StreamLines
Understanding the value of water
StreamLines home
Spring 2011
- Efforts continue to streamline permitting
- District joins others in recognizing Water Conservation Month
- Forecasts call for continuing dry weather
- Irrigation returns to two designated days
- District, partners work to tame region’s wildfires
- AquaLab records valuable data
- Grant to fund Heart Island gopher tortoise habitat restoration
- 10,000-acre water management project moves forward
- Meet our Experts
- Crowds flock to annual water education festival
Spring 2011
Efforts continue to streamline permitting
Staff look at ways to help the public move successfully through permitting process
By Hank Largin and Beth Hickenlooper
Kenneth John, assistant director of the Department of Environmental Resource Permitting, left, and Michael Register, director, review a map of proposed development as part of the permitting process.
Photo by Mat O’Malley
PALATKA, Fla. — St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Kirby Green this spring succinctly summed up the permitting challenges facing the District.
“We have to move people (applicants) more quickly through the system without disadvantaging our water resources,” Green said to members of the District’s Governing Board.
Streamlining the permitting process is an ongoing effort that the District has been effecting during the last several years. Among the recent improvements are greater use of Internet technology and tools, improved internal processes and a recent merging of District divisions into an environmental permitting department.
Green said one of his goals with the changes in the District’s permitting process is to help the public better understand that process and why the process is necessary. “Members of the public may sometimes become frustrated with a permitting process when they cannot easily find the answers they are seeking. We are looking at ways to be more informative and to work with groups in the community,” Green said. “We believe that if the public understands the need and purpose of regulation, they would agree that it is necessary. Without permit criteria, we do not have assurances that the water resources will be protected.”
Wally Esser, a District supervising regulatory scientist, left, reviews an aerial map with David Yow, a consultant for a permit applicant.
Photo by Mat O’Malley
Part of that communication process involves additional work to clarify language that may be different among the permitting criteria of the state’s other water management districts, as some projects seeking permits fall in the boundaries of more than one district.
The St. Johns District’s permitting process became more efficient with e-permitting that allows applicants to submit permit applications and permit compliance information online, and allows the public to easily access application and permit information.
“With the implementation of e-permitting the District has come up with two timesavers for applicants and their consultants that are also money savers,” says Marjie Cook, a District supervising professional engineer. “Applicants can submit their information online and there is so much information available on the District’s website that applicants are better able to do research that helps in their designs.”
The environmental resource permitting program is designed to ensure that new construction will not adversely affect water resources and addresses potential impacts to water quality, flood protection and wetlands. New development can change the quality and amount of water that flows off of a project site in addition to changing the water storage capabilities of a site. Unchecked, this can cause water quality violations and flooding. The environmental resource permitting program benefits Florida by preventing stormwater pollution to Florida’s waterways and by protecting wetlands.
Leslie Gore, a District engineer, reviews construction plans during an on-site inspection.
Photo by Mat O’Malley
For the District’s review engineers, “It is water quality and water quantity,” Cook says. “It is important to protect water quality from pollutants and water quantity deals with flood protection.”
Balancing those protections in addition to the required wetlands protections with a better, but more applicant-friendly system, is a major focus for the District.
Better technology is far from the only improvement in the permitting system. District staff are increasing and improving personal contacts with applicants to help them through the process.
“Our goal is to issue a permit in an expeditious manner, while protecting the environment by ensuring that the project meets District criteria,” Cook says. “We are coordinating with applicants earlier in the process and contacting them by phone rather than just sending out a letter requesting additional information. This personal contact helps applicants and their consultants work through the process more quickly, with a better understanding of the importance of the information being requested for water resource protection and to ensure the stormwater management system will function properly, once constructed.”
The District’s leadership this past winter took another step to further enhance its regulatory programs. Green moved several divisions associated with the environmental resource permitting program — environmental resource compliance, environmental resource management, surface water management and regulatory information management — into a new Department of Environmental Resource Permitting.
