What the State of Florida Wants You to Think Read any of the press releases from the Governor’s Office, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), or any of the state’s water management districts (WMDs), and you’ll be impressed by the amount of money and effort being put into restoring our springs and other living …

How Florida Turns Its Back on Our Springs: A Case Study Via the Ichetucknee MFL Read More »

Interview with Jim Stevenson (Part 1 of 2 parts)

Interview with Jim Stevenson (J) Interviewer: Lucinda Faulkner Merritt (L) Tallahassee, Florida June 17, 2019 L: I’m here today with Jim Stevenson, who has had a long and distinguished career with the Florida Park Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Jim served as Chief Biologist for the Park Service for 20 years, during …

Interview with Jim Stevenson (Part 1 of 2 parts) Read More »

Report from the BMAP Challenge Hearing

by Ichetucknee Alliance President John Jopling The mission of the Ichetucknee Alliance is to ensure the restoration, preservation and protection for future generations of the eco-systems . . . of the Ichetucknee River, including all its associated springs. The Florida legislature, in passing Florida Statute 373.801, mandated that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the …

Report from the BMAP Challenge Hearing Read More »

Why Are We Sacrificing the Ichetucknee and Our Other Springs? The Florida Springs Task Force and Decades of Ineffective Action

by Lucinda Faulkner Merritt Communications Coordinator The Ichetucknee Alliance The Ichetucknee Inspired Springs Activism Did you know that in the 1990s, the Ichetucknee played two important roles in Florida springs activism history? In 1995, the Ichetucknee Springs Basin Working Group was the second group formed to bring scientists and others together to learn as much …

Why Are We Sacrificing the Ichetucknee and Our Other Springs? The Florida Springs Task Force and Decades of Ineffective Action Read More »

Reality Check: Agricultural Changes and Sources of Pollution in North Central Florida

by Lucinda Faulkner Merritt Communications Coordinator, Ichetucknee Alliance At a meeting of the Suwannee River Water Management District’s (SRWMD’s) Board of Directors on May 14, 2019, I listened as several members of the board publicly questioned the assertion that agriculture is the largest source of water pollution in North Central Florida. The board members’ doubting …

Reality Check: Agricultural Changes and Sources of Pollution in North Central Florida Read More »

Is Florida Pumping Its Way to Dry Land Farming?

This letter from Ichetucknee Alliance Advisory Board Member Bob Ulanowicz was sent to Florida’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Thomas K. Frazer, on Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute letterhead in May 2019. The letter, reprinted here with permission of the sender, outlines the devastating consequences that Florida will face if we fail to curb freshwater …

Is Florida Pumping Its Way to Dry Land Farming? Read More »

STATEMENT BY THE ICHETUCKNEE ALLIANCE TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT

At your March meeting, Warren Zwanka took issue with well permit numbers that had been cited in a Gainesville Sun opinion column by Bob Knight of the Florida Springs Institute. The Alliance had obtained those numbers from Mr. Zwanka via a public records request. Knight’s op-ed was distributed to you at your February meeting by Jim …

STATEMENT BY THE ICHETUCKNEE ALLIANCE TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT Read More »

Some Information About the Rights of Nature Movement, Part Two

By David Moritz Chairman, Alachua County Environmental Protection Advisory Committee May 2019 These articles were originally posted on David’s Facebook page. We think they deserve a wider audience. They have been very lightly edited and are reprinted with permission. I have been writing about how our legal system is dominated by corporations, in part because …

Some Information About the Rights of Nature Movement, Part Two Read More »