Look around your yard and neighborhood, observe where the rainwater flows. These are the traces, a name given to the path water takes as it follows gravity down to the lowest point. Sometimes traces are blocked, disturbed, or re-routed as often happens when new development takes place. Ground-cover is stripped, the soil laid bare and re-contoured. In these instances, surface water follows new traces, sometimes draining into areas that have never flooded before.
Below is a video that was produced by Eric Flagg and Jim Stevenson in 2014 with the support of Three Rivers Trust and The Ichetucknee Alliance. From the center of Lake City to the headspring of the Ichetucknee, this video offers an intimate look of the trace. Some things may have changed since this video was released ten years ago; the spray fields in the video may have been relocated.
A published geological compilation including maps, geological and hydrological descriptions, and other fascinating features is called Development of Karst Traces in the Santa Fe Basin by Gary Maddox, Rick Copeland, and Kate Muldoon (2019). Presented as a field trip, the descriptions and the images are effective on their own, and are highlighted by the video below.
OSFR President Joanne Tremblay
joanne.tremblay@oursantaferiver.org
“Giving Our River A Voice”
