By Hailey Hall, Environmental Scientist, Florida Springs Institute In 2016, the Florida Legislature passed the Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act, and the state developed a list of 30 significant springs (designated as Outstanding Florida Springs) to receive special legal protection. If water quality is found impaired, these springs require a Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) to achieve water quality standards within a 20-year time frame. FSI recently completed our ecological health assessment of four Outstanding Florida…

By Dr. Robert Knight, the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute. Published in Orlando Sentinel on July 26, 2022 National parks have attained a special status in America. As a conservationist, I understand and appreciate national wildlife refuges, state parks, state and national forests, and other state and federally managed conservation lands and how they help us work toward solving problems like climate change and extinction. But national parks represent the best-of-the-best of our country’s natural and…

By: Robert Knight. Published in the Gainesville Sun on February 1, 2022. The Sun recently published an opinion piece by Kip Frohlich and David Hankla, two of Florida’s top manatee experts, on the science and protection of this iconic Florida marine mammal. They rightly decry the state government’s failure to protect water quality in the Indian River Lagoon and the state’s equally poor response to the growing crisis facing the future of these precious wild animals. Manatees are starving…