A soil sample is reviewed in the field on a site where an environmental resource permit is requested. The soil’s characteristics help determine if a site contains wetlands.
Photo by Mat O’Malley
“This new department is focused solely on environmental resource permitting and improving the way we approach permitting,” says Michael Register, director of the new department. “We are looking for input from our staff, from consultants and applicants, and from the public to make the process the best it can be.”
The District began putting together the new department in late 2010 with a goal of utilizing a team approach that involves review staff, consultants and applicants working together to get an application to a point where a permit can be issued as quickly as possible.
“One of the keys is encouraging frequent communication between team members, and not just relying on sending letters back and forth,” says Register, who has been with the District for 20 years. “And we are working to enhance our pre-application work so we can work out issues earlier in the application preparation phase of a project so that once the application is made, it will move through the process more quickly.”
Other areas that the new department will be looking at include:
- Improving the application used by applicants to submit electronically
- Moving to a completely electronic review process
- Reviewing all of the District’s rules to identify changes that could be made to streamline the permitting process
- Improving the coordination with the District’s consumptive use permitting program for those projects that require both types of permits
“The inclusion of the Division of Regulatory Information Management in the new department will also allow us to improve internal business practices,” Register says. “We think applicants and the public will see a huge difference.”
Even with the progress already made to streamline the permitting process, the District will continue to look at ways to improve the process.
“This is an opportunity for us to look at the agency and make positive change,” Green said. “It is also an opportunity to look at 40-year-old water laws that were passed when the state had 5 or 6 million residents, and compare them to today’s circumstances when we have close to 18 million in the state.”
District joins others in recognizing
Water Conservation Month
By Beth Hickenlooper
PALATKA, Fla. — April is Water Conservation Month, as proclaimed by dozens of agencies and local governments across Florida, including the St. Johns River Water Management District.
During Water Conservation Month, the District is conducting a number of activities to heighten public awareness of the importance of water conservation.
The District has launched a Water Conservation Challenge to elementary schools throughout the District’s 18-county service area to raise awareness of the importance of water and ways to conserve it. Several schools, with about 4,000 students and teachers, are participating.
Through the challenge, an individual classroom or an entire school can take a pledge, and conduct two in-school conservation activities. These activities may include creating and displaying posters on water conservation, conducting water conservation math exercises, and providing conservation tips during morning announcements or in the school newspaper. Each class or school also will conduct an outreach activity outside the school, such as working with a local restaurant to hang water conservation signs at the business or planting a waterwise landscape in the community.
For their efforts in promoting conservation, schools are recognized with letters, certificates and in other ways.
“We’re excited about the positive response from school leaders and students to the Water Conservation Challenge,” says Judy Landers, the District’s education manager. “The activities provide a learning experience that benefits the schools, the students and the community, and can be fun.”
This spring, the District also began widespread distribution of its 26-minute documentary, “The Simple Truths About Our Water.” The video highlights the work the District is doing to protect water supplies, while planning to meet our future demands and promoting conservation. The documentary also features the District’s work with local governments to use a variety of alternative water sources to supply public needs.
“Water supply issues can be complex, and our intent with this video is to help the public better understand the issues so that they can become more engaged in water conservation and water supply planning,” says Jeff Cole, director of the District’s Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs.
There are many ways that individuals can help conserve water. The District’s website provides tips for saving water indoors and outdoors and includes videos, plus it provides an opportunity to order or download conservation materials.
This is the 13th year in which the District has participated in Water Conservation Month, but the District’s water conservation focus goes beyond the month-long observance. The District promotes water conservation year-round through the following efforts:
- Requiring all permit holders to use water efficiently as a permit condition.
- Encouraging the use of reclaimed water and storm water where feasible to conserve potable water.
- Ensuring efficiency in landscape irrigation through year-round watering restrictions.
- Teaching the importance of efficient water use to adults and children through such programs as The Great Water OdysseySM and Florida Water StarSM.
- Partnering in the Conserve Florida Project, a statewide effort to assist public water supply utilities in the development of water conservation plans and programs.
