“The Ichetucknee’s waters bubble up out of the ground and flow like melted diamonds across a sandy bottom through a natural forest.”
-Al Burt, The Tropic of Cracker
Springs Heartland of Planet Earth
The Ichetucknee River System is one facet in the diamond that is the largest concentration of freshwater springs in the world. This “Springs Heartland of Planet Earth” is found in Central and North Florida, where the Ichetucknee marks the boundary between Columbia and Suwannee Counties.
The Ichetucknee River System includes:
- Nine springs.
- The 5.5-mile river fed by those springs.
- The underground Floridan aquifer that feeds the springs and river and provides drinking water for millions of people.
The springs are the top, visible layer of the groundwater that fills the aquifer, so the health of our springs is linked to the health of our drinking water.
For thousands of years, the cool water of “the Ich” has bubbled up from the limestone aquifer into sunlit springs to create a lovely and beloved river that winds through miles of wooded landscape.
For many of those years—from the time of Florida’s first inhabitants to the people who come to swim, dive, float, paddle or be baptized in its waters today—the Ichetucknee has played a vital part in the life of the communities that surround it.
Freshwater springs are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, and the Ichetucknee supports a complicated web of life that depends on a healthy and vigorous community of aquatic plants. Here are more than 170 species of birds; 31 species of fish; one of the greatest varieties of turtles on the planet; mammals such as otters, beavers, and sometimes manatees; and reptiles, amphibians and insects too numerous to count.
Learn more about the Ichetucknee River System at Ichetucknee: Beloved Blue River