And while the reservoir is touted for its bass fishery, the dam cut striped bass off from their main spawning grounds in the Ocklawaha and Silver Rivers. It interrupted migrations for white catfish, American eels, and endangered shortnose sturgeon, among other species. The Kirkpatrick Dam blocked most endangered manatees from accessing the upper reaches of the river, as well as the 20 lost springs and others like the well-known Silver Springs farther upstream, which had previously provided important warm-water habitat in the winter. It wasn’t just forest habitat that was lost. Kirkpatrick Dam closed off flow of the Ocklawaha River, flooding more than 7,500 acres of forested wetlands, 16 miles of river and at least 20 springs, and blocking upstream migration of many fish and aquatic species.

In the end, more than 7,500 forested acres were lost, either cleared by the crawler crusher or flooded when the 15-mile-long pool was filled. Standing by the reservoir edge, I could almost feel the ground tremble as I imagined the crawler crusher laying the wetland forest flat, ploughing through Indian burial mounds and trampling thousand-year-old cypress. It featured a large horizontal bar that protruded in front, used to push trees over so that they could be crushed into the bottom of the future reservoir. The 22-foot-tall machine looked like a tank with two overly wide treads that encompassed the entire body of the monster. His decision is attributed to the passionate campaigning of scientist and environmentalist Marjorie Carr, who founded the Florida Defenders of the Environment in 1969.īy the time the canal was cancelled, however, the Kirkpatrick had already been completed and the Rodman flooded, with the help of a massive machine known as the crawler crusher, which was specially designed to clear the forest from what would become the Rodman pool. The Kirkpatrick was one of several dams and locks that were planned as part of the canal project before President Richard Nixon cancelled it in 1971. The largest planned public works project in US history, the canal would have bisected the Sunshine State to connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. THE RODMAN RESERVOIR was initially conceived of as part of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. The artificial lake becomes river, and for the few months until the reservoir is filled again, we are offered a glimpse of what was, a vision of what could be, and a brief glimmer of hope. But every three to four years, when the reservoir is drawn down to clear it of choking aquatic vegetation, these springs reemerge. On top of that, more than 20 natural springs - with names like Blue, Bright Angel, Cedar Landing, Mullet Cove, and Tobacco Patch - were buried under accumulated sediment and 20 feet of dark water. Johns rivers were compromised by decreased flows. When the 7,200-foot Kirkpatrick Dam choked off the Ocklawaha in 1968 and flooded the Rodman Reservoir, 16 miles of the river were lost, an immense swath of bottomland forest was drowned, and the lower Ocklawaha and St. “It’s one of the prettiest rivers, the way it winds through a dark, cypress forest swamp.” “The Ocklawaha is a pretty low-key river,” says Susan Rodgers, a local advocate for restoration of the river who has been visiting the area since she was a child. Behind me, downstream, the Ocklawaha still runs free, a shadowy flood plain filled with a tangle of live oak, cypress, gum, maple, and sable palm, with buttressed trunks draped in Spanish moss. Johns River that is fed in part by clear freshwater springs.

The Kirkpatrick Dam sits atop the Ocklawaha River, a twisting 74-mile tributary of the St. As a chill wind blew across the water on this overcast December day, I couldn’t help but think that the reservoir looked more like a desolate wasteland than a river. Remaining water was choked with green mats of nonnative plants. The reservoir bottom was exposed in places, dried white like a salt flat. The reservoir had been drawn down about ten feet a month earlier, exposing a wasteland of waterlogged grey tree stumps, ghosts of the forest that used to be before the dam was built. LAST YEAR, RIGHT around the time of the winter solstice, I found myself standing alone on the crest of the Kirkpatrick Dam in north-central Florida looking upstream at the almost empty Rodman Reservoir.

Rodman reservoir drawdown schedule 2020