Claim OwnershipThe Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral
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© 2022 The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral
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The Nature of Florida is the premiere podcast in the Sunshine state dedicated exclusively to environmental topics. Journalist and Filmmaker Oscar Corral hosts the podcast, which features a different interview every episode with someone who is passionate and knowledgeable about an environmental issue. Mermaids, surfers, journalists, scientists, leaders, advocates: Oscar selects people from a wide variety of backgrounds to talk about Florida's globally unique environment, its challenges and solutions for preserving it for the next generation. How do industries like phosphate mining, agriculture, septic tanks and development affect the environment? And how do people who enjoy Florida's outdoors, like fishermen, surfers and hunters, see things? We hear from the people who are at the forefront of the state-wide struggle to save what's left of Florida's natural world. This podcast is sponsored in part by The Everglades Foundation; the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida and The Felburn Foundation.
21 Episodes
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The Ocklawaha River remains one of Florida’s greatest environmental blunders, choked off by a dam built in the 1960s to build the cross-Florida barge canal. The canal never happened, but the dam remains. More than 10,000 acres of forest and at least 20 springs were drowned by the lake that was created. Now the dam is aging, made of mostly sand, and is at high risk of failure. Yet the state continues to drag its feet on removing the dam and restoring the river’s natural flow, which would re-introduce 20 springs and a host of wildlife like manatees back into the river system. Jim Gross leads the oldest environmental advocacy non-profit in the state, Florida Defenders of the Environment, which focuses on protecting the state’s freshwater resources. We discuss how Marjorie Harris Carr led the activism to try to stop the Rodman dam from being built and how her activism led her to found the organization. Today, the removal of the aging dam is a top priority for springs, water and environmental advocates across north Florida.
Miami Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado talks about balancing the wants of developers with the needs of wild areas around Miami such as Biscayne Bay and the everglades. “Are we doing everything we can do to have that balance?” she asks. As a sitting elected leader in Florida’s most populous county, Raquel explains how policy at the local level can help environmental issues. She disucsses concepts such as encouraging more xeriscaping with native plants, and converting septic tanks to sewer systems to reduce nutrient pollution into our waters. “So many people politicize it now,” she says of the environment, as she laments that the issue is not seen as being in everyone’s best interest. “We are all stewards of our environment.”
Robert "Bob" Knight is the director of the Florida Springs Institute. He has also authored numerous books about the springs, their unique nature and how they are being degraded in Florida. In this episode, he talks about how Florida's system of granting permits to pump water is enabling corporations and business interests to pump water for almost nothing. This practically free use of water is draining the aquifer the the springs' water comes from. If things don't change, Bob feels the springs may be destroyed.
I was recently invited to take a boat trip out to Florida Bay by Orvis, the apparel and outdoor gear company, Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation. We met at Angler House near mike marker 80 in Islamorada and headed out to the bay from there. Steve Davis, the chief science officer from the Everglades Foundation, came with us to interpret what we were seeing. Seeing the bay delivered a gut punch I did not expect. The once clear, crystalline waters that I remember so well from my childhood and youth, were now a pea-green murky mess. I couldn't even see the engine propeller, the water was so murky. A toxic blue-green algae bloom had taken over the bay, right off the keys coast. Such algae can kill fish, grasses and tourism, Davis explained. The groups had produced an excellent short film about the journey of water from shingle creek in Orlando to Florida Bay. Upon our return to Angler House, I interviewed Orvis President Simon Perkins, an avid fly-fisherman who had come along on the boat ride.
She launched her own non profit grassroots environmental organization in Volusia county, Dream Green Volusia when she started seeing large tracts of undeveloped lands containing forests and wildlife be razed for development across her county. Despite being an underdog against deep pockets from special interests, she has had an impact on saving her county's wild places for the future. Volusia county, with beautiful beaches, the Indian River lagoon and major springs, represents a microcosm of the environmental challenges facing all of Florida.
Richard Kern grew up with environmental filmmakers as parents and has taken the baton of Odyssey Earth and Encounters in Excellence, two environmental storytelling platforms that are used to teach children in classrooms around Florida about environmental issues.
