This episode features the art of the Ocklawaha River and the recent drawdown revealing the Lost Springs. The Rodman/Kirkpatrick Dam, an early piece of the never-completed Cross Florida Barge Canal, flooded this swampy landscape in 1968. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has coordinated periodic, three-month drawdowns ever since to mimic the river’s natural cycles and kill off aquatic weeds. When dirt-colored water levels drop, buried springs bubble back to life and sunken cypress seedlings take root. Artists boat, paddle, swim and dive to the fleeting ecosystem, capturing it on canvas in hopes the public will demand its permanent restoration.
WUFT's Report for America Corps Member Rose Schnabel and acclaimed artist Margaret Ross Tolbert share information on 20 “lost” springs buried under the Ocklawaha’s dammed waters, the artists and filmmakers that capture the beauty of this area and constituent efforts to lobby the Florida legislature to remove the dam and return the area to its original beauty for generations to come.
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Artists document Rodman Reservoir drawdown, the first since 2020, to galvanize dam removal.
