Today s letters: Readers comment on declining bird populations, George Floyd s murder and more Ocala Star-Banner
The edge of extinction
May 8 is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Global Big Day. It s a great opportunity to contribute to the ongoing study of the health and welfare of birds globally.
Here in North America, we’ve lost one third of our bird population in the last 50 years. More than 3 billion birds gone. And now 389 species of birds are on the edge of extinction. This critical situation increases the importance of citizen participation; the destruction of one species affects all species. That includes all of us.
Ocala gardening | A Vision: Working Together and Change
Judy Greenberg Helen Keller, early 1920s
A National Garden Club Grant Program resulting in matching funds for the Pioneer Garden Club Tuscawilla Art Park Project was based upon Helen Keller’s philosophy. Together, the Pioneer Garden Club, Marion Big Scrub Native Plant Society, Marion Audubon Society, Marion Daylily Society and the City of Ocala accomplished a restoration project to beautify the Historic Tuscawilla Art Park during the past 12 months. The project implemented the environmental practice of restoring native plants in a publicly accessible urban landscape to create a bird/pollinator habitat.
Change is the catalyst of forward movement, if we embrace it. Native flowering grasses and stem plants installed in October 2020 around the Blades of Grass sculpture have already begun to display a changed landscape. This new landscape is pleasing to the senses of butterflies and associated stages of the insect.
Library calendar for Feb. 10-16
Ocala Star-Banner
TODAY
Celebrate Every Day: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Reddick Public Library, 15150 NW Gainesville Road, Reddick. Free. From Dragon Appreciation Day to Crossword Puzzle Day, we are celebrating! There’s something happening every day this branch is open, so check with us and celebrate! All ages welcome. Call 352-438-2566 to register.
Shake, Rattle and Read: 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. Headquarters-Ocala Public Library, 2720 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala. Free. A variety of stories, songs and activities for young children with caregivers. Ages 5 and younger. Call 352-438-2560 to register.
Forest Readers Book Club: 10:30 a.m. Forest Public Library, 905 S. Highway 315A, Ocklawaha. Free. Make new friends and talk about books! “The Almost Moon” by Alice Sebold. Call 352-438-2540 to register.
New Ocala Wetland Recharge Park Offering Visitors ‘A Peaceful Feeling’
By Mikayla Carroll
January 7, 2021
Video above: At the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park, the city’s water resources conservation coordinator, Rachel Slocumb, discusses the accommodations for visitors. (Mikayla Carroll/WUFT News)
After more than two years of challenging development, the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park has drawn in about 200 visitors a day since opening in September.
The serene bodies of water they see upon entering the 60-acre park are actually treated wastewater flowing from facilities in Ocala. Three million gallons of such wastewater are sent to the park each day, with plants and microorganisms helping to “recharge” it all back into the Upper Floridian Aquifer – the primary supply of drinking water for most of north central Florida.