Sierra Club Program: Ecology of Lake Munson, with Dr. Sean McGlynn

Tuesday, April 18, 2023
7:00 PM 8:30 PM 19:00 20:30

Waterworks 1133 Thomasville Road Tallahassee, FL, 32303 United States (map)

Google Calendar ICS

Lake Munson photo by Nick Evans.

Social begins at 6:30 PM. Arrive early and order a beverage or scrumptious sandwich.

Join the Big Bend Sierra Club for their April 18 program, a presentation on the Ecology of Lake Munson by Dr. Seán McGlynn. The program is hosted at Waterworks located at 1133 Thomasville Rd. Arrive at 6:30pm to enjoy a bite and a beverage; program starts at 7:00pm.

Lake Munson was once the dirtiest lake in Florida, now it is seventh dirtiest in a state that leads the nation in having the most polluted lakes. Lake Munson is not just a lake, it is the most endangered type of lake in the US, a karst or sinking lake, that fills with stormwater runoff from Tallahassee Red Hills. This polluted water replenishes the Floridan Aquifer and feeds Wakulla Springs, where the aquifer water flows out of the ground. My talk will detail the story of Lake Munson, one of the foulest spots in the Wakulla Springshed, its future and what must be done to protect the Red Hills, the Floridan Aquifer and Wakulla Springs forever.

Dr. McGlynn is currently on the Board of Directors of the Florida Lake Management Society and the Florida Springs Council, and on the Florida Water Resources Monitoring Council. He is a past President of the Big Bend Sierra Club, Friends of Wakulla Springs, Wakulla Springs Alliance and Apalachee Audubon Society. And is currently the Technical Director for McGlynn Laboratories Inc.

Dr. McGlynn earned a Bachelor of Science degree from LSU and a Doctorate at FSU. His dissertation was on biological cycling of petroleum hydrocarbons, their metabolism by aquatic plants and their fate in the food chain, in Lake Jackson a karst lake and the only freshwater lake designated an Aquatic Preserve in Florida. He became interested in the unique karst hydrology of the region and the interaction of the karst lakes with the largest and deepest spring vent spring in Florida, Wakulla Springs, only to discover that the karst system was intimately linked to the coast at Spring Creek and other Marine Springs. Now he is documenting the changes in this intricately complex karst system as it gets developed and suffers hydrological stresses from climate change and rising sea levels.