Springs are Sacred

Post author:flspringsinst
Post published:February 7, 2025
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Last night, the Florida Springs Welcome Center in High Springs was filled to the brim with guests for our Sacred Springs Stories event, co-hosted with the Rights of Water and organized by Lucinda Merritt. The evening began as beautiful music filled the air from flutist Jim Durocher, setting a reverent tone for the divine storytelling that was to come. Special thanks to Michael Monroe for filming the event. Internationally acclaimed artist Margaret Ross Tolbert spoke about her…

New Publication: Longnose Gar Spawning Within Floating Vegetation

Post author:flspringsinst
Post published:January 2, 2025
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Dear Springs Enthusiast, We’re excited to share a fascinating discovery made right here in one of our beloved springs. FSI Environmental Scientist Bill Hawthorne, Dr. Ken Sulak, and FSI board member Dr. Steve Walsh have published a research paper on Longnose Gar spawning within floating vegetation mats - a behavior never before published for this iconic fish species! Observed and photographed over the past two years, this behavior reveals how Longnose Gar utilize floating vegetation for egg deposition. The mats, suspended…

Your Support Makes a Difference.

Post author:flspringsinst
Post published:December 3, 2024
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2024 was a landmark year for the Florida Springs Institute. We celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of our namesake, Howard T. Odum. We also honored the legacy of our organization by completing an Ecological Health Assessment of the Silver Springs System, the location where Dr. Robert Knight studied under Dr. Odum and the seeds that eventually grew into the Florida Springs Institute first nestled themselves into the fertile mind of our dear founder. This…

Extinct Springs

Post author:flspringsinst
Post published:September 30, 2024
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By Dr. Robert Knight. Published in the Orlando Sentinel on September 13, 2024 I recently chanced upon a memorial for the extinct Passenger Pigeon. Located on a high bluff above the Upper Mississippi River in rural Wisconsin, this marker was dedicated by Aldo Leopold, one of the most famous American environmentalists. In 1947 he proclaimed “We meet here to commemorate the death of a species. We grieve because no living man will see again the onrushing phalanx…

A Personal Tribute to the Legacy of Howard T. Odum

Post author:flspringsinst
Post published:August 30, 2024
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By: Robert Lee Knight, Ph.D. In several ways, Dr. Howard T. Odum was the most influential mentor in my professional and personal life. Referred to as Tom by his friends and family, HT by many of his colleagues, and Dr. Odum by most of his students, Howard Tom Odum was truly one of the greatest thinkers and doers of applied theoretical science in the world. I can hardly believe that I had the good fortune to study…