- Funding cost-share projects with local governments, water supply utilities and other entities for innovative water conservation.
Forecasts call for continuing dry weather
By Hank Largin
Rainfall departure from average within the St. Johns River Water Management District during the 12-month period between March 2010 and February 2011
PALATKA, Fla. — The dry conditions over the past months seem far removed from conditions seen in the summers of 2004 and 2005, when tropical storms and hurricanes led to heavy rainfall and flooding.
The last two years in particular are highlighted by a lack of rainfall, and fire concerns now outweigh the threat of hurricanes.
While hurricanes are always a threat, the current long-range forecast in central Florida calls for more of the same — a lack of rainfall.
“We’re in a moderate La Niña right now, in the late winter, and the forecast is for a weak La Niña in the summer,” says Tom Mirti, director of the District’s Division of Hydrologic Data Services. “That combination means drier weather over the next six months.”
A rainy January improved conditions in many of the District’s 18 counties, but offered little relief to coastal counties. In January, St. Johns County was 17.6 inches below average rainfall over the previous 12 months, and Flagler County was down almost 14 inches over the previous year.
“St. Johns County was a third below normal in rainfall over the last year.” Mirti says. “Brevard, Volusia and Indian River counties are all down 20 percent.”
Though all of the District’s counties are not as low in rainfall as St. Johns County, six counties are in double-digit inches below normal and 12 are at least 5 inches below normal for the year.
The extended dry period has had an impact on water both above- and belowground. Levels in the Floridan aquifer have declined and will continue to decline, if rainfall remains below average. Lake and river levels are also below normal.
“Surface water bodies are relatively dry now, and smaller lakes are doing worse than larger ones,” Mirti says.
All signs point to a drier than normal spring and summer, and the cycle is not expected to end until a tropical storm zeroes in on Florida.
“We are watching conditions” Mirti says. “Unless it rains more than we expect, 2011 is going to be another dry year.”
Irrigation returns to two designated days
By Beth Hickenlooper
PALATKA, Fla. — The steady rise in temperatures and the sounds of birds chirping and lawn mowers cranking are sure signs of springtime.
After a cold winter, spring signals a time when many of us enjoy getting outside, even to tackle springtime chores or spruce up around our homes. If regular maintenance of your landscape includes watering grass and plants, remember, too, that spring signals two-day-a-week lawn watering restrictions.
Watering wisely promotes healthier lawns and landscapes and watering restrictions conserve water resources, an important way to help meet Florida’s water supply needs for today and the future.
The watering restrictions designate watering days and allow irrigation no more than two days per week during daylight saving time (the typical growing season) and a maximum of one day per week during Eastern Standard Time (cooler months when lawns and landscapes are typically dormant). The restrictions apply to water withdrawn from groundwater or surface water, from a private well, or from a public or private water utility. The use of reclaimed water is not limited unless a local government has adopted a landscape irrigation ordinance that restricts the reclaimed water use of its customers.
The restrictions apply to all landscape irrigation not currently regulated by a consumptive use permit, which typically includes residential, public, commercial and industrial establishments. The landscape irrigation restrictions do not apply to golf course turf, plant nurseries, agricultural crops and sports recreational areas, which generally have a permit that specifies irrigation limitations and requires the use of the lowest quality water source that is available, such as storm water and reclaimed water.
District, partners work to tame
region’s wildfires
By Ed Garland
The intense heat from this wildfire in Brevard County lit up the sky with a bright orange hue, as gray clouds of smoke rose across the conservation area.
Photo by Andy Kohler
PALATKA, Fla. — Florida may be known for its temperate winters, but the Sunshine State also is known for its seasonal forces of nature; namely, hurricanes and wildfires.
Long-range forecasts as early as September 2010 predicted an active wildfire season, based on Florida’s dry conditions. A near total absence of tropical systems within Florida during 2010 and unusually cold weather in December compounded the dry conditions, adding to the fire risk as freezing vegetation created more fuel.
