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Sarasota News Leader August 9 & 16, 2013 Page 47 ology, climatology. The fact there is not a re- "There is a lifetime of research [left]," Koski search facility there is astounding." said. The spring has been featured in National Geographic and the New York Times, as well as academic journals such as Southeastern Archaeology, but Goetz said a research facility would entice more media to feature discoveries at the spring. But the best research is slow and methodical, and Koski hopes that kind of work continues. Koski believes Sarasota County is the best potential new owner to "manage the property into a new generation." "The site is so important, and yet there are not that many publications [writing about it]," In collaboration with Mote and Florida Aquarium, Koski hopes the county would broaden Goetz added. the research and educational aspects of the The spring is also one of the few bodies of spring, using the site as an ecological and arwater within the state that served as a ceme- chaeological preserve. tery for the people of the Archaic period. In addition to some of the oldest man-made tools "It's not about digging up everything that discovered, several remains of extinct animals is there," the researcher pointed out. "It is have been pulled from its depths. about conserving what is there and looking Only about 5 percent of the spring's basin has at and publishing reports on what has been been excavated. recovered." % Steve Koski talks about Little Salt Spring as an ecological and archaeological preserve