Florida Springs Rally, Feb. 16, 2010 in Tallahassee

Florida Springs Rally

Are you saddened that Florida’s springs are becoming polluted and losing their flow? Have you wanted to do something meaningful to help save them? This is a way for you to make a difference.

Legislation to protect Florida’s springs was introduced but failed to pass in each of the last five legislative sessions. This was due, in part, to inadequate public support for meaningful protection. In order to demonstrate public concern for the health of Florida’s springs and support for significant regulatory protection, a special event will be held at the Capitol during a Legislative committee week Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

The event will begin with a Run for Wakulla Spring. Local youth will collect a bottle of water from Wakulla Spring and deliver the water by relay runners from the spring 16 miles to the Capitol. They will arrive at the Capitol at 12:00 noon for the start of the Florida Springs Rally. Their message will be: “Save Wakulla Spring for the Next Generation.”

The Florida Springs Rally will be attended by delegations of citizens from the major springs and cities in north and central Florida. Prior to the rally, delegates will ask their legislators to attend the rally and meet with them at their Capitol offices. Their message will be ”Real Legislative Protection in 2010.”

The event is sponsored by the following organizations:

Florida Federation of Garden Clubs
Friends of Wakulla Spring
1000 Friends of Florida
Friends of the Wekiva River
Audubon of Florida
Save Our Suwannee
Florida Wildlife Federation
Rainbow River Conservation
Florida Sierra Club
Homosassa River Alliance
Florida Defenders of the Environment
Friends of Lower Suwannee River
The Nature Conservancy
St. Johns Riverkeeper
Save the Manatee Club
Apalachicola Riverkeeper
North Florida Springs Alliance
Our Santa Fe River
Global Underwater Explorers
Putnam Co. Environmental Council
National Association for Cave Diving
NSS Cave Diving Section

For further information or to find out how you can help, contact:
Phone (850) 556-3072 email: florida_springs@comcast.net

RIVERFEST - Sat. March 6, 2010 Schedule of Activities

Wekiva RiverFest 2010 Schedule of Events
All Activities are FREE except for Pontoon Boat Rides!

10 am to 3 pm Wekiva Paintout Art for Sale! Live Oak Pavilion within State Park (Wekiva Paintout Wetroom/Gallery Also At Wekiva Island)

10 am to 1 pm Wekiva Scenic Investigations (WSI) Get your teams together for WSI. You will be given a map to help you locate the necessary clues. Once you have figured out the clues you must solve the puzzle. All correct solutions are eligible for prizes. Start your WSI anytime between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM at the FOWR Information Booth or the Children’s Activity Pavilion. When you determine your solution, submit it to the FOWR information booth.

10 am to 4 pm Children’s Nature Activities at the Sinkhole Pavilion

10 am to 4 pm Wekiva Oriented Films Equinox Productions at Wekiva Island

10 am to 2 pm Orienteering Boy Scout Troop 550. Learn basics of navigating with map and compass, how to measure your pace, and basic hand held GPS use. There will be an orienteering course where participants will have the opportunity to participate in an orienteering exercise where you will try to locate control points using a map and compass or GPS.

10 am to 4 pm Canoe & Kayak Basics Demonstration by Travel Country, Apopka.

10 am, 12 pm “The Buzz on Bees” Happy Bee Honey Farm Booth #10 Exhibitor area

11 am to 2:30 pm Pontoon Boat Rides Must register at the FOWR Information Booth. For FOWR Members Only – JOIN TODAY! $10 suggested donation for current members or free with new FOWR membership. Boats leave from Wekiva Island.

11 am Guided Hike through the Park by the Florida Trail Association

11 am & 2 pm Birds of Prey “Eagle Lake” Doris Mager will give an informative presentation with live Birds of prey. Near Live Oak Pavilion in the Park. Sponsor-J.Parker D. Sharpe

11-3 - Leave Hourly Guided Walking Tour by Wekiva Wilderness Trust. This short 30-minute trip is a comfortable walk. The guide will explain the different types of natural communities in the park and the variety of wildlife. Leave from Nature Center.

12 – 3 pm Live Music at the Spring by Acoustic Flair

1: 30 pm Guided Nature Tour of Florida Ecosystems by Dr. Jay Exum, FOWR Board Member. This hike will take you from the Wichita Spring across floodplain wetlands, mesic hammock, wet flatwoods, and into the longleaf pine Sandhills. Dr. Exum will talk about dominant plants search for wildlife in each community and talk about how these systems are dependent on each other. Registration and Departure from FOWR Information Booth

RIVERFEST - Sat. March 6, 2010

On Saturday, March 6th, the Friends of the Wekiva River will host the 5th Annual Riverfest from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the Wekiwa Springs State Park. We will have art on display in the Live Oak Pavilion and there will be live music near the Springhead, food vendors, live animal demonstrations, canoe rentals, children’s activities, Wekiva Scenic Investigation – WSI, guided hikes and exhibitors from eco-friendly organizations to help increase public awareness of the Wekiva River and its importance to our central FL community. All Riverfest activities on Saturday are FREE and the art can be purchased throughout the day. There will be shuttle busses going back and forth between the Park, Wekiva Island (formerly Wekiva Marina) and the Baptist Church all day from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm so you can park at any of the three places. There is a special State Park Entrance Fee of $2 per person ON SATURDAY ONLY with children under 12 free. Daily Park Entrance fees are $4 per person or $6 per vehicle up to 8 people.

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW THE RIVERFEST SCHEDULE OF FREE ACTIVITIES!

