"If we do the same thing tomorrow, we'll be out of business"

-Sarah Dasher Carte, 5th Generation Farmer

  

Spring season solitude, jumping sturgeon, and a plethora of scurrying squirrels welcomed NRLI Class XVIII fellows to their sixth session in February. Three days of focusing on "Water Quality: Springs and Agriculture" were spent in Live Oak, a small town near two of Florida's largest rivers, the Suwanee River and the Santa Fe River. Live Oak is also near several first magnitude Outstanding Florida Springs which include Madison Blue, Fanning, Manatee, Lafayette Blue, Falmouth, Troy, and Peacock springs. The Suwannee River Valley happens to have the highest concentration of freshwater springs in the world. The abundance of groundwater and water naturally flowing out to the surface makes this rural area a perfect destination for recreational activities like fishing, hunting, and world class diving for locals and tourists. This area is also known for agriculture. Poultry and dairy once dominated the industry, but today agricultural producers tend to grow diversified crops like corn, cotton, peanuts, winter vegetables, and specialty crops like carrots. Like most places in Florida, the population in Suwanee Valley increases by the day. Unique to this place, agriculture here is predicted to grow as water restrictions expand throughout other parts of Florida.

During an introductory presentation by Hugh Thomas, Executive Director of the Suwannee River Water Management District and NRLI Alumus, we Fellows faced the fact that demand on the water resources over time has led to significant water quantity and water quality issues. Most of the springs in this area are impaired for nutrients, specifically nitrogen. As our class figuratively, and for some springs swimmers literally, dove into these issues, we were frequently struck by themes of limited public knowledge about agricultural practices and food systems. Through panel discussions, guest speakers, and our own admittance, it quickly became apparent that many people are out of touch with where their food comes from. More so, that many of those out-of-touch are also assigning blame to critical agricultural systems throughout Florida for the state's water quality and water quantity problems. For many, agriculture is seen as the culprit of the issues because of over-irrigation and over fertilization. As Hugh Thomas enlightened us, "Perception isn't always fact, but it's often reality".

Throughout the session we learned about shareworthy agency initiatives and cooperative groups working to address these issues.

The Suwannee River Valley Partnership is a cooperative group comprised of agriculture, water management, and environmentalists. Since 1999 they have been working together to identify management strategies and projects that protect and conserve the water resources within the Suwannee River Water but also balance the interests of the environmentalists and the agricultural community.

The Santa Fe Springs Protection Forum was created by concerned citizens to create an opportunity for government officials, professionals, and the public to discuss the issues and solutions to protecting their local springs. Stacie Greco is the Water Conservation Coordinator at Alachua County Environmental Protection Department and served on our NRLI panel this session. She coordinates open-to-the-public quarterly meetings for the working group and not only shared insight into springs protection, but also the challenges and triumphs of facilitating such a large, diverse group so frequently. Stacie shared with us the power of building relationships outside of problems, so that working groups like hers can maintain cohesion when moving through tough discussions.

The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) has several district programs in place to help protect water resources in Suwanee Valley such as Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs), Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) plans, and Water Supply Plans. MFLs help the districts find balance between anthropogenic water supply needs and sustaining healthy natural systems for rivers and springs by establishing the limit at which further water withdrawals cause significant harm. SWIM plans address anthropogenic impacts on water resources and identify water quality and natural systems restoration projects. Water Supply Plans help the district ensure there is suitable water supply for existing and projected usage by looking at their water-use permitting, water resource plans, and development projects.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has developed the Suwanee River Basin Management Action Plans (BMAP) with the cooperation of local stakeholders and other agencies to restore springs water quality via different management strategies such as permit limits on wastewater facilities, urban and agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs), septic tank retrofits, septic to sewer conversions, and education. Within a BMAP, agricultural producers must adopt and implement BMPs OR conduct water quality monitoring and demonstrate they are not having an impact on the water quality resources. Unlike the management strategies identified by the Suwannee River Valley Partnership, the BMAP is adopted by rule and therefore enforcement can be taken upon stakeholders.

While the issues are daunting, these diverse groups and action plans, often having NRLI alum scattered throughout them, were inspiring and empowering.

To make sure that we fellows of NRLI Class XVIII are ready to continue playing a successful role in these dynamic issues, we spent this session tackling curriculum on integrative negotiation, meaningful meetings, and difficult communication styles and group dynamics. Fellow Karen Schlatter single-handedly facilitated two hours of Cornwallis By The Sea negotiation as Fellows took on the roles of diverse stakeholders trying to solve solid waste issues in an ecologically sensitive and residential area. Fellows shared insights from meetings they've observed this winter, from the painfully ineffective to the seamlessly pleasant. Fellows raised their hands to own up to personal communication styles that probably bug people and learned of processes like 3 Step Intervention to turn things around when group dynamics are crashing. Would you like us to repeat this over and over again, or how about criticize without offering constructive suggestions? No, as NRLI Fellows we have been taught and even have practiced better, and we walk away from every session remembering that when in doubt - supply snacks!

Aside from the resurgence of spring allergies sniffling their way through the group, our class left this session with incredibly impactful takeaways, as always. We leave you with these bullet points to continue 'diving into', because this session certainly showed us the power of our NRLI network and we're thankful for that strength as we continue chewing on these issues. We'll also take some inspiration from the energy of all those squirrels storing away sweet gum goodies around our last meeting place in beautiful Live Oak!