NewsSportsEntertainmentLifestyleOpinionUSA TODAYObituariesE-EditionLegals EDITORIALS 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.