UPDATE 3/26/2023: We have a disappointing update on the Ichetucknee Springs Protection Zone request. After review by subject matter experts from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Suwanee River Water Management District, FWC determined that the evidence that has been presented so far did not demonstrate that a Spring Protection Zone was necessary to protect and prevent the Lower Ichetucknee River (a spring run) from the type of harm identified in Section 327.45, Florida Statutes. The Alliance is pursuing further clarification on this determination and we will keep you posted.
UPDATE 3/19/2023: Many thanks to those of you who sent letters of support for establishment of a Springs Protection Zone! We have transmitted those letters to the FWC and are expecting a decision about our request soon, at which point we will update this page.
We are working to establish a Lower Ichetucknee Springs Protection Zone and the Ichetucknee River needs your help to protect it from damage caused by motorized vessels such as boats and jet skis.
Recreational impacts are increasingly damaging our North Florida springs and rivers, and the Ichetucknee is no exception. While the upper part of the river is protected by the state park’s ban on motorized vessels, the Lower Ichetucknee as it flows through Three Rivers Estates has no such protection.
Many weekends, especially holiday weekends, find the Lower Ichetucknee experiencing heavy motorized vessel traffic that results in turbid water and ecosystem damage to submerged aquatic vegetation and to the shoreline. In addition, the danger posed by motorized vessels to wildlife such as Florida’s iconic manatees is well known.
Thanks to a new state law, Florida Statute 327.45, we now have an opportunity to change this situation to provide more protections for our beloved blue river. This law grants authority to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to establish Springs Protection Zones (SPZs) that “restrict the speed or operation of vessels or that prohibit anchoring, mooring, beaching or grounding of vessels to protect or prevent specified harm to first, second and third magnitude springs and spring groups and their associated spring runs.”
In April 2022, a local citizen filed a request to the FWC to establish a non-motorized vessel SPZ for the Lower Ichetucknee. The Ichetucknee Alliance has been asked to assist with this effort and since our mission is to restore, protect and preserve the Ichetucknee, we immediately agreed.
Establishing a Springs Protection Zone is a new process and all of us, including the FWC, are learning as this process unfolds.
Watch this space for future updates!
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
-from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, 1971.