As we prepare for the Suwannee River Paddling Festival (our final event of the 2021-22 paddling season), we need to acknowledge the people who provided financial support for three of our events. Explore Northwest Florida, Clay County, and the Three Rivers Foundation. We are most grateful!

Next, congratulations are in order for the latest Paddle Florida Hall of Fame inductees! Anyone who has been on many trips will recognize Doobie Hayes, who has provided food service for many events of the past 11 years, from the Alabama border to Naples. He and his crew have worked assiduously to provide dinners and breakfasts (on time, every time) for our paddlers. Ron Schultz. What can you say about Dr. Schultz that hasn't been said by all those who have had the pleasure of paddling with Ron since our first event, 14 years ago!

Thanks too, to our amazing, intrepid volunteers, who have greatly contributed to the success of 74 events and counting. None of what we do would be possible without their magnificent efforts. Love to all!

The 2022-23 season schedule will be released on May 1st. Watch this space.

This week is the last chance to register for the Florida Springs Council’s Springs Summit at the Plantation Inn in Crystal River from April 8th through April 10th. The Springs Summit is free to attend, but the remaining seats are very limited so register now at https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/summit.

The 2022 Springs Summit will have something for everyone, from the most seasoned springs experts to those just getting interested in springs advocacy. Here’s an idea of what to expect at the Summit.

Friday, April 8th

FSC partner organizations are hosting a variety of nature-based adventures exclusively for Summit attendees throughout the day on Friday. Available outings include a Scenic Tour of Kings Bay and clear kayak guided adventures on the Weeki Wachee River, King’s Bay, and the Chassahowitzka River with Get up and Go Kayaking. You can find links to book any of the Friday adventures at https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/summit.

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Growing up in Marion County meant swimming in historic swimming holes like Juniper, Silver Glen, Salt and Silver springs. In those magical waters we learned to swim, snorkel and identify fish and wildlife. Visitors joined us from northeast Florida, across the nation and around the world.

After time away at college and my first job in Tallahassee, I applied to work in marketing at Silver Springs, my dream job. Convincing travel agents, bus operators, scout groups, schools and senior travelers to visit one of Florida’s first and most iconic tourist attractions seemed easy. Reclaiming the million annual visitors who once came through the gates prior to Disney World was not.

At the same time exciting new promotions and programs rolled out, something was happening beneath the surface of our beloved Silver Springs. The large catfish that played bread football beneath the glass-bottomed boats disappeared at an alarming rate. Many of the diverse fish found in Ross Allen’s list in his book, “Eternal Spring,” seemed to be missing.

Lots of things got blamed for the fish loss, from otters to raccoons to anhingas. Thousands were spent on catfish restocking, only to hear that big catfish were being caught readily at the end of the line — the Rodman Dam. [Read more…]

Photo credit: Alan Youngblood

A recent report on climate change examines how sea level rise could cause gentrification, as wealthy residents along Florida's coast move inland. Researchers have highlighted the need for clear policies to address the looming issue.

The LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University funded the study that looked specifically at Pinellas, Miami-Dade and Duval counties.

“We were really looking for relatively high population, relatively high-density, variation in terms of coastlines, and also variation in terms of demographic and population,” said William Butler, a professor within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at FSU, who was part of a team working on the study titled Addressing Climate Driven Displacement: Planning for Sea Level Rise in Florida’s Coastal Communities and Affordable Housing in Inland Communities in the face of Climate Gentrification.

His team identified areas of risk through mapping; analyzed policies to determine how effectively coastal municipalities are planning for sea level rise and how effectively inland municipalities are planning to protect affordable housing; and interviewed policymakers, planners, housing officials, and community advocates.[Read more…]

Photo credit: The Leroy Collins Institute/Florida State University

Evidence suggests that the world is going through its sixth mass extinction, as species are vanishing at an abnormally high rate. Most species could be extinct by 2200 if the current rate of extinction continues. The implications for human health and wellbeing are dire, but not unavoidable.

Nearly 99 per cent of all species that have ever existed have gone extinct since the earliest inklings of life existed on Earth, over 3.5 billion years ago. 

The evolution of species takes place over time, and as species evolve, they replace other extinct species.

Extinctions and speciations, however, do not occur uniformly through time; rather, they tend to take place in large pulses interspersed with periods of relative stability. Scientists refer to these extinction pulses as mass extinction events.

Around 540 million years ago, there was a burst of speciation called the Cambrian explosion. Since then, the fossil record has identified at least five mass extinction events and probably scores of smaller ones. [Read more…]

Photo credit: WION News

When Hurricane Irma ravaged south Florida in September 2017 it inundated homes, knocked out electricity for millions and killed more than 30 people.

The devastation was not confined to humans, however.

In the Florida Keys, one of the state’s most beloved animals also took a beating: the Key deer, a small subspecies of white-tailed deer that evolved in peaceful isolation on the islands and is now protected under the Endangered Species Act. Irma drowned them, slammed them into buildings and dragged them out to sea. “With Irma, we probably lost about 30% of the deer,” said Nova Silvy, a zoologist who has studied the deer since the 1960s on Big Pine Key, where most of them live.

Though the deer population has largely bounced back, the hurricane’s toll foreshadowed the dangerous future faced by this animal. In the coming century, the impacts of the climate crisis, especially sea level rise, will probably inundate many of the Florida Keys, including the endangered deer’s core habitat on Big Pine Key and neighboring islands. [Read more…]

Photo credit: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

How To: Spot Those Pesky Rocks
By Ray Goodwin

I was a kayaker before I was a canoeist, and when I was first dragged out on rivers, I couldn't understand why people were missing rocks and I was constantly hitting those pesky ones just below the surface. I didn't know how to spot them. This video is going to cover how to spot rocks that are either just below the surface or only show a small amount above.

Click here for article and video.