reading newspapers

[FallenMatt]

I've saw this article today in Orlando Sentinel:

Wekiwa Springs

" In the Wekiva River basin, where two-lane country roads curve past rolling pastures and signs warn motorists to watch for bears, most residents concede it's unlikely growth can be kept at bay forever.

THat remined me about Sheck Exley writting in "Caverns measureless to man" about him exploring the buatifull Cathedral Canyon Cave that had crystal clear water when he first dove there only to change to " some of the worst diving conditions around" when (if i remember correctly) a big farming operation moved into the area and polluted the underground waters.

Anyway, it just really annoyed me this morning...

 

[The Chairman]

and having spent innumerous hours canoeing and swimming in the Wekiwa it breaks my heart to read this. I applauded the elimination of the hunting cabins 20+ years ago, only to have bigger more obtrusive encroachment on this area. It is a river rich in fossils and artifacts and should be preserved for my children's children.

As an aside… few realize that this was the ancestral home of the ancient Hekawee tribe. In fact the river was originally calle dhte Hekawee after them. They were the ones who were constantly getting lost and were always asking their neighbors "Where the Hekawee?" :tease:

 

[divenaked]

me and a buddy went out there last weekend. it was super crowded. had fun diving that little crack in the ground. after we canoed down to Shell island, a little over a mile from the boat ramp. well i was there two years ago and it had inviting white-sand bottoms all around it. it was about the same time of year. now it's so choked with vegetaion you can barely get to the island, much less see the bottom. what's going on? also, have any snorkeled the river; how far from the spring can you go before it gets nasty, and is fossil hunting allowed?
thanx,

 

[The Chairman]

fossil hunting is ... "frowned upon". I was there for an excavation of some mammillian fossils not too long ago. It was not all glamour and we were asked to stop by the state.