Frank Mainella, the first woman in the United States to direct the US National Parks Service and the Florida State Parks system, talks about the value of parks and the possibility of designating a new Florida Springs National Park. Is the concept of a “Great Florida Springs and Rivers National Park” a pipe dream, or is it possible to get the national park designation on some of Florida Springs? She says “I do not think it’s a pipe dream.” Hear more in the interview.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a young rising star in Florida’s Democratic Party and an outspoken advocate of better environmental policies, talks about her optimism despite her party being mostly locked out of power in Florida’s government. Her fierce criticism of Tallahassee’s catering to special interest groups at the expense of voters and everyday people has helped her make a name for herself across the state. She talks about the influence of corporations like Florida Power and Light and Mosaic mining, and what people can do to change things. She says FPL’s efforts to undermine roof-top solar energy in Florida was a classic example of a corporation undermining not only efforts to stop climate change, but also other smaller businesses that are providing thousands of jobs by installing panels on roofs. Hearing Rep. Eskamani, one gets the sense that environmentalism in Florida is in the process of being wrested back from the clutches of partisan politics, because although her views are progressive, many of the things she says in this interview would strike a cord with people of any party in the state. We all love our waters, our beaches, our springs, our air, our forests. Those are not partisan passions or loves. Those are things we all love as Floridians.
Louis Wolfson III; Learn how old-school Key West piracy played a role in the origins of the Wolfson family, whose descendant, fifth-generation Floridian Louis Wolfson III, has become an environmental leader in Florida through philanthropy. Today he leads one of the largest affordable housing development companies in the United States. But his love of the water and Florida's natural places are his passion. From the time he captained his own Boston Whaler at the age of 8, he explored the waters off South Florida and has seen their evolution. This history tour of Florida with Wolfson takes listeners on vivid journey through the area’s vaunted waters. Those early encounters with Roseate spoonbills and flamingos triggered a life-long love and commitment to see them survive for future generations. Today, Wolfson, a construction entrepreneur, wants to help make sure what’s left of South Florida’s nature - its everglades, bays, reefs and forests - are saved.
Volusia County Chairman Jeff Brower is not your average politician. The owner of a farm with nine children, he ran for office because he wanted to stand up to developers constantly clear- cutting the forests of north Florida to make way for new developments, putting precious springs and rivers at risk. He talks about the courage of being a lone dissenter, running --and winning -- with grassroots support against big money candidates, and what he loves about Florida that made him want to run for public office.
In this episode, Oscar interviews Miami Herald editor Curtis Morgan. Curtis is one of the best known environmental journalists in Florida. He has been a reporter or editor directing environmental coverage for close to 30 years. He’a also an avie fisherman that grew up fishing the sea grass flats around South Florida, often taking a 14-foot boat when he was a teenager out into the Gulfstream current. Since that time, he’s come to know the issues affecting the health of the everglades, Florida Bay and Biscayne bay intimately. He talks about the long gone Miami River rapids; the foolish decision by local leaders to dump almost all of South Florida’s partially treated raw sewage a mile and a half from Miami’s world-renown beaches; and the hopes for bringing back some of the lost beauty through everglades and Biscayne bay restoration.
Stel Bailey is a citizen scientist and cancer cluster survivor who spent the last year documenting the unprecedented starvation deaths of a record number of manatees around the state of Florida. She describes the heartbreaking experience of watching manatee carcasses get disposed of as simple trash, and the fight to stop the massive pollution of Florida’s waterways. She says - and scientists concur - that manateees are starving to death because there has been a widespread die-off of seagrass beds around the state. That’s the manatee’s main food source. And scientists say the sea grass is dying off because of nutrient pollution in Florida’s bays and estuaries.
