UF Law Students, Faculty Go ‘Pasture Paddling’ on Payne’s Prairie

Students, faculty and friends of UF law’s Environmental and Land Use Law Program took advantage of high water to paddle Alachua County’s Prairie Creek on a recent Friday afternoon. The issuebased field trip was organized by the Conservation Clinic, and outfitted by local environmental historian Lars Andersen.

 

Prairie Creek flows into Payne’s Prairie through a water control structure, and represents the first “reservation” of water for environmental purposes under Florida water law, a legal status now being sought for restoration of the Florida Everglades. Due to the flooding, the group was able to experience first-hand a flooded forest and try their hand at “pasture paddling.”

 

“When you paddled by a live oak, you knew you were beyond the ordinary high water line,” said Conservation Clinic Director Tom Ankersen.