Wildfire in the St. Johns River Water Management District began on Dec. 21, 2010, in the Lochloosa Wildlife Conservation Area (Alachua County). Crews from the District, the Division of Forestry (DOF), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Nature Conservancy worked through the winter holidays to contain the blaze, which consumed 2,800 acres over six days.
The largest wildfire of the season on District lands erupted on the day after Christmas in Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area (Brevard County) and prompted District staff to act quickly to develop a strategy with DOF and several other agencies to eradicate fuel sources, preventing the wildfire from creeping east toward Palm Bay.
“Initially the fire burned in a remote area on the west side of the conservation area,” says Doug Voltolina, the District’s southern region land manager. “The next day it spread to 2,600 acres and jumped the C-40 canal to an area that abuts the city of Palm Bay.”
An orange glow hung over the conservation area and was intensified as the sun set.
Photo by Andy Kohler
When firefighters banded together it created something akin to a military operation. The District hired a helicopter to ignite the marsh with napalm, a gasoline in jelly form; DOF provided fire engines, bulldozers and a helicopter equipped with a water bucket; Palm Bay firefighters created a line of defense along the western edge of the city; and Brevard County and Malabar provided additional personnel.
By the time that the burnout to existing firebreaks was completed, nearly 13,000 acres of cabbage palms, palmettos and marsh grasses had burned — the columns of smoke growing so thick as to blot out the evening sun.
“We employed an aerial burnout, because it is difficult to get firefighting equipment out to the swamp,” says Voltolina. “We have an excellent working relationship with those agencies, and the decision to burnout was unanimous. Each agency provided personnel and equipment.”
The rainfall deficit combined with a deep freeze to create the ideal conditions for wildfires throughout Florida during the winter of 2010–2011, and the worst may be yet to come, as fire-prone conditions continue.
Wildfires have burned more than 15,000 acres of District public lands since October 2010 — the most since the historic wildfires of 1998.
Land managers throughout the District are witnessing spectacles rarely seen: some vegetation that rarely burns is readily catching fire, 40-foot flames at night (when fires usually die down), and marshes burning hours after receiving rainfall.
A helicopter was used to ignite a fire line to burn off brush to slow down a fire at the Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area.
Photo by Andy Kohler
“There are places too dry to prescribe burn right now,” says Steve Miller, the director of the District’s Division of Land Management. “Our District had some of the driest places in Florida in January.”
While wildfires are a public safety concern, many of the state’s plants and animals depend on fire to burn off undergrowth and allow new plants to regenerate.
The District uses prescribed fires (also known as controlled burns) to meet the needs of many plants and animals and to reduce the threat of property damage from wildfires. A prescribed fire is a carefully planned fire that is purposefully set under stringent conditions to control the fire’s effects. Prescribed burns are planned to occur under weather conditions that minimize impacts to the public from both the fire and smoke. Wildfires, on the other hand, can ignite in dry, windy conditions and threaten public safety from both the fire itself and the smoke it produces.
Rains in late January opened a narrow window for the District to conduct some prescribed burns, and land managers capitalized on the opportunity to complete high-priority prescribed burns before vegetation dried out again.
Florida’s leaders recognized the importance of prescribed fire in managing the state’s natural resources during Gov. Rick Scott’s inaugural Cabinet meeting in January. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam introduced a resolution declaring the fourth week in January as “Prescribed Fire Awareness Week.” He also introduced a resolution in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Florida state forest system.
Florida has the most extensive prescribed burning program in the country. There are more than 1,500 certified prescribed burn managers in Florida, helping to set controlled burns on more than 2.7 million acres of agricultural and natural lands annually.
