Ocklawaha River, Which Has Deep Roots In Polk, May Finally Be Closer To Being Free-Flowing Again; It Is Up To Gov. Ron DeSantis

The Ocklawaha River once flowed unimpeded to the St. Johns River, but that all changed decades ago when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to build a dam blocking the final 13-mile section.
For decades river advocates have been pressing state officials to undo the damage.
This year the proposed state budget contains $6.25 million to begin the job.
Sierra Club and other environmental organizations are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to leave the appropriation intact.
There continues to be lobbying from other interest groups interested in preserving the status quo of a fishing lake called the Rodman Reservoir, despite the fact that it flooded a good portion of the river floodplain and capped the flow of 10 springs.
The river’s watershed is extensive. much of it beginning in Polk County via the formation of a creek system in the southern portion of the Green Swamp Area of State Concern.
The creeks flow slowly through the sawgrass marsh north of Lake Lowery. and other lakes in the Haines City-Lake Alfred area covering more than 100 square miles before reaching Lake Louisa in Lake County and from there forming the Palatlakaha River, the Ocklawaha’s main tributary.
As many of you know, the dam is the legacy of an ill-conceived engineering project called the Cross Florida Barge Canal, which President Richard Nixon finally halted in 1971.
It was a project that had been discussed in one form or another even before Florida became a state in 1845 as a way of creating a shortcut for freight that avoided what were then the poorly mapped reefs in the Florida Keys.
The project also came at a time when the prevailing water management practices in Florida involved building structures–dams, canals, reservoirs–to deal with issues often better served by purchasing and preserving natural areas.
It would be a tribute to our better understanding of proper water management today to urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to support this portion of the proposed budget.