Decades after a Florida canal project was abandoned, advocates are trying to reunite 3 rivers

PALATKA, Fla. (AP) — It was supposed to be Florida's version of the Panama Canal — a shortcut for boats to pass through the middle of the state from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf instead of navigating around the peninsula. But work on the Cross Florida Barge Canal was stopped in 1971 over environmental concerns.

Since then, a dam and reservoir built for the aborted canal in northeast Florida has drowned a chunk of the Ocala National Forest, put 20 springs underwater and disrupted wildlife crossings, including some used by migrating manatees.

Every couple of years, when state workers empty the reservoir to clean out muck, those lost springs reemerge and cypress saplings begin growing on previously submerged land. For several months, the area returns to its natural state.

The latest drawdown of Rodman Reservoir, the first in six years, started in October and ended in early March. But environmentalists want to permanently open the 7,200-foot (2,200-meter) Kirkpatrick Dam and reunite the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers with Silver Springs, one of the largest spring systems in the U.S.

“By removing the dam, we would reunite the waters,” said Nina Bhattacharyya, executive director of Florida Defenders of the Environment. “We would have springs reemerge. Wildlife would be able to move back and forth -- migratory fish, manatees and so much more. Removal of the dam would really fix a wrong that was created decades ago.”

The latest effort to make that happen, after decades of trying, failed last week when lawmakers didn't pass a bill before the legislative session ended that would have supported a $70 million project to restore the Ocklawaha River by opening up the dam over four years.

Advocates for restoring the river said they plan to regroup and identify the best strategy for moving forward, but they remain optimistic given how close they came. The measure had passed the Florida House and was awaiting a Senate vote before the session ended last week.

“While the bill did not receive a final vote in the Senate this session, the strong bipartisan support it earned reflects growing momentum for restoration,” Bhattacharyya said Monday.

During the drawdowns, what used to be on the 9,500 acres (3,844 hectares) of submerged land becomes visible. Bear and deer tracks are spotted. Wild turkeys and sandhill cranes return to the dried-out land. Thousands of drowned and ghostlike cypress, palm and maple tree trunks reveal themselves as the water drops.

“It's haunting, like a graveyard,” Karen Chadwick, a charter boat captain, said recently as she maneuvered her boat among decayed and graying tree trunks jutting from the water.

There are also concerns about the safety of the dam, which is past its life expectancy. Advocates for opening the dam say a structural collapse could endanger hundreds of nearby homes.

“Something is going to happen, maybe next year, maybe in a couple of years,” Republican state Sen. Jason Brodeur, the legislation’s sponsor, said last month during a committee hearing. “Something has to be done.”

Nature filmmaker Mark Emery told Florida lawmakers recently that the Ocklawaha River was unique as it was historically fed by the extensive Silver Springs system. But huge schools of mullet and catfish have disappeared from Silver Springs since the dam choked the flow of the river and reduced the number of fish getting into the springs, he said.

“This system is a national treasure,” Emery said. “Hundreds of millions of gallons of fresh water feed and cool the river. Before the dam, you had a direct waterway to the ocean with small springs all along the way.”

Some angling groups oppose anything that would permanently empty Rodman Reservoir, saying it has become a world-class fishing spot and supports a local economy of largemouth bass fishing, camping and birdwatching in rural Putnam County, which is among Florida's poorest counties. Supporters of emptying the reservoir say it will remain an outdoors haven, if not more so.

Plus, the reservoir reduces nutrient levels in the water and could be used as an alternate water supply at a time when Florida's population is booming, Steve Miller, president of Save Rodman Reservoir, told lawmakers in February.

“There's a bigger picture than what is being shown,” Miller said during a legislative hearing. “Don't gamble away on speculative outcomes.”

While the construction of the dam was a mistake, locals have made the best of the situation by creating businesses geared toward outdoorspeople, said Putnam County Commissioner Joshua Alexander.

“We have created chicken salad out of chicken,” Alexander told lawmakers. “We are not a rich economy, and I believe it would affect our economy.”

A restoration of the Ocklawaha River would be part of a long history in Florida of restoring a natural environment that was upset by a misguided public works project.

