The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral

Nov 01 2022

The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral Podcast artwork

The Nature of Florida is the premiere podcast in the Sunshine state dedicated exclusively to environmental topics. Journalist and Filmmaker Oscar Corral hosts the podcast, which features a different interview every episode with someone who is passionate and knowledgeable about an environmental issue. Mermaids, surfers, journalists, scientists, leaders, advocates: Oscar selects people from a wide variety of backgrounds to talk about Florida's globally unique environment, its challenges and solutions for preserving it for the next generation. How do industries like phosphate mining, agriculture, septic tanks and development affect the environment? And how do people who enjoy Florida's outdoors, like fishermen, surfers and hunters, see things? We hear from the people who are at the forefront of the state-wide struggle to save what's left of Florida's natural world. This podcast is sponsored in part by The Everglades Foundation; the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida and The Felburn Foundation.

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Jim Gross explains the history of the Ocklawaha River, one of Florida's most fixable environmental tragedies

Nov 01 2022 38 mins

The Ocklawaha River remains one of Florida’s greatest environmental blunders, choked off by a dam built in the 1960s to build the cross-Florida barge canal. The canal never happened, but the dam remains. More than 10,000 acres of forest and at least 20 springs were drowned by the lake that was created. Now the dam is aging, made of mostly sand, and is at high risk of failure. Yet

Miami-Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado talks about balancing a fast-growing city with the environment

Sep 19 2022 37 mins

Miami Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado talks about balancing the wants of developers with the needs of wild areas around Miami such as Biscayne Bay and the everglades. “Are we doing everything we can do to have that balance?” she asks. As a sitting elected leader in Florida’s most populous county, Raquel explains how policy at the local level can help environmenta

Florida Springs Institute Director Robert Knight talks about the problems at Florida's springs and what can be done to save them

Jul 27 2022 42 mins

Robert "Bob" Knight is the director of the Florida Springs Institute. He has also authored numerous books about the springs, their unique nature and how they are being degraded in Florida. In this episode, he talks about how Florida's system of granting permits to pump water is enabling corporations and business interests to pump water for almost nothing. This practi

A boat ride on Florida bay with Orvis President Simon Perkins reveals devastation from an algae bloom

Jul 22 2022 26 mins

I was recently invited to take a boat trip out to Florida Bay by Orvis, the apparel and outdoor gear company, Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation. We met at Angler House near mike marker 80 in Islamorada and headed out to the bay from there. Steve Davis, the chief science officer from the Everglades Foundation, came with us to interpret what we were seeing. Seein

Suzanne Schreiber is focusing her organization, Dream Green Volusia, on saving what's left of her county's natural places

Jul 14 2022 34 mins

She launched her own non profit grassroots environmental organization in Volusia county, Dream Green Volusia when she started seeing large tracts of undeveloped lands containing forests and wildlife be razed for development across her county. Despite being an underdog against deep pockets from special interests, she has had an impact on saving her county's wild places for the

Richard Kern, co-founder of the environmental education series Encounters In Excellence, talks about his work

Jul 06 2022 33 mins

Richard Kern grew up with environmental filmmakers as parents and has taken the baton of Odyssey Earth and Encounters in Excellence, two environmental storytelling platforms that are used to teach children in classrooms around Florida about environmental issues.

Fran Mainella, the former director of the U.S. National Parks Service and Florida's state park system, talks about the possibility of a national park in Florida for springs.

Jun 21 2022 39 mins

Frank Mainella, the first woman in the United States to direct the US National Parks Service and the Florida State Parks system, talks about the value of parks and the possibility of designating a new Florida Springs National Park. Is the concept of a “Great Florida Springs and Rivers National Park” a pipe dream, or is it possible to get the national park designation on some of

Florida State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani talks about her fierce environmental advocacy in the face of long odds in Florida

Jun 15 2022 41 mins

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a young rising star in Florida’s Democratic Party and an outspoken advocate of better environmental policies, talks about her optimism despite her party being mostly locked out of power in Florida’s government. Her fierce criticism of Tallahassee’s catering to special interest groups at the expense of voters and everyday people has helped her make a

Louis Wolfson III, a major developer of affordable housing in America, talks about his fight to protect the everglades and springs of Florida.

Jun 06 2022 34 mins

Louis Wolfson III; Learn how old-school Key West piracy played a role in the origins of the Wolfson family, whose descendant, fifth-generation Floridian Louis Wolfson III, has become an environmental leader in Florida through philanthropy. Today he leads one of the largest affordable housing development companies in the United States. But his love of the water and Florida's na

Jeff Brower, Volusia County Chairman, often votes against the grain of endless growth in a state that thrives on it

May 31 2022 39 mins

Volusia County Chairman Jeff Brower is not your average politician. The owner of a farm with nine children, he ran for office because he wanted to stand up to developers constantly clear- cutting the forests of north Florida to make way for new developments, putting precious springs and rivers at risk. He talks about the courage of being a lone dissenter, running --and winning -- w