Word: oklawaha
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Patti Griffiths Oklawaha...
...huge environmental blunder (TIME, April 13). By connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, the 9-ft.-deep waterway would have saved shippers a 600-mile journey around Florida. But, as Nixon's Council on Environmental Quality noted, its construction would have inundated the Oklawaha River basin, a unique and beautiful area abounding in wildlife. Critics also charged that the canal would pollute nearby ground-water supplies and they insisted that the locks would be too small to permit profitable traffic loads...
Florida's conservationists disagree. In carving out the canal's first 27 miles, the builders created two dams and a reservoir that have already flooded 13,000 acres of forests in the Oklawaha River basin. Unfortunately, the basin forms a unique "hydric hammock" that abounds with rare alligators, panthers and wild turkeys. The hammock harbors this life because the river bed is periodically exposed to air, thus providing alternating wet and dry seasons that are essential to the survival of the wild, beautiful river-swamp system. With permanent flooding, ecologists warn, the system's rare creatures will...