More than 700 springs are sprinkled across Florida's landscape, providing an ecosystem for gators and fish, an escape for visitors and about 90 percent of north Florida's water supply.
But like many things across the state, they too face the budget ax.
On June 1, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced the end of all funding for the Florida Springs Initiative and the Springs Basin Working Groups, organizations dedicated to restoring and protecting Florida's springs.
"It's just a real hard blow," said Bob Knight, coordinator of the Wakulla Springs working group. "We're seeing the springs degrading, and then we hear the state no longer values them enough to fund their restoration."
The Florida Springs Initiative was started in 2001 by the DEP. Its purpose was to identify problems the springs were having through scientific research, educate the public about these issues and work on projects to protect and restore the springs.
Last year the Initiative received $514,000 in state funding.
The DEP also directed $276,000 toward four Springs Basin Working Groups. The groups were charged with creating restoration plans for the four springs - Ichetucknee, Silver, Rainbow and Wakulla.
Peter Colverson, coordinator of the working groups for Rainbow Springs and Silver Springs, said his plans included six categories of necessary improvements: water quality, quantity of spring flow, recreation, land use and development, biodiversity, and education and outreach.
The groups were two weeks away from presenting these plans to the DEP when the funding cut was announced.
The funds were not intended to cover implementation of the plans, only to maintain the working groups as representative agencies.
Colverson said these groups were the motivating forces that would have worked to garner public support and guide the springs' restorations.
"It's sort of like taking the engine out of a car," he said.
This foreseeable stall in progress was what led Knight to found the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute, a private, non-profit organization seeking to pick up the slack from other agencies' losses of state funding.
"We spent a lot of money understanding the problems in the springs, but we haven't done a lot to fix it," Knight said. "The need hasn't gone away, just the state's support."
Christie Goss, a spokeswoman for the DEP, wrote in an email that the DEP is looking for ways to continue the work of the springs groups.
"DEP's commitment to restoring these springs has not diminished, but it does mean we will have to explore other avenues to fulfill this commitment," she wrote.
