Welcome to HERNANDO ENVIRONMENTAL LAND PROTECTORS
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HERNANDO COUNTY LAND PROTECTORSwww.flhelp.org
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Meetings are the second Thursday of each month, except June, July and Augustat the Weeki Wachee Area Club
7442 Shoal Line Blvd., Weeki Wachee FL 34607
Covered Dish dinner at 6:00 PM Meeting at 7:00 PM
NEXT MEETING - Feb 11, 2010
Linda Christain, 100 Acre Wood Wildlife Refuge
MARCH MEETING - Jim McFarlane - Artificial reefs in Hernando County
APRIL MEETING - APRIL 8, 2010
Theresa Cody, FWC -- Fish kills last winter.
Remember our Troops and bring a gift we can ship overseas to them. Hard Candy, Jerky, Magazines, DVD's are favorites. Anything that reminds them of home.
The HERNANDO COUNTY LAND PROTECTORS Inc. (HELP) was established as a not-for-profit corporation on May 20, 1976 and is one of the oldest established environmental organizations in Hernando County, FL. Its overall objective is to promote and protect the environment of Hernando County, Florida lying west of US 19. This area includes a large variety of relatively unspoiled habitats for wildlife and the goal of HELP is to promote the preservation of these pristine wildlife habitats.
Hernando County is located on the West Coast of Florida due west of Orlando and is at the southernmost end of Florida's Nature Coast. The Weeki Wachee River is pretty much in the center of the north-south axis and is world famous because of the Mermaid attraction & water park which opened after WWII.
The Weeki Wachee river begins at the spring at the junction of US 19 and State Rt. 50 and enters the Gulf of Mexico at Bayport approximately 8 miles downstream. The Weeki Wachee spring derives it's water from the Green swamp in central Florida somewhat north of the Tampa area. The river is 95% spring fed and does not rely from runoff as many rivers do. Obviously there is local runoff from the area west of US 19 so during periods of heavy rain the water may be tea colored, but most of the time the river is crystal clear, especially in it's upper stretches. A major factor of water clarity depends on the human usage which is increasing,especially on summer weekends.
We do not have the beaches so often associated with a persons vision of Florida, but rather saltwater marsh which is nursery area for many types of fishes and birds. Development in the area was minimal until the late 1960's but has been accelerating ever since.
2009 Officers
Chuck Morton, President,
Tom Canariato, Vice President
Paula Morton, Secretary
Shirley Knotts, Treasurer
Weeki Wachee Springs Lymbgia Removal Project.
Veronica Craw and her team got an award for the project cleaning the Spring up and removing the lymbgia, an algae that resembles sea snot.Notice how well you can see down into the spring in the photo on the right.
In addition removing the lymbgia there was a lot of debris removed as well. Over the years sand had covered up some of it and other stuff was simply there out of sight in crevasses.
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<<< Before projectAfter Project >>> |
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CURRENT WEEKI WACHEE FLOW RATE 86.46 million gallons per day
As we near the end of the rainy season the river Flow is 78.27 million gallons per day on Jan 12, 2010 which is pretty close to the average flow. With reports fromn Polk County of a 60 ft drop in the acquifer due to pumping to keep the crops from freeaing this will probalby drop this February unless we get unusual rain. The way the weather has been this falla dnwinter who knows?
It is a good thing that the flow rate is in the average range because the influx of 72.4 degree water is needed to offset the cold which could hurt our manatees and fish. The ususually cold weather did cause a fish kill in the shallower canals of Hernando Beach during the period of Jan 6 to 12. Most of the fish were mullet and catfish and the fish in the deeper canals seemed to be unaffected.
Dead and dying fish at Hernando Beach.
In 2007 when the divers for Karst Explorations were able to enter the spring system we were at a record low of 56.18 million gallons per day on July 16, 2007. We have now beat that and yet the County Commissoners want to encourage new building. Sorry folks, but the area is FULL!
Florida cannot sustain unhrestricted growth or we will be forced to go to roving periods where your water is shut off. I have experienced this in Esteli, Nicaragua where the population outgrew the water system. The best way to conserve water is to cut back on outside watering. Switch to FLORIDA FRIENDLY LANDSCAPING.
If you want to calculate this yourself click on this link http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/current/?type=gw&group_key=county_cd&search_site_no_station_nm=283201082315601
The take that value (H) and put it in the following formula
{ (12.35)(H) - 48.07}{65/101} = Flow Rate in million gallons/day
or if you don't remember your algebra do it this way: multiply the height by 12.35, subract 48.07, multiply by 65 and divide by 101 to get the flow rate
There is a flow gage on the upper river that measures actual flow flow and it's data is available on this link http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/uv/?site_no=02310525&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060
Take this value of cubic feet per second and multiply it times 646,272 million gallons/day per cfs to get million gallons per day.
For example the 168 cfs times 646,272 = 108,573,696 million gallons per day.
By compairing the two sources of flow data this means is today, 9/6/08, the headspring was producing 86% of the flow in he river, Twin Dees 4% and miscellaneous sources another 10%
The good news is that our river flow is back to within the normal range, only time will tell how long it stays that way. There cannot be uncontrolled population growth without water conservation.
