Happy holidays from our team! As you celebrate the season with loved ones, we hope you're feeling a spirit of adventure. We're busy preparing our January through April schedule, which includes favorites like the Florida Keys Challenge, the Blackwater & Coldwater Creek trip, the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail, and the St. Augustine History Paddle. A special highlight is our 18th annual Suwannee River Wilderness Trail trip, a 65-mile paddling journey from March 20–25. Join us to experience Florida's most famous river during its spectacular springtime, winding past clear, blue springs that are perfect for a swim.

We have spots available for our Suwannee River Wilderness Trail (March 20-25, 2026) and St. Augustine History Paddle (April 20-26, 2026) trips.  

This edition focuses on the critical issues threatening the Suwannee River and its precious natural resources, including its springs and the sturgeon population. Our upcoming trip offers a unique opportunity to engage with experts from Florida State Parks and the broader environmental community, who will discuss the challenges facing the aquifer and the river's sturgeon. Secure your spot now and learn how you can help.

In this issue, read more about Protecting Our Springs | Suwannee River Water Management District, Gulf Sturgeon: Conservation & Management, The Gulf Sturgeon in the Suwannee River , and Living with Sturgeon. We have had a great start to our 2025-2026 Season, our 94th to 99th trips, and look forward to paddling with you!

Springs tell us a lot about hydrologic trends and human impacts on the quantity and quality of our groundwater and water supplies. They are a window into the aquifer, the source of most of the region's drinking water. Low spring flow may indicate drought conditions, or it may signal excessive groundwater withdrawals.

Different kinds of land uses can introduce potentially harmful soluble materials such as pesticides and nitrates. Once in the aquifer, these materials can flow with the groundwater over long distances, finding their way into drinking water, springs, rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico. Proper management of land use activities is essential to avoiding water contamination. […Read More…]

STURGEONS and PADDLEFISHES are modern descendants of an ancient group of freshwater fishes, the Chondrostei (a group of bony fishes with mostly cartilaginous skeletons). Sturgeons evolved during the Age of the Dinosaurs, and have prospered in the large rivers and lakes of North America, Europe and Asia for 200 million years. Together with alligators and crocodiles, they survived the mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic Era, when the dinosaurs and many other groups of animals disappeared forever. They originated prior to the creation of the Atlantic Ocean, when the Northern Hemisphere supercontinent Pangea broke into North America and Eurasia. Most sturgeons are highly specialized to feed in the sediment on small invertebrate prey, a radical evolutionary departure from most of their fish-eating ancestors. […Read More …]

Sturgeon and other anadromous (migrating from rivers to oceans and back) fish, such as salmon, shad, and alewives, need access to freshwater habitat for spawning and rearing. Gulf sturgeon need to swim hundreds of miles through the oceans and rivers to reach their destination, but man-made barriers such as dams may block them from completing their journey. These barriers have seriously impacted Gulf sturgeon spawning runs. Removing outdated dams can greatly improve Gulf sturgeon access to historical habitats. NOAA Fisheries works with conservation organizations, energy companies, states, tribes and citizens to evaluate barriers and improve fish passage. Most barriers have the same general impact on fish—blocking migrations—but each requires a specific set of conservation actions. […Read More…]

How To: Living with Sturgeon

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