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Image courtesy of Mark Emery
On New Year’s morning, Captain Erika Ritter wakes before dawn in the cabin on Florida’s Ocklawaha River her grandfather built in 1937 out of pine logs and cypress timber from the nearby swamp. She operates river tours aboard her pontoon boat, “The Anhinga Spirit,” and has to prepare for back-to-back charters.
Ritter’s passengers usually opt for trips upriver to see what’s left of the wild Ocklawaha, a spring-fed stretch that winds through canopy forests with sidelong palm trees and sleeping alligators. But ever since fall, she’s been busy showing them a part of Florida hidden for the past sixty years: The miles of river drowned in 1968 for a federal project called the Cross Florida Barge Canal…
National Geographic,
January 13, 2026
A Florida senator kicked off 2026 with another attempt to restore the Ocklawaha River after Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected the legislator’s attempt last year.
On Jan. 5, Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, filed the Northeast Filed the Northeast Florida Rivers, Springs and Community Investment Act, or Senate Bill 1066, which calls for the breaching of Kirkpatrick Dam to restore Ocklawaha by Dec. 31, 2032. The bill was referred Monday to the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government, according to the Senate…
As published in the Palatka Daily News, Wednesday,
January 14, 2026
One proponent called the legislation one of the biggest conservation bills of 2026.
Could the state finally move on a major environmental project to restore the Ocklawaha River that’s been controversial for years?
Two influential lawmakers, Sen. Jason Brodeur and Rep. Wyman Duggan, have filed legislation (SB 1066, HB 981) requiring the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to develop a plan to restore the Ocklawaha River by Jan. 1, 2027…
Florida Politics,
January 12, 2026
“Art doesn’t reflect what we see; it makes us see.” – Paul Klee
INTERLACHEN, Fla.— Matt Keene’s Prius looks out of place among the half dozen pickup trucks on the sandy bank of the Ocklawaha River. It looks stranger still when he pops the trunk, heaves out a glass bottle of clear liquid and sets it on the roof.
An acclaimed photographer, journalist and explorer, Keene came to the Ocklawaha from St. Augustine to document its reemergence.
The Rodman/Kirkpatrick Dam, an early piece of the never-completed Cross Florida Barge Canal, flooded this swampy landscape in 1968. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has coordinated periodic, three-month drawdowns ever since to mimic the river’s natural cycles and kill off aquatic weeds…
WUFT,
January 12, 2026
New legislation introduced in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives could finally set a concrete timeline for the restoration of the Ocklawaha River, while offering Marion County significant influence over the process and a dedicated economic development program.
Senator Jason Brodeur filed Senate Bill 1066 on Monday, Jan. 5, followed by the introduction of the companion House Bill 981. Both bills are titled the “Northeast Florida Rivers, Springs, and Community Investment Act” and are scheduled for the 2026 legislative session…
Ocala News,
January 8, 2026
A bill filed Monday could lead to the restoration of North Florida’s Ocklawaha River.
Lawmakers behind the bill are calling it “their region’s Everglades restoration.”
The Senate version of the bill (SB 1066) was filed by Republican Senator Jason Brodeur and the House version (HB 981) by Republican Representative Wyman Duggan.
The bills would require the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan for restoring the Ocklawaha River, which is a tributary of the St. Johns River, to a “natural, free-flowing state” by 2032…
WMNF,
January 7, 2026
Senate and House Republicans on Jan. 5 proposed bills that could lead to the long-debated restoration of North Florida’s Ocklawaha River, while also addressing outdoor recreation and economic development.
Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, filed the identical bills (SB 1066 and HB 981) for consideration during the legislative session that will start Jan. 13.
Environmentalists have sought for decades to restore the Ocklawaha River, which was dammed to create a reservoir as part of the long-abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal project. But officials and businesspeople in areas such as Putnam County have fought tearing down what is commonly called the Rodman dam because they say the reservoir, known for its fishing, is an economic engine…
Ocala Gazette,
January 7, 2026
Senate and House Republicans on Monday proposed bills that could lead to the long-debated restoration of North Florida’s Ocklawaha River, while also addressing outdoor recreation and economic development.
Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, filed the identical bills (SB 1066 and HB 981) for consideration during the legislative session that will start Jan. 13.
Environmentalists have sought for decades to restore the Ocklawaha River, which was dammed to create a reservoir as part of the long-abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal project. But officials and businesspeople in areas such as Putnam County have fought tearing down what is commonly called the Rodman dam because they say the reservoir, known for its fishing, is an economic engine…
Jacksonville Business Journal,
January 6, 2026
TALLAHASSEE, FL (352today.com) – On Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, Florida lawmakers Sen. Jason Brodeur (R, 10th District) and Rep. Wyman Duggan (R, 12th District) introduced the Northeast Florida Rivers, Springs and Community Investment Act in the state Senate and House.
