After 60 years in the darkness, the time might be finally coming for Florida's Ocklawaha River to make its return.
As National Geographic reported, there is a chance that there is finally enough political momentum to bring back the river and its "fairyland forest."
The tale begins in 1968, when the river was partially flooded as part of the Cross Florida Barge Canal project. Officials first conceived the canal to facilitate travel between the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean in the New Deal era, per National Geographic.
In 1971, then-President Richard Nixon stepped in to halt the initiative, but the damage was done via the 9,500-acre Rodman Reservoir and the dam used to create it, National Geographic noted.
In the process, the Army Corps of Engineers drowned 16 miles of the Ocklawaha, 20 springs, and the swamps that attracted distinguished tourists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, according to National Geographic.
In place now is a bass-fishing lake that attracts anglers from all over. However, the dam is constraining other fish and wildlife from spawning and migration.
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Manatees, in particular, are suffering, and could benefit from the revitalization of the river.
Every few years, the state Department of Environmental Protection lowers the water level in the reservoir, giving a glimpse of what once was — "a ghost forest," National Geographic described. Tourists come to see the Ocklawaha in the brief time that they can.
The Northeast Florida Rivers, Springs, and Community Investment Act looks to make the change permanent. The philosophy behind it is to not just bolster wildlife but also to support the people who could benefit from the river's reemergence.
The $75 million proposal contains measures to build infrastructure to facilitate recreation and tourism.
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"Previous efforts were 'dynamite the dam,' and that's not what this is at all," state Sen. Jason Brodeur told National Geographic. "This is a much more thoughtful, long-term, comprehensive glidepath to restoration."
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