A Thoughtful Young Man
Cline Burgess cleaning trash out of the river. He wanted to do it before he went back to school. He and his dad, Clinton, went out before school started (Aug 17, 2008) @ 3pm and by 4PM he had collected a full 55 gallon drum liner bag full of bottles, cans, old shoes and a few diapers. His Dad thought this year there would be less trash but it was just incredible how much there was. They only went form their house on Bear Trail (blue house that has been remodeled, the former "Cocktail Lounge") to the beach area just past the painted alligator.
It's truly inspirational for a young man to take the initiave to do this. I hope this makes you realize that every little bit of litter hurts, and properly disposing of any little bit helps. A big THANK YOU to CLINE for his effort!
NEW REGULATIONS EFFECTIVE JUNE 1, 2008
New rules pertaning to reef fish, that means anything on a rockpile, go into effect on June 1, 2008. Basically you are required to have on board a dehooker and venting tool and only use NON stainless circle hooks with natural bait.
Go to New FWC Rules to get the official information.
SAVE A FISH!
When a fish is caught from depth the air in it's swimbladder expands and can force the stomach right out the fishes mouth causing death. Sometimes the bladder is ruptured as well, but it will heal if the fish is realeased quickly. This is a fish's equivalent to the Bends that affects divers, except it is easier to reverse.
To relieve this condition there is a process called venting where the swimbladder is pierced with a hollow needle which lets the air out. Then the fish can swim away back to his habitat to live. For more information on this please to go:
www.flseagrant.org/program_areas/fisheries/venting/index.htm
Venting Tools and dehookers can be purchased from Aquatic Release Conservation at http://www.dehooker4arc.com/
We 've been invaded, actually wild hogs have been around since the Spaniards came in the 1500's, but seldom are seen in Weeki Wachee. This boar was hit just east of Weeki Wachee Estates on April 21, 2007. They are now a common sighting along the CR 550 ( Cortez Blvd.) to the west toward Bayport. |
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RAPIDLY DECLINING WATER LEVELS
One only needs to look at the water level in Joe and Mary's sink near the power line just west of Oak Hill Hospital on the north side of Rt. 50 to see the level of the aquifer. The lower it is the less the pressure feeding the springs and the lower the flow of the Weeki Wachee River.
If the level gets low enough it is possible for saltwater intrusion back onto the aquifer effetely polluting the water supply.
As of May 5 2008 the flow of the Weeki Wachee Spring was 125 CFS (Cubic Feet per Second) or 82,337,538 gallons per day. The average flow is 113 million gallons per day so it's easy to see why the river is shallow right now. That's only 73% of Average flow.
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Water levels in Joe & Mary's sink near Oak Hill
Feb 20, 2006 on left
May 8, 2007 on right |
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The scary thing about this is that it only took 15 months to go from high water level with water on our lakes to this almost record low level where our lakes are drying up if not dry already. We have to realize that Hernando county is at or very near its sustainable population with respect to available water. Sure there is more water down there, but it is not being sustained by the recharge rate.
Water in the aquifer is like money in a savings account. If you continually take out more that gets put in - you’re broke. When the aquifer gets “broke” we will have saltwater intrusion and that my friends is not readily reversible.
Hernando County Government MUST put a limit on the number of new lots they allow to be developed each year. Monroe County (Fl Keys) did it with a strict 4 per year. We don’t need to be quite that drastic, but we do need to get a handle on the situation before we become a desert..
If we do nothing then we won’t just be limiting our grass watering to once a week, we will only have water available to our homes every other day (or even less often in the dry spells).
CYPRESS Mulch Request
PLEASE do not use CYPRESS MULCH. It is NOT termite resistant and our cypress trees are far too valuable to use for mulch. Without their canopy the swamps, which are recharge areas, can dry up.
Pine Straw makes just as good a mulch and it is renewable since the trees shed them all the time.
Home Depot, Lowes and Wal Mart are the main retailers of Cypress Mulch. Take time to write them or put a suggestion in their suggestion box for them to STOP selling it.
For an UPDATE ON THE BLUFFS see on the Issues page 
Issues
In addition to activities we take pride in supporting various projects in our area. We support the Springs Coast Environmental Education Center and it's program, have sponsored butterfly gardens at other schools as science projects and recently funded a water quality study of the Weeki Wachee River which discovered that not all homes were on the sewer system as they should have been. That situation has been resolved and no longer is a problem.
We cooperatively built and maintained a nature trail in the Weeki Wachee Preserve, but it is sad to say that vandals have temporarily won out. They have repeatedly destroyed the observation stations and markers to the extent that it is not practical to maintain them. We have not given up, but are looking at more non destructable items.
All of this would not be possible without a giant community fundraiser known as SWAMPFEST which is held the first weekend in March at Linda Pederson Park on Shoal Line Blvd. at Jenkins Creek. All money from SWAMPFEST goes to support HELP, the Weeki Wachee Crinmewatch and the Weeki Wachee Area Club where we meet. For more information, that website is www.wwswampfest.com
The 2008 SWAMPFEST was a great event
See you at the next one!
March 7 & 8, 2009
Click on these LINKS to go there.
Look at the crystal clear water of the Weeki Wachee headspring Manatees like to rub on things like the swimrope Manatee photos courtesy of John Athanason, Weeki Wachee Springs Waterpark |
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