If passed, SB 1066 and HB 981, respectively, would require the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to create a plan to breach Rodman Reservoir’s Kirkpatrick Dam in Putnam County, and engage in a multi-agency project to oversee the commercial, recreational and environmental aspects of allowing the Ocklawaha River to return to its natural waterway, connecting the Silver, Ocklawaha and St. John’s rivers and Silver Springs and impacting the 12 Florida counties along the watershed, including Alachua, Lake, Marion and Putnam counties in the 352…
352today,
January 6, 2026
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…
Ocala's Good Life,
January 6, 2026
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Aging Kirkpatrick Dam poses risk to residents in Welaka, elsewhere in Putnam as we all mourn innocent lives lost in the tragedy in Texas and the unexpected nature of the horrific flooding, the potential risk for our neighbors in Welaka weighs heavy on my mind.
Although the threat is different, it is still real. The fact is that a very real danger, the aging Rodman/Kirkpatrick Dam, sits upstream from our residents. The dam is past its life expectancy, and no evacuation plan exists to get Welaka area residents out of harm’s way…
Palatka Daily News,
July 16, 2025
For Florida’s leaders, a few controversies stand as bright-line tests: There is a wrong side and a right side, with little gray in between. The fate of the Ocklawaha River, strangled for six decades by an ill-conceived dam just north of the Ocala National Forest, is one of those issues. And once again, Gov. Ron DeSantis and a misguided minority of Florida lawmakers are on the wrong side.
DeSantis’ recent veto of $6.25 million to begin the restoration of the river constitutes a dangerous gamble. The George Kirkpatrick Dam, named after the late state senator who was its fiercest defender, is in perilously poor repair — to the point of endangering lives if it fails…
Orlando Sentinel,
July 11, 2025
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the Rodman Dam is an environmental catastrophe causing long-term decline to many fish species. The economic costs of preserving an aging dam instead of the longest river in Florida (St. Johns) and its longest tributary (Ocklawaha) are staggering.
Despite these facts — and the bipartisan support of our elected leaders in the Florida Legislature — Sen. Thomas Leek swayed Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto $6.25 million in funding that would have begun the flow of 150 million gallons of additional freshwater to the St. Johns River…
The Florida Times-Union,
July 9, 2025
A decades-long debate over Kirkpatrick Dam continued this week after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $6.25 million in state funding that would have launched a plan to remove the dam and begin restoring the Ocklawaha River. The money, which the Legislature had approved for the 2025-2026 budget, was cut Monday as part of more than $567 million in line-item vetoes DeSantis issued before signing a $117.4 billion state spending plan. The veto halts, at least temporarily, efforts backed by environmental groups, anglers and state Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, to reconnect the Ocklawaha River with the Silver and St. Johns rivers…
Palatka Daily News,
July 2, 2025
I was all set to write about how in the first six months of 2025, a series of years-long efforts came to fruition in and around Northeast Florida — leading to monumental victories for the future of land and water in our region.
To the west of Jacksonville, we had one of the largest land conservation deals ever in this part of the state. Shepherded by the North Florida Land Trust and approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the conservation of more than 78,000 privately-owned acres achieved a years-long goal of closing the final major gap in the Ocala-to-Osceola Wildlife Corridor…
The Florida Times-Union,
July 2, 2025
After a veto setback this week, proponents of restoring the natural flow of the Ocklawaha River are not standing down in their fight to dismantle the Rodman Dam.
As fishermen in the Rodman Reservoir and members of the Save the Rodman Reservoir cheered on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto, environmental activists, citizens, anglers and fishing-related businesses throughout the region have reacted with renewed vigor toward galvanizing another effort to restore the north central Florida river…
Daily Commercial,
July 1, 2025
The Rodman Dam, formally known as the Kirkpatrick Dam, has stood for decades despite efforts by environmental groups, Florida governors and federal bureaucrats to get rid of it. Florida Parks. Credit: Florida Parks
A decades-long fight to remove the Rodman Dam in Putnam County suffered yet another defeat after Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday vetoed money set aside by lawmakers in the state budget to kickstart the project, which supporters say could have created millions in economic benefits to Northeast Florida and provided much-needed environmental relief to the St. Johns River…
The Tributary,
July 1, 2025
TALLAHASSEE, FL (352today.com) — Restoration of the Ocklawaha River will have to wait another year, as Gov. Ron DeSantis ultimately cut the project from the 2025–26 Florida budget. The state legislature had earmarked $6.25 million to begin planning the long anticipated restoration of the Ocklawaha River—an action long sought by anglers, conservationists, and community leaders across northeast Florida.
The Ocklawaha is the largest tributary of the St. Johns River that, together with the Silver River, forms a three-part waterway touching twelve counties…
352today,
July 1, 2025
The Graham family fishes off of a pier at Rodman Recreation Area on June 30. Kevin Graham grew up fishing near the dam and now frequents the site with his children and grandchildren. (Rose Schnabel/WUFT News)
Governor Ron DeSantis took his veto pen to the Rodman (Kirkpatrick) Dam line item in the state’s budget, dashing advocates’ hopes that “this could be the year.”…
WUFT PBS NPR,
July 1, 2025
Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 30 signed what he said was a $117.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and issued $567 million in line-item vetoes, while saying the plan better prepares the state for potential economic downturns.
“I think what you see in the budget is an example of a very fiscally responsible state,” DeSantis said during a bill-signing event at the Rohan Regional Recreation Center in The Villages…