In a career full of challenges, Margaret Spontak may be facing her biggest one yet—trying to restore the once-iconic Ocklawaha River in honor of her brother.

Over decades, Margaret Spontak has built a career of accomplishments in the Ocala Metro and beyond in a variety of disciplines: communications, business development, education, and environmental conservation.

At 69, the Ocala native is busy with her most ambitious effort yet as president of the Great Florida Riverway Trust, a nonprofit political organization that advocates restoring the natural flow of the Ocklawaha River. The Kirkpatrick Dam, built in 1968 at the northern edge of the Ocala National Forest as part of the soon-to-be abandoned federal Cross Florida Barge Canal project, stopped the Ocklawaha’s natural course and created the 9,500-acre Rodman Reservoir…