The Everglades in South Florida had shrunk to half its size due to water supply and flood control projects by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before a multibillion-dollar effort was launched at the start of this century to restore the network of wetlands. Similarly, the corps dredged the Kissimmee River and installed canals in the 1960s to reduce flooding in the interior part of the state, but ended up upsetting the floodplain's ecosystem of birds and fish. Efforts to restore the river were launched two decades ago and completed in 2021.

“Nature is very resilient,” Chadwick said, “if you just get out of the way and let it do its thing.”

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.

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The dead trunks of cypress trees, cabbage palm and other wetland plants briefly emerge during a drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

A guide leads kayakers on a tour of Silver Springs on Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Ocala, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Freshwater fish swim in Cannon Spring, one of the lost springs of the Ocklawaha River, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Marion County, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The remains of a wetland forest are revealed during a drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

People enjoy the Kirkpatrick Dam spillway Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The town of Welaka on the St. Johns River is visible Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Welaka, Fla. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

An American alligator rests on a narrow piece of land during a drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

A great egret stands on a dead tree trunk during a drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The Kirkpatrick Dam, Rodman Reservoir and spillway are visible on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

Nina Bhattacharyya, executive director of Florida Defenders of the Environment, stands near the Kirkpatrick Dam on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Fisherman throw their lines into the Kirkpatrick Dam spillway Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The dead trunks of cypress trees, cabbage palms and other wetland plants briefly emerge during a drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Palatka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting lower Wednesday after another rise in oil prices raised worries about inflation, which may have been primed to worsen even before the war with Iran began.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and was on track for its first loss this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 179 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Stocks fell under the pressure of a 2.6% climb for the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude to $98.00. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 5.4% to $108.99 per barrel.

Oil and natural gas prices have been spiking since the war began because of disruptions to the production and transportation of energy in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s state television said Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would be attacking oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after an attack on facilities associated with its offshore South Pars natural gas field.

If the disruptions keep oil and gas prices high for long, they could send a debilitating wave of inflation crashing into the global economy.

A report released Wednesday morning showed that inflation pressures were already worsening before the war began. It said inflation at the U.S. wholesale level unexpectedly accelerated last month to 3.4%, and those cost increases could hit U.S. households if producers pass them all along.

Such numbers strengthened Wall Street’s virtual consensus that the Federal Reserve will announce that it’s keeping interest rates steady this afternoon following its latest meeting, instead of resuming its cuts.

Cuts would give the job market and investment prices a boost, and President Donald Trump has been angrily calling for them. But lower interest rates would also worsen inflation.

More important for Wall Street is whether Fed officials will say they still think one cut to rates may be possible over the course of 2026. That’s what the median member said in December, the last time Fed officials published such expectations.

The Iran war has made it difficult for anyone to make economic forecasts. Gasoline prices are soaring and will push up inflation for at least the next month or two. The average price for a gallon of gasoline spiked again overnight, reaching $3.84. It was well under $3 last month.

Global oil flows remain largely constrained, ING Bank analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note on Wednesday, even as hopes were growing that Iran might be allowing more vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas transport.

Roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes through the strait, which has been largely closed as Iran blocks ships linked to the U.S., Israel and their allies.

On Wall Street, mixed profit reports helped keep the market in check.

Macy’s jumped 8.2% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer behind Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury is in the midst of a turnaround plan to drive growth under CEO Tony Spring.

But General Mills slipped 1% after the company behind the Pillsbury, Progresso and Wheaties brands reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Jeff Harmening is investing in its brands in hopes of driving growth, and it’s sticking with its forecast for profit over the full fiscal year.

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following the higher-than-expected update on inflation at the wholesale level. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.22% from 4.20% late Tuesday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran started.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. They reacted to the rise in the price of crude, which accelerated as trading headed westward around the world.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rallied 2.9% after the government reported exports in February were higher than expected. South Korea’s Kospi leaped 5%.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing international oil prices at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing international oil prices at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A person looks at a stock price monitor showing New York Dow and Nikkei indexes also US dollar Japanese yen exchange rate at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)