The first time Lauren L. Hill protested for an environmental cause, she was 17, and a woman spat at her. But instead of stopping her, it encouraged her to keep speaking out for the natural world. Today's she uses her platform as a famous surfer to bring attention to environmental issues.Here's an excerpt from Lauren Hill's website:"Lauren L. Hill is a professional surfer, writer and director who has spent the past decade exploring new waves and documenting surf cultures around the world through an eco-feminist lens. She develops projects that revolve around the power of storytelling to build community and inspire action to protect our planet.Raised on the small barrier island of Anastasia, Lauren grew up in the Atlantic, freshwater springs and brackish waterways of Florida’s East Coast. She was a U.S. Women’s Longboard Champion (under 18) and has degrees in Environmental and Social Science from Stetson University.Lauren writes for a variety of publications, ranging from academic to mainstream media in the US, Europe and Australia. She was a senior writer for Surfing World Magazine and has appeared in award-winning documentary films including The Church of the Open Sky, Bella Vita, Beyond the Surface, The Heart & The Sea, and Transparentsea Voyage.Now based near Byron Bay, Australia, amongst the saltwater country of the Bundjalung nation, Lauren hosts The Waterpeople Podcast and recently authored She Surf: The Rise of Female Surfing, a celebration of the women stretching the boundaries of the sport and art of wave riding. Lauren is currently writing about food systems and permaculture design, directing a film about the physics of surfing and spending ample time in the ocean with her family."
Jim Durocher is one of the leaders of a statewide campaign to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Florida in 2024 to grant rights to nature. The Rights of Nature movement is just getting started around the United States, and in 2020, Florida took a leading role when Orange County, home of Orlando, became the largest municipality to grant rights to nature. The vote there was overwhelmingly in support. 89% of people approved the law. In Florida, getting 89% of people to agree on anything seems like a fantasy. But it actually happened. Now the activists behind that law want to take it to the voters statewide. Durocher explains that laws in Florida that are intended to regulate the environment for clean air and water are failing miserably, and measures such as Rights of Nature are one of the few tools left to save what’s left of Florida’s unique springs, rivers, beaches and forests.
From the first time Stephen Davis visited the everglades, he has been drawn by the unique beauty of its wetlands landscape. As the Chief Science Officer of The Everglades Foundation, he has pursued the restoration of the everglades and expanded on the science and knowledge that guides that complex task.
Florida is the epicenter of phosphate mining in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. The practice of phosphate mining is to create fertilizer for crops. But it is also one of the most destructive environmental practices in Florida, which has about half a million acres that have either been mined, or identified for mining. Environmental lawyer Rachael Curran explains why the practice is so destructive. In 2021, for example, a giant gypsum stack, which is a massive pile of radioactive, toxic phosphogypsum waste used by the industry to stack their byproduct, sprung a major leak near Tampa Bay. In order to prevent the entire dam at Piney Point from collapsing, the state of Florida, through the Department of Environmental Protection, had to release hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic water into Tampa Bay. There are more than two dozen “gyp stacks” around Florida, several of which have had problems with leaks and sinkholes. As Florida’s population grows and water and wildlife become more scarce and valuable, can phosphate mining continue to co-exist in Florida, or will the industry's environmental troubles become more than the state can handle?
Author and environmental journalist Craig Pittman, with his usual sense of wit and satire, talks about Florida's ongoing environmental struggles and the political backdrop that perpetuates them. It seems there is broad and strong public support across all political stripes to fix Florida's environmental problems. But political leaders generally ignore them. Craig explains why.
Jennifer Diaz runs The Everglades Foundation's educational program, which helps schools with curriculum and materials to teach kids about the Everglades. The foundation's pioneering work in education has created a loose model that schools and organizations around the state can follow to help bring important information about environmental issues to school children around Florida. She talks about kids, camping and her love of Florida's wild places.
Michelle Colson, also known as Mermaid Michi, has amassed a million social media followers on TikTok and Instagram. They flock to her posts to see her lip sync and dance underwater in crystal clear Florida springs. She leverages her fame to bring awareness to the degradation of Florida's unique fresh water springs, and in the process spreads awareness about environmental issues to younger generations. Her instagram handle, @guardianofthesprings has become a well known source for unique underwater sing-alongs, mermaid culture and vital information about Florida's springs.
Captain Benny Blanco grew up in the land-locked Miami suburb of Kendall. But that didn't stop him from biking to Miami's coast often when he was a boy. Today, he is a fishing captain with his own television show, and one of the leaders of clean water advocacy organization Captains for Clean Water. Does he reveal the best fishing spots in South Florida? Listen in and find out.
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