The oysters and other organisms in the Apalachicola Bay exist in an ecosystem where saltwater and freshwater interact,” Trexler said in a news release. “Policymakers and land managers must understand this system to help it thrive, and the insight provided by researchers at the Coastal and Marine Laboratory is crucial to that understanding.”
For the non-thinking naysayers who flippantly say that if we don’t take the spring water flowing out of Ginnie Springs it will just go down to the Gulf and be wasted, we would have them contemplate the eight million dollar grant that says they are wrong.
Fresh water flowing into the Gulf has its purpose and if greedy people screw it up by thwarting nature, there will be consequences.
Our own Secretary of Florida Department of Environmental Protection, our own water district scientists and our own Suwannee River Water Management District Board of Directors also have the obligation to consider that, small as it may be, the water extraction pumped from Ginnie by the Seven Springs’ permit will have its consequences felt in the living organisms in the Gulf of Mexico.
One springs forum panelist once said the Seven Springs permit is a “drop in the bucket” but since the river is already significantly harmed by reduced flow from over-pumping, every drop counts.
Read the original article here in the Tallahassee Democrat.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Florida State taps Everglades researcher to direct Coastal and Marine Laboratory
Joel Trexler has been named director of the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory in St. Teresa, the university announced.
He’s a noted biologist and professor who has spent three decades studying the wetland ecosystem of the Everglades in South Florida. …
His appointment comes at a critical time for the marine research facility located in Franklin County, where FSU is intensely focused on its Apalachicola Bay system Initiative. The research project looks at the decline of the bay’s ecosystem and oyster reef to restore its health and manage it for the future.
The project is funded in part by an $8 million grant from Triumph Gulf Coast, a nonprofit organization that administers funds recovered by the state for economic damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
“The oysters and other organisms in the Apalachicola Bay exist in an ecosystem where saltwater and freshwater interact,” Trexler said in a news release. “Policymakers and land managers must understand this system to help it thrive, and the insight provided by researchers at the Coastal and Marine Laboratory is crucial to that understanding.”
As director, Trexler’s responsibilities include directing research, faculty development and securing additional funding and growth of the facility.
“The FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory will be in good hands with Joel’s leadership,” said Vice President for Research Gary Ostrander, who announced Trexler’s appointment to FSU’s Board of Trustees last week.
“He has extensive experience studying a complex and important ecosystem and managing a scientific program in the Florida Everglades, and his experience will be a valuable asset in moving the laboratory’s mission forward,” Ostrander added.
Trexler has spent almost three decades researching the ecosystem of the Everglades in South Florida, work that has informed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a federal and state partnership to protect that ecosystem while also providing for the needs of the millions of people who live in the region, FSU said.
It is the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States.
Trexler will succeed laboratory faculty member Felicia Coleman, who is returning to research after serving as the facility’s director for 14 years.
He will start work remotely on Friday because of the COVID-19 pandemic and will begin working at the laboratory in November.
“I am enthusiastic to begin this work and look forward to helping the scientists at the laboratory achieve their research goals,” he said.