AquaLab records valuable data
By Hank Largin
PALATKA, Fla. — In today’s tough economy, getting the most use out of resources is a must.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is doing just that with a project near the mouth of the Econlockhatchee River in central Florida. The AquaLab, equipment purchased by the District three years ago to check water quality in the Lower St. Johns River Basin and then moved to Lake Apopka, is now being used in the Middle St. Johns River Basin to monitor water quality. The AquaLab analyzes water that is pumped through it, then uses telemetry and Internet technology to remotely transmit data to the District. This data helps to calibrate a water quality model, and assists District scientists in estimating the amounts of total phosphorus, phosphates and dissolved oxygen discharging, or loading, to the St. Johns River.
“One of the main challenges we face is that we don’t have enough water quality data to calibrate the model,” says project manager Yanbing Jia, an engineer scientist with the District’s engineering division. “To collect surface water data is very expensive, but this project costs about $10,000 to operate (per year). The equipment costs $50,000, and this is the third year that we have been able to utilize this same piece of equipment.”
Monitoring the loading of nutrients to the Econlockhatchee River is critical because it is the second-largest tributary to the St. Johns River. Having a better understanding of what is being loaded to the river becomes valuable when developing pollutant load reduction goals (PLRGs). The PLRGs are designed to reduce discharges from watersheds (the land from which water drains) so that waterways maintain water quality consistent with state water quality standards.
“The better the model, the better we can project future and predevelopment conditions, and this helps tremendously with water quality planning,” Jia says. “It not only helps develop better PLRGs, but it also helps with other water quality issues such as solving algal blooms.”
This project is particularly cost-efficient because the AquaLab provides continuous data.
“If we paid a contractor, they might take samples from three or four storm events,” Jia says. “Our equipment can give us a sample every 90 minutes, and we can set the schedule based on weather conditions. A well-calibrated model is critical for our analyses, and this data provides us with a great deal of information for the model.”
The project began in the middle basin in October 2010, and plans are to keep the AquaLab there until September 2011. The project could be continued for another year if further information gathering is necessary. If the project is completed in September, the AquaLab will be moved to another location.
Grant to fund Heart Island gopher tortoise habitat restoration
By Ed Garland
District land manager Crystal Morris posts a sign reminding visitors that ATVs and other such tract vehicles are not allowed on the property. Inset, a gopher tortoise.
Photo provided by Terri Mashour
Inset photo by Mat O’Malley
PALATKA, Fla. — Call it an “Extreme Home Makeover” for gopher tortoises inhabiting Heart Island Conservation Area.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is restoring 227 acres of gopher tortoise habitat in the 12,000-plus-acre conservation area, thanks to funding from the Gopher Tortoise Habitat Management Assistance program through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Prior to public acquisition, the site had been used for cattle grazing, trophy game hunting, and citrus and timber production. Due to trophy game hunting, many of the sandhill areas — the ideal habitat for the gopher tortoise — were managed to optimize acorn production.
“The oaks grew large and caused shading and reduction of the native ground cover,” says Terri Mashour, a District land management specialist coordinating the project. “Gopher tortoises thrive on low-growing plants such as wiregrass, broadleaf grasses and legumes (bean family plants).”
In addition to open areas with an abundant food supply, gopher tortoises also require relatively deep, sandy soils for burrowing and sunny spots for laying eggs. At Heart Island, an estimated 309 tortoises live in the sandhill areas.
In restoring the habitat, the District is reducing the number of hardwood oaks on the site and installing a 1.5-mile fire line, to allow District staff to safely reintroduce prescribed burns needed to manage the gopher tortoise habitat. Fire is vital in maintaining many native ecosystems, like longleaf pine sandhills, where gophers live.
“It’s a wonderful project that can have a major impact for a relatively small amount of money,” says Mashour. “This particular tract of land was jointly purchased by the District and Volusia County three years ago. We have a great working relationship with the county, which helped us secure this grant.”
Protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the FWC under the Endangered Species Act and Chapter 39 of the Florida Administrative Code, the gopher tortoise is a threatened species in Florida due to its declining number. Habitat loss may be the most serious threat to the gopher tortoise population; both gopher tortoises and humans compete to live in high and dry areas.
