Pat’s Wildways: Drought

It is one thing to see signs in Fernandina Beach announcing the drought and water conservation mandates, but it is another to see the water bodies I love dry up. My recent trip to Gainesville in the middle of Florida was a real eye-opener. On the drive there, I took a longer route via Macclenny to take a dip in the St. Marys River and encountered a steep sand bank down to the river because the river had shrunk considerably. Although the place I swam was deeper, the U.S. Geological Survey station on the river nearby showed that the river was around two feet deep, very low, ever since November. At such low levels, even canoeing on the river is a challenge, with portages needed across dry parts of the riverbed. If you have a power boat, forget it — the boat ramps no longer reach the river. Thanks to the continued efforts of the U.S. Geological Survey, it is simple to look up water levels throughout the state. Before attempting to go boating on the St. Marys River or maybe anywhere in Florida these days, it is advisable to check the water levels.

On my way back from Gainesville I traveled via the small town of Melrose, where I happily lived a few years when I was a grad student at the University of Florida. I have fond memories of climbing in my canoe and reading the newspaper in the morning in the company of bald cypress trees, birds and gators. But now even Lake Santa Fe is receding. The public boat ramp in town is nonfunctional and the swimming beach has shrunk, with the ropes demarking the swimming area no longer in the water but stretching far onshore. No one was swimming there on a Sunday. Who would? It is not inviting at all, and the fear of freshwater dangerous pathogens that thrive in stagnant warm water is more of a threat than the alligators that are present. For this reason, a number of freshwater springs in the area have also been closed to swimming, with water levels too low and stagnant to be safe. In the midst of this drought it does not help that Nestle Company (now renamed Blue Titan) is permitted to extract one million gallons of water a day from Ginny Springs, then bottled in plastic and sold for a profit. Ginny Springs is connected to the Santa Fe River, which in turn is connected to Lake Santa Fe, and water levels throughout this system are extremely low. Excessive water extraction from Ginny Springs during this drought is a contributor to the problem. To learn more about the state of Florida's springs, check out the Florida Springs Council and consider supporting their mission to preserve the springs that have always been a keynote of Old Florida in the middle of the state.

In Melrose I stopped by Chiappini’s, the old gas station turned bait store and local hangout that I have stopped at every trip I’ve taken to Gainesville in the last 40 years or so. It is often a highlight of my trip, sitting at their counter chatting with the Chiappini brothers and the locals who regularly stopped by. The Chiappini family has operated this place for almost 100 years, but now, sadly Robin and Mark have aged themselves and had to sell it. The new owner promised to retain the character of the place, well so much for that. The place was empty, everything gone, with a stop-work order on the door. So very sad. To learn about this historic place, check out this recent article.

But then, on my drive back to Fernandina it started to rain, hard, like only Florida can deliver. This area has been without rain for days on end and this was a welcome relief to the landscape but not for my drive back home. To get off the dangerous, stormy road, I drove into Gold Head Branch State Park. No ranger was at the gate, and, in fact, no one was in the park besides me. When the rain stopped, I had a lovely private drive through the pines and sand hills that form the park and finally saw why no one was there this weekend. The swimming area there had been closed since early July due to the drought.

But nature has a way of restoring itself. In Gainesville, my friends told me that it finally rained heavily ever since I left, their first rain in weeks. And I looked up the water levels at that USGS site for the St. Marys River near Macclenny once again. And wow, the river had risen nearly two feet more! It’s a lot to hope for but just maybe the drought is beginning to end. I wish.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com