The most exciting part of this event is that the proceeds from art sales will be donated to the Friends of the Wekiva River (FOWR), a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to preserve and protect the beauty and natural functions of the Wekiva River basin: For more information about this organization and its’ supporters, please visit www.friendsofwekiva.org or To find out more about the artists schedule and view their work, visit http://www.wekivapaintout.com/, or follow us on Facebook by searching for Wekiva Paint Out. Send an email to the Event Director thru the website if you need additional information: Leslie@wekivapaintout.com

What is Wekiva Scenic Investigation (WSI)?

Wekiva Scenic Investigation (WSI)

The purpose of the hunt is to encourage people to learn about the environment in a fun way and allow them to explore more than they would have on their own! It’s also fun and free! It’s sort of like a scavenger hunt but more like CSI on TV. It is a wonderful family activity! Kids under twelve will need adult supervision.

The Wekiva Scenic Investigation will require participants to go to a variety of locations in the vicinity of the springs, find answers to clues, and then put them all together for the “big answer”. Wekiva Scenic Investigators will be given a map with the clues written on the back and room to write their answers. They will have to physically go to all the sites listed to get the answer to each clue. All sites are in the Riverfest area of Wekiwa Springs State Park.

When Investigators have all the answers, they will use one letter from each answer to come up with the solution to the “big answer.” They will write the solution along with their group’s names, addresses and phone numbers on the tear-off portion of the map and turn it in at the Friends of the Wekiva River Information Booth by 3:30 pm. At 3:45 there will be prize drawings from those entries with the correct solutions. You don’t have to be present to win. Everyone wins even if they don’t get a prize because they will have toured the park, gone out in a canoe, and will go home with the map as a souvenir of a fun day.

Please get your team together, come out to the Wekiva RiverFest on Saturday, March 6, 2010 and join in the fun of our WSI. You can pick up your WSI map and list of clues between 10:00 am and 1:30 pm at the Friends of the Wekiva River Information Booth or at the Children’s Activity pavilion.

Look for the WSI logo throughout the Riverfest area!

WSI was developed by the Wekiva River Aquatic Preserve for Wekiva RiverFest 2010

Book Signing Sat. Jan. 9 at Sanford Museum

The new historical photo book, "Along the Wekiva" will be illustrated with a Powerpoint presentation at the Henry Sanford Museum this coming Sat., Jan. 9 from 1pm to 4 pm. The museum is located at 520 E. First Street in Sanford - on the north side of First St. just west of the historic business district. The book, by historian Jim Robison and author & filmmaker Bill Belleville, uses over 200 photos---many archival---to chronicle the vibrant history of the Wekiva River basin. The book was produced in order to help promote awareness of our nationally designated Wild & Scenic river and to highlight what the Friends of the Wekiva River have accomplished as the river's protector since its formation in the early 1980's. The event is sponsored by the Sanford Historical Society and refreshments will be served. The authors will answer any questions and sign copies of the book after the presentation. Please join us in celebrating this national treasure.

If you are unable to attend this event, you can purchase the book HERE.

Shooting a Turtle Documentary - PUBLIC WELCOME TO WATCH & LEARN!

Please come watch us shoot a turtle documentary! The shoot will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 28, from 1 to 2:30 p.m at the Orlando Science Center, located at 777 East Princeton St., Orlando FL 32803.

Filmmakers from the non-profit Equinox Documentaries, Inc. will be in the Orlando Science Center’s (OSC) indoor “Cypress swamp” to videotape native turtles underwater as part of a short 12-minute documentary they are producing to highlight a “turtle tagging” program on the Wekiva River system. Aquatic animals that live in the “swamp” at the OSC include several species of turtle, alligators, gar fish, tilapia, and others.

The Friends of the Wekiva River, Inc. (FOWR) have helped fund a new tagging technology and to date, some 4504 turtles have been tagged on the Wekiva River.

The short film will highlight a nine-year study to identify and count turtles along the river in order to gain a better understanding of the health of the population. The study was originated by herpetologist Eric Munscher. Previously, turtles were hand caught and a schute on each shell was notched so they could be identified when re-captured. Thanks to more modern methods, turtles today are being implanted with a computer chip that allows researchers to use a scanning device to locate them, much like those used in supermarket check-outs. Turtles, commonly seen sunning themselves on logs on the river, are a barometer species of a healthy river, says Munscher, “because they eat a lot of things, and get eaten by a lot of things.”

The contained environment of OSC cypress pond allows Equinox co-founder Bob Giguere to use an underwater high definition video camera to capture close-ups of turtles that live in the “pond”. The footage will later be blended in with other video shot on and under the Wekiva River that highlights the tagging program. Equinox co-founder, FOWR Vice President and nature author Bill Belleville will be there to answer questions about the filming, the forthcoming 12 minute documentary, and the Wekiva River system. In addition, Florida DEP biologists will also be on hand to field more scientific questions about the turtles and the tagging program. The state of Florida has some of the strongest freshwater turtle protection laws in the country and the DEP manages state lands within the Wekiva River State Aquatic Preserve.

Giguere and Belleville previously produced an hour-long statewide PBS documentary on the river entitled “Wekiva: Legacy or Loss?” The short film, which was donated by Equinox, can be used for educational outreach and for broadcast on regional TV channels. To obtain information about this video, please click HERE.

Book Signing at URBAN THINK! Sat. 12/19

Jim Robison and Bill Belleville, authors of the book Along the Wekiva River, will be at UrbanThink! Bookstore at noon on Saturday, Dec. 19.

UrbanThink! is located at 625 East Central Blvd. in the Thornton Park neighborhood near Lake Eola. Ph. 407.650.8004 or http://www.urbanthinkorlando.com/.

The authors will be available to sign books and talk about the Wekiva River, it's history and the threats to it's future. Jim Robison is a Central Florida historian and Bill Belleville is a conservationist & documentary filmmaker . This will be their first book-signing event in Orlando.

Come join us and be a part of this great event!