Mashour notes that the gopher tortoise is a keystone species, sharing its burrow with more than 300 other species, including burrowing owls, eastern indigo snakes, opossums, rabbits, gopher frogs, Florida mice, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes and gopher crickets.
“The gopher tortoise has a major influence on other species in this ecosystem,” she says. “Its disappearance could remove habitat for many other wildlife species.”
10,000-acre water management project
moves forward
By Ed Garland
A bulldozer grates a layer of clay that is used to reinforce a levee at the Fellsmere Water Management Area.
Photo by Ed Garland
PALM BAY, Fla. — Building a levee to contain thousands of acres of water requires more than simply stacking dirt.
“The core of a levee has to be excavated until you reach clay,” says Ed Shinskie, a St. Johns River Water Management District project manager. “Clay is impervious to water. You don’t want the levee to leak.”
Shinskie is intimately familiar with the myriad of daily details that come with helping bring the District’s Fellsmere Water Management Area (FWMA) project in Indian River County to fruition. The 10,000-acre project’s goal: to transform farmland into a mosaic of open water and wetlands at the headwaters of the St. Johns River.
Construction crews remain ahead of schedule and have already completed a 2.5-mile levee on the eastern flank of the site; another total 2.75 miles at the north and south ends are nearing completion.
A 15-square-mile project would seem intimidating, but District staff are unfazed. The District has been restoring wetlands in the St. Johns River’s upper basin with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since the 1980s, creating a system of water management areas (WMAs), marsh conservation areas (MCAs) and marsh restoration areas, covering approximately 166,500 acres in Indian River and Brevard counties.
FWMA is the last significant water management project in the river’s headwaters. Its benefits include the following:
- Restoring agricultural land to wetlands and reducing the annual amounts of phosphorus and chloride flowing to the upper St. Johns River
- Providing habitat for a large number of species, including migratory waterfowl and species listed as threatened or endangered
- Decreasing the frequency of freshwater discharges through the C-54 canal to the Indian River Lagoon to less than a 1-in-100-year storm event
- Conserving groundwater that is currently being withdrawn from the Floridan aquifer
- Augmenting dry season flows to the St. Johns River, enhancing downstream aquatic environments
- Increasing water storage in the Blue Cypress Lake watershed
Crews have filled many of the old agricultural ditches and flooded 4,000 acres at the north end of the project area and are now removing 2,000 acres of citrus groves, eventually to create an open water view when the project is completed in two years. In addition to keeping the project within budget and on track, District project managers must also work around agricultural endeavors on those portions of the site where leases have yet to expire.
“Two years ago, we worked around cattle grazing at the north end of the project,” Shinskie notes. “The previous landowner, Sun Ag, Inc., still has to harvest citrus on a lease that remains.”
When the project is completed, however, citrus and grazing cattle will be a memory, replaced by boating and related recreation.
Lowe has long history studying wetlands
and lakes
Photo by Mat O’Malley
Edgar F. Lowe, Ph.D.,
Division Director
Division of Environmental Sciences, Department of Water Resources
As a scientist for the St. Johns River Water Management District, Edgar F. Lowe has studied the water quality of the St. Johns River and its tributaries, wetlands and lakes for more than 28 years. He is the director of the District’s Division of Environmental Sciences and leads a team of 63 scientists and technicians.
The division’s mission is to diagnose the environmental problems of surface waters and to develop scientifically based, feasible solutions to those problems. Lowe has been a principal scientist in the state’s efforts to restore Lake Apopka, the Harris Chain of Lakes, the upper St. Johns River and the Indian River Lagoon. His contributions to the successes of these ambitious restoration programs are among his most significant accomplishments.
Lowe has conducted ecological research in aquatic and marine ecosystems, from the warm waters of Florida to the cold waters of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Gulf of Maine.
He has authored numerous papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has been an invited speaker at statewide and international scientific conferences.
He is a member of the Florida Lake Management Society and the North American Lake Management Society. As a member of scientific panels convened by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regarding water policy, Lowe has played a key role in advancing water resource protection and management. He also has served as an advisor to the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, in the areas of research and extension.
