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Let this river run: It s time to finally free the Ocklawaha from the shackles of old folly
The Gainesville Sun Editorial Board
Fifty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon ordered an end to an environmentally destructive barge canal that would have bisected the Florida peninsula.
Yes, Richard Nixon. Before he resigned office in disgrace, Nixon had a respectable environmental record that included creating the Environmental Protection Agency, signing the Clean Air Act into law and canceling funding for the financial boondoggle known as the Cross Florida Barge Canal.
Other Republican leaders who followed took a similar approach when it came to removing the barge canal project s most damaging legacy: a dam that backed up the Ocklawaha River and flooded about 7,500 forested acres, creating the Rodman Reservoir.
The Gainesville Sun Editorial Board
The University of Florida is planning to construct a “Future of Learning” academic building in a wooded area of campus that had been set aside for conservation.
But the plan doesn t seem to account for the possibility that the future of learning will require fewer academic facilities on campus as more work is done from home a change being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
UF trustees recently approved an updated master plan for the campus for 2020-30. The plan changes McCarty Woods, a 2.9-acre forested property that had been a conservation area, into a potential development site.
Commissioners should be credited for moving forward with improvements that will save lives, but need to finish the job before there are more senseless tragedies.