These aerial photos, taken over vast, water-starved acres, stitch together frustrating snapshots from our daily lives. In many places, the Withlacoochee River, normally a great place to fish and launch a canoe, is more puddle than waterway. The Tsala Apopka Chain of Lakes, all 19,000 acres of it, is shriveling. Pine trees are beginning to shed their needles for lack of moisture. Even old-timers, experienced in dry spells, say we are unusually unlucky this year.
People flock to Citrus for the water.
In few places are so many waterfront pleasures open to both rich and poor. But nature is a great equalizer. So we're all suffering together. What biologists have to say about our present circumstances suggests that in the wildlife world, people are the hardest hit of all. Maybe that's because we can complain.