North Florida Springs Alliance

Kelly Jessop

The North Florida Springs Alliance is a Citizen Support Organization (CSO) for Peacock and Troy Springs State Park.  What is a CSO?  It is a nonprofit cooperative between state parks and the users, created by Florida legislation to conduct programs and activities to better the state park. Read more »

By Lindsey Pickel

Despite the spring floods and a summer of afternoon thunderstorms many Floridians experienced this year, we are still in the midst of a prolonged drought. Different regions of Florida will feel drought impacts differently; it may be watering restrictions, docks ending ten feet short of the lake, or a withering landscape. But one issue remains constant throughout Florida: the environment is hit the hardest during a drought. Read more »

Armored sailfin catfish (Pterygoplichthys sp.) have been captured and positively identified in Poe Spring on the Santa Fe River. This is the first time they have been sighted in the Suwannee Rive/Santa Fe Basins. These armored sucker-mouth catfish, also known as Plecostomus or “Plecos” in the aquarium trade, are exotic and invasive here in Florida. They are already established in other Florida watersheds and do extensive damage when they burrow into the banks of spring runs and rivers. Read more »

Florida’s springs are in trouble. Several can be classified as dead springs either because they no longer flow or because they are too polluted for swimming. Virtually all of Florida’s springs are degraded to some extent; although the springs in Ocala National Forest are the healthiest because their recharge areas are protected within the national forest. Read more »