Page 14 LEVY COUNTY JOURNAL


AROUND LEVY COUNTY


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2007


Manatee Awareness Month in Levy County


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I~lers~iPPrma~blilr~L*~~ :'-~ L -


GLASER'S PHOTOGRAPHS PORTRAY underwater scenes
vividly. She says the dreamlike quality of her pictures comes from "the river's
particulate matter-the life blood of the water. I work with that. Florida is a beautiful
environment, and so unique. There is no other place like it in the world," Glaser
said.


Journal photos by Cassie Journigan


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STAN MEEKS:


Keeping an oar in the springs


and an eye on the manatees


 Journal pnotos Dy ,assie aournigan
LOCAL GUIDE and VOLUNTEER Stan Meeks says divine intervention brought him here. Meeks has logged more than 10,000
hours volunteering up and down the Suwannee. A herd of manatees treated canoeist, photo top right, one January morning.


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KAREN GLASER:

 Seeing aa new world

 through the lens
BI C ANNIE JOt'RNI-.,-N

 1 inter h i its nlore thian iarIatees t -, irca parks. People
 from tli ajid v. ide .nie_, to take ad\ vantage of the natural
 otferings the regtor, pri_), ides
 T\1o of those \ iiltlng front out-o-state hae chosen north central
Florida as a destination since I -)Q2..-\,d althouulih they visit in
\\ inter. \\ hil ni1ost of .s are oni1\ planning our ie\t warm weather
acti\ tlsie. tle dl\ e in tihie r an\ Nprlngs up and dovn the Suwannee.
 C hrIcaio resident and college professor Karen laser has
immortalized hei ,i \ itsi thlirouglh her tiUnder after photography. "This
type ofl phliolograpli is othier- (orldl.d," she said.
 (;laser and her hIsband John '\ ere in town recently to dive with
the inanatees, take more pictures and ito share her photographs with
residenllts. "My friend Toni CGilchrit \\.as thte first t- tell me about
irnaniec%, heln he ni asked if I hade e'er been s%\ inming with them.
 ()f heerfirst encounter \\ ith a arnantee. Glaser \\as mesmerized,
she said. \ after magnifies 'sour \ isionl. I[ \as something to have a
2.nlii-pound creature co mning up and ntidging me. There was one
beside ine. one Lnder in.\ feet.Amid ch ex r one had a scar."
 N ihst scarrini, con es fronm run-ins \\ ith boat motors.
 Seenldipit\-and (j1aser's photograplih -brought knowledge
of the manatee to people from all o\ er the Uinlted States. When
sllneone from thle Silthsonian happened to see her photography
 in a Houston
 exhibit, she
 was invited
 1to hang a
 picture in the
 Washington,
 D.C. museum.
 "They
 ... hung my
 photograph
 X of a manatee
 right next
 Ato the Hope
 4- Diamond
 exhibit. There
 were all
 : those people,
 :... s  I from Kansas
 V to Maine,
 standing in
 line waiting to
 see the Hope
 Diamond. And
 they all found
 South what
 .manatees are."
 .- .Glaser
 will soon
take pictures as artist in residence at Big Cypress Preserve and
the Everglades. Her work is featured in a book published by the
University of Florida Press, "Mysterious Manatees: Photographs by
Karen Glaser, Text by John E. Reynolds III.


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