The latest update to Florida's Special Places comes from Bob Knight of the Florida Springs Institute. He has nominated Silver Springs, a unique aquatic wonder in Ocala, Florida. Have you ever visited Silver Springs or one of Florida's other one-of-a-kind springs? Let us know in the comment section below or on the Florida's Special Places Facebook Page! Enjoy:
I first visited Silver Springs in August 1953. I was only five years old and little did I know that a three-year landmark ecological study was underway under the direction of a new, young professor at the University of Florida named Howard T. Odum. I remember the crystal clear waters, giant catfish, and beautiful underwater “grasses”. I took away an almost dream-like memory of Silver Springs that has stayed with me since that day.
Fast forward to my last undergraduate semester at the University of North Carolina, during the spring of 1970. On the advice of a friend I signed up for Systems Ecology being taught by the same Dr. H.T. Odum. The course inspired me to pursue a career in environmental science and aquatic ecology. I also had my first exposure to Dr. Odum’s acclaimed work at Silver Springs from the 1950s, a 57-page monograph that was known world-wide as one of the most complete and intuitive descriptions of any aquatic ecosystem in the world. I learned that the Silver Springs that I remembered from my childhood was renowned in science and as a tourist attraction that was synonymous with sunny Florida.
In 1977 I renewed my contact with Dr. Odum and came to the University of Florida to earn a doctorate degree. In his most famous publication, Dr. Odum noted how constant Silver Springs had been throughout recorded history (about 100 years) and probably over the past 10,000+ years that people had lived next to the springs. This consistency of extremely high flow (nearly 500 million gallons per day), water clarity unrivaled in any other natural aquatic environment in the world, and rich and abundant biological productivity. I couldn’t have been more excited when Dr. Odum suggested I restudy Silver Springs, with the intention of repeating many of the measures he had made about 25 years previously. In his seven years back in Florida he had already seen that Silver Springs was changing. My two years of graduate research found that this giant of springs was still highly productive and relatively resilient to the more intensely developed surroundings. But disturbingly I also found that the fish community at Silver Springs had declined by 78% during the intervening 25 years and the changes were linked in time to the construction of Rodman Reservoir downstream on the Ocklawaha River.
Much later in my career I once again was offered a chance to work at Silver Springs. With funding from the Florida Springs Initiative and collaboration with the St. Johns River Water Management District and UF faculty I spent another year (2004-2005) conducting field work and helped prepare a 50-year retrospective evaluation of the ecological health of Silver Springs. What I saw in the springs and what our data showed was alarming and did not bode well for Silver Springs’ future. Fish populations had continued to decline (an estimated 92% reduction in their biomass over 50 years), nitrate nitrogen concentrations had increased by 200%, great masses of filamentous algae were now covering the sand and limerock bottom, flows were lower, water clarity had declined, dissolved oxygen in the river was lower, and overall ecosystem productivity was reduced by 27%. All of the old timers I spoke to at Silver Springs had been lamenting visible changes for years. Now the impacted conditions in the spring were confirmed with scientific data.
The recent Silver Springs study also forecasted the condition of Silver Springs 50 years in the future (2055) as a result of continuing development in Marion County. These estimates predict an additional 84% increase of nitrate concentrations, an 18% additional decrease in flows, and further degradation of the biological community in Silver Springs.
The three Silver Springs studies described above ended with numerous conclusions and recommendations, one of which was to continue to collect more quantitative ecological data in order to track the changing health of this complex and unique ecosystem. Even more importantly, these studies found that immediate action needed to be taken to stop the rate of decline of this living masterpiece while knowledge caught up. Those recommended emergency actions include the adoption of local land use restrictions in the immediate springshed to reverse the alarming trends of increasing nitrates in the spring, re-evaluation of permitted consumptive water uses in the vicinity of the spring to preserve spring inflows from the aquifer, and accelerated evaluations of removing the Kirkpatrick Dam downstream on the Ocklawaha River to re-enable the free passage of fish and aquatic wildlife such as manatees between Silver Springs, the St. Johns River, and the Atlantic Ocean.
Most of us have experienced an utter sense of frustration upon entering an emergency room in a hospital with what we think is a serious injury and with the apparent inaction of the staff. That has been my feeling over the past four years since this report was published. Some may think that there is not enough science to move forward with actions critically needed to begin to restore Silver Springs to its previously pristine condition. Do we really know that the social costs of land use changes such as reduced fertilizer use, restricted wastewater disposal practices, capping of consumptive uses, and restoration of a prime fishing lake are really worth an attempt to save the life of this spring? What if we rush to make those changes and find that we have not returned Silver Springs to its former state of near perfection? Should we wait until there is more science, more people living and recreating near and in the spring, and more degradation?
Sometimes when we have to make a difficult and possibly expensive medical decision concerning our own health we may be tempted to gather more evidence of the severity of the condition and putting off treatment or major life-style changes. But when that patient is our child or other loved one and the possible consequence of inaction is permanent disability or death, we are not likely to wait for more evidence when there are obvious remedies we can start taking now to avoid disaster. Silver Springs is a dream of unspoiled nature to hundreds of thousands of people, in Florida and throughout the entire world. Are we really going to take a wait-and-see approach to curing and ultimately protecting this loved one?
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