[Liquid Lunch]

What a bunch of malarky - Dumping sewage overboard?? Please, the people that use the Glen care as much about the quality of the water and the area as anyone - I have heard many people mention they thought boats were dumping their toilets into the Glen as they walk past the larger boats - what they are seeing is the exhaust hose from the gens. 9 times out of ten. The Glen is one of the few parts of the St. Johns water system where you can get into the water and not feel as though you are swimming in a mud puddle. I would venture to bet that 99% of the complaints come from people that have no boating experience and are either jeleous that the boats are able to enjoys the waters and have a good time or just don't know what they are talking about. Just my .02

[lebitch]

For more information look at the blog section on this myspace account.

The reports from 2003 are what they are using and talking about in the ocala newspaper

I put a link to that report on the myspace blog.

Silver Glen Springs | MySpace

[lebitch]

I have been notified that a public meeting will be held at 6pm on Nov 10 in the Thomas Kelly Administration Building in Deland. (old Courthouse)

I am trying to find a link online that will confirm so anyone who wants to go can double check the date before heading to Deland

PLEASE if you can make it do!!!!
They are not making this public even though its a public meeting, we need as many boaters as possible to show up.

[lebitch]

This Link has information about the meeting




http://www.myfwc.com/docs/Recreation...SilverGlen.pdf

[lebitch]

Was expecting a bigger turn out :( BUT there were alot of people, alot of ideas, comments, concerns....

A little more concerned about the future of the Glen after this meeting.

PLEASE watch FWC website for updates and future meetings!!!!!!

[srock]

Are there any highlights or newspaper articles to report?

Many of these meetings are a formality and viewed as bitch sessions. You have to make sure you are writing your local politicians and those on the FWC board.

[srock]

Just read this.

November 12, 2009
Changes possible for Silver Glen Springs
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER
Environment Writer


DELAND -- More than 250 people crowded into the Volusia County Council chambers to voice concerns over the future of Silver Glen Springs.
The U.S. Forest Service recently began discussing possible changes to boating and recreation at the popular boating destination on the St. Johns River. The agency must balance recreation uses with natural resource protection, said Carl Petrick, a Forest Service official, and has been asked to give the endangered Florida manatee room to use the spring.
"We want it to continue to be a high-quality place for decades from now," Petrick said.
Officials have struggled with management of boating and swimming traffic at the spring for years, especially on busy holiday weekends when the spring run, the waterway between the spring and Lake George, becomes crowded with boats. Some boaters anchor along the run for extended periods. One speaker said he once kept his houseboat there for five months.
The meeting Tuesday night, organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was intended to give people a chance to comment on changes that might be necessary. But the size and emotions of the crowd took wildlife commission and Forest Service officials by surprise.
Many in the crowd said they have visited Silver Glen with their families for generations and fear losing access to the spring run.
The agency doesn't intend to shut down the spring to boaters, Petrick said.
No specific changes have been proposed, but the agency is considering altering mooring and anchoring policies by limiting the number of boats or requiring reservations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked the Forest Service to consider making the spring more accessible for manatees in winter, when the marine mammals need warm-water refuges from colder temperatures in the St. Johns River. The water temperature at Silver Glen is the same temperature as Blue Spring, the primary manatee refuge on the river.
Boaters are afraid once the manatees move in, they'll be forced out. Petrick said he doesn't think that's the case because the spring run is wide enough to accommodate both, especially because boaters primarily use the run in the summer and manatees would use it in winter.
Working with the Forest Service, the wildlife commission expects to collect comments on recreation at the spring during the coming months and conduct other public meetings to consider suggestions. Commission officials said a Web site or e-mail address for comments will be created later this week and posted on the commission's home page, at myfwc.com.
dinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com

[lebitch]

FWC website has a comments area
They are looking for ideas, not like they will listen...but we need to fill up the mailbox with no changes!!!!!!!!

[srock]

It's important to write the commissioners on the board so they are aware of the outrage. They will be the ones to finalize the decision.

I know two of the commissioners and anyone else who knows them should personally address the issue. That along with a bunch of letters will help get the point accross.

This is going to be a battle but I don't want to loose the Glen but if no public response it present it will be gone.

BTW, this battle has been waged in the past and the public outpouring has made the difference.

[lebitch]

January 07, 2010

Hundreds of manatees head to warmth of Blue Spring

By DINAH VOYLES PULVER
Environment Writer

ORANGE CITY -- The arrival of cold weather each year means a reunion with old acquaintances and a welcome to new ones for Wayne Hartley as he greets manatees arriving at Blue Spring to seek refuge from the chilly waters of the St. Johns River.

This week Hartley, a ranger at Blue Spring State Park, has much to celebrate.

A record 305 of the endangered marine mammals have appeared in the park this season, Hartley said. That includes a single-day record of 245 manatees a week ago. The total number is more than 2 1/2 times than 10 years ago, when Hartley reported a season high of 112.

On Wednesday morning, the water temperature in the St. Johns River was 50 degrees, Hartley said, much colder than the relatively balmy 72- or 73-degree ground water flowing from the spring.

Manatees of all sizes clustered together along the banks of the spring run, while the two dozen swimming in the spring boil were the most active, rolling over and over.

"It must be like a spa," observed Patsy Weaver, who visits the spring each winter with her husband to see the manatees. The Lynchburg, Va., residents spend the winter in DeLand and said they love to take visitors to the spring. They said they'd never seen as many manatees as they saw Wednesday.

"They look like they're enjoying the warmth of that spring," Dwight Weaver said.

The Weavers were among dozens of visitors peering over the water from boardwalks, cooing in delight each time a manatee's whiskered nose broke the water's surface.

At the end of the run, where it flows into the St. Johns, Hartley sat in a canoe about 10 a.m., debating whether to attempt a count in the windy, freezing conditions.

The count ritual is nearly as old as the park itself. The yearly counts began during the winter of 1974-75, when 24 manatees visited the run. For decades, the task has fallen to Hartley, who documents the manatees in photos and diagrams, identifying them by propeller scars and other body features.

One recent visitor was a manatee named Merlin, Hartley said, one of 11 manatees in the spring run when the late Jacques Cousteau filmed a documentary called "The Forgotten Mermaids" in 1971.

Another one of the original 11, Brutus, has been seen in Silver Glen Springs, Hartley said. Silver Glen is on the west side of Lake George, farther north on the St. Johns River.

An observer monitoring the manatees in Silver Glen Springs, Salt Spring and DeLeon Springs has taken photos of both the old manatees this winter.

There was a time when manatees only made pit stops at Silver Glen, Hartley said, "but now they're starting to hang out there."

He said that group includes young manatees that haven't been seen at Blue Spring,

On Monday night, a marine mammal rescue crew released a manatee in Blue Spring that had been picked up in Jacksonville earlier in the day.

dinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com

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