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MOSH Exhibit Reveals Years Of Changes In Florida's Springs

A Jacksonville Museum of Science and History exhibit shows Florida’s springs are changing.

On the third floor of MOSH a series of photos stand in big metal frames. All of them show Florida’s springs. But they’re not just pretty art. The pictures show the waterways before they were in distress and now.

Shannon Blankinship, outreach director for the St. Johns Riverkeeper, says she loves the springs.

She points to four photos of the same spot at Ichetucknee Springs, each taken five to ten years apart. The 1989 shot is crystal clear.

Blaninship said, “You see all the eel grass and sort of that really vibrant changes in color between the trees and the grasses and the shrubs and the water.”

But she says the photo taken 25 years later “just sort of looks like a nasty green Mars.”

The photographer is John Moran. These photos are part of his Springs Eternal exhibit. Blankinship says the hope is for people to see the drastic changes and want to do something about it.

“If you haven’t seen what our springs looked like a decade ago, to see what they are today then you don’t really have that sense of urgency,” Blankinship said.

The photos will be up at MOSH through August.

Lindsey Kilbride was WJCT's special projects producer until Aug. 28, 2020. She reported, hosted and produced podcasts like Odd Ball, for which she was honored with a statewide award from the Associated Press, as well as What It's Like. She also produced VOIDCAST, hosted by Void magazine's Matt Shaw, and the ADAPT podcast, hosted by WJCT's Brendan Rivers.