Research at Little Salt Spring faces chopping block
SUN PHOTO BY ANNE KLOCKENKEMPER, annek@sun-herald.com
University of Miami senior Marc Fruitema, left, and graduate student Josh Grubman prepare to descend into Little Salt Spring Wednesday afternoon. This could be the last time students will be able to dive in the Spring, as the University's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is slated to close the site to research. UM has owned the property since 1982, when it was gifted to the school by General Development Corp.
SUN PHOTO BY ANNE KLOCKENKEMPER, annek@sun-herald.com
Steve Koski, site manager at Little Salt Spring, right, reviews a dive plan with University of Miami senior Marc Fruitema, left, and Josh Grubman, a UM grad student, Wednesday afternoon. The two students intended to collect rock samples from a small area they were exploring beneath the Spring's surface.
NORTH PORT — Little Salt Spring, where research into the state’s archaeological and ecological past has been conducted for practically 30 years, soon may be closed as a research site.
John Gifford, the University of Miami associate professor behind much of that research — who has been coming to Little Salt since 1983 — said the decision was made around October, and has to do with cost-cutting measures at UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
