Drawdown
The Rodman Reservoir one month after drawdown
Field Notes
I saw the Ocklawaha River from my airplane window while flying to my grandma’s funeral in August.
Seeing it from up there felt surreal. I was proud that I could position myself within the distant landscape below. But I was sad at how small everything looked. How insignificant it all seemed. This river that had consumed my thoughts for months now reduced to a silver snake slithering beneath the clouds.
It’s been a year to the day that I published my first post in this Ocklawaha River series. And it’s been five months since I last wrote about it.
In June I wrote about the 2025-26 fiscal year budget and the $6.25 million approved for partial removal of Rodman Dam. But that was not to be. Shortly after publishing that post, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed that part of the budget and, with it, the hopes of so many people who have spent their lives advocating for restoration of the Ocklawaha River.
In October the Florida Department of Environmental Protection began the much anticipated drawdown of the reservoir. Historically, drawdowns have occured every three to four years for maintenance and vegetation control. It’s been six years since the last.
I drove to the Rodman Dam last Saturday to look at the reservoir. It’s early in the process, but already stumps of ancient cypress trees are beginning to break the surface, and large sections along the bank are bare.
Over the next several months, the reservoir will drop from 18 feet to 11 feet above sea level. During this time, hidden springs will emerge, a forest graveyard will rise, and the Ocklawaha River that flows quietly below the surface will appear as close to its original form as it has since the 1960s. I plan to return periodically throughout the process to document the change.
View from my airplane window in August. You can see the Rodman Reservoir in the center frame with the Cross Florida Barge Canal connecting to the St. Johns River.
Two fishing boats patrol the edge of emerging cypress stumps.
The natural topography of the Ocklawaha River basin begins to emerge.
Large sections of the reservoir’s perimeter are now bare.
Vehicle tracks in a field near the Rodman Dam