Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Travel Update: Silver Springs, Florida


Florida Struggles to Overcome Threats to Freshwater Springs. (The New York Times, 6/22/2012)

Excerpt:   Glass-bottomed boats grew famous here as did underwater photography. Even Tarzan was lured to the springs; six of the movies in the 1930s and ’40s were filmed here. Tourists arrived in droves to these springs, just outside Ocala. 

The riverscape — with anhingas drying their wings in the sun, alligators lolling near the banks and native hibiscus in bloom — is beautiful. But its fragility is plain to see. Except for a few patches, the bottom of Silver Springs and Silver River are no longer visible, covered by invasive weeds coated with algae. 

The springs scarcely bubble up. Its flow rate has dropped by a third. The current moves as slowly as the red-bellied turtles that sun themselves on logs, allowing toxic nitrates to choke the water.

Editorial.  Protecting the Florida idea.  (Ocala.com, 6/24/2012)

Excerpt:  Anyone who has cruised the Silver River over the years can tell by looking at her that she isn’t well. Her once-crystal clear waters are clouded. She is barely flowing because the output of her source, Silver Springs, is at a historic low. The once shimmering eel-grass and white-sand bottom is covered with nasty brown algae.

Florida’s oldest tourist attraction, Silver Springs and the winding river it feeds, is sick, plagued by a combination of nitrate pollution, overpumping of our aquifer and a long-term change in weather that is providing less and less rainfall

Former Gov. Graham leads rally to protect Fla.'s springs, rivers. Daytona Beach News Journal, 6/25/2012)

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