In 2006, Lowe received the Richard Coleman Aquatic Resources Award from the Florida Lake Management Society for his contributions to the science and management of Florida’s water resources.
Lowe studied at three universities, earning a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in zoology from Ohio University, a master’s in biology from the University of South Florida, and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Maine.
— Beth Hickenlooper
Hall leads team in study of lake levels
Photo by Mat O’Malley
Greeneville “Sonny” Hall, Ph.D.,
Technical Program Manager
Division of Water Supply Management, Department of Resource Management
Greenville “Sonny” Hall is a technical program manager in the District’s Department of Resource Management. He has worked for the District for more than 25 years and is currently the Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) Program manager, leading the environmental assessment section in the Division of Water Supply Management.
The environmental assessment section primarily establishes MFLs, which are ecological thresholds designed to protect water resources from harm caused by surface water or groundwater withdrawals. As part of the St. Johns River Water Supply Impact Study, Hall is the technical coordinator for issues relating to MFLs.
Hall’s area of expertise is freshwater wetlands ecology/hydrology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in botany/aquatic biology from Virginia Tech, and a doctorate degree in aquatic plant biology from Iowa State University. He was drawn to his career choice by his concerns for environmental protection.
He has made significant contributions to many of the District’s most important scientific efforts, including the Upper St. Johns River Basin restoration project, the land acquisition and management programs, and MFLs. Among Hall’s accomplishments, he led the successful and challenging effort to establish MFLs for Blue Spring in Volusia County. This effort required years of technical evaluation and coordination with numerous governments and stakeholder groups.
He is recognized statewide for his work on MFLs. In 2007, the North American Lake Management Society presented a Technical Excellence Award to the District’s MFLs program in recognition of outstanding research in lake and reservoir protection and management.
Prior to his work for the District, Hall’s work focused on phytoplankton, macroinvertebrates, and water quality evaluations in lakes and reservoirs.
He is the author of numerous District technical reports and has also authored manuscripts on environmental management, various topics for the Journal of Geomicrobiology, and the manuscript “Distributional History of the Biota of the Southern Appalachians, Part IV: Algae and Fungi.”
— Beth Hickenlooper
Crowds flock to annual water education festival
An enviroscape model was used to demonstrate how storm water washes off the land, carrying debris and pollutants with it into local waterways.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — More than 5,700 people visited Jacksonville’s Museum of Science and History (MOSH) on Feb. 5 for the 12th annual Water Education Festival.
Sponsored by the St. Johns River Water Management District and the city of Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board, the festival filled MOSH with interactive displays and fun activities designed to teach the importance of Florida’s water and natural resources in ways to appeal to children.
“The annual Water Education Festival is our premier educational event in northeast Florida every winter, and our goal is to instill a sense of stewardship for water resources and to promote responsible actions for the health, protection and use of water resources,” says Jeff Cole, director of the District’s Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs.
Highlights of the daylong festival included making crafts, playing water education games and interacting with water animals from the Jacksonville Zoo. Other fun features included a marine animal touch tank, two scavenger hunts and “wacky weather science” presentations.
Volunteers are a key component to the event’s success each year, and more than 911 volunteer hours were recorded at this year’s event. A “games” room was managed entirely by students and teachers from Wilkinson Junior High Legacy Environmental Education Program. In addition, 27 exhibitors offered a variety of hands-on activities that included water conservation, water quality protection, litter prevention, sewer and stormwater management, invasive plants, underwater archaeology and waterwise landscaping.
— Teresa Monson
 This young visitor was excited to meet a horseshoe crab. |
 One of the many natural history displays included fossils and focused on the animals that depend on water. |
 Children had a chance to see and touch various aquatic animals at MOSH. |
 Children play computer games from The Great Water OdysseySM, a free educational software program developed by the St. Johns River Water Management District. Photos by Teresa Monson and Judy Landers |
