Sawmill Slough ("slough" rhymes with "true") is the oldest club at the University of North Florida. It was established as a club for students, faculty, staff and alumni in the same year the University was founded. The Club is named for a large wetland running, north to south, through the western half of UNF.

Sawmill Slough's first president was Dr. Robert W. Loftin, after whom the UNF Nature Trail system is named. Dr. Loftin served as the Slough's faculty advisor for ten years (nonconsecutively).
 

The Club's history is documented in a book written by one its most active presidents, Michael Woodward, entitled Fight On! A Twenty-Year History of the Sawmill Slough Conservation Club. This book has been updated! Look for Fight On! A Thirty-Year History of the Sawmill Slough Conservation Club -- co-written by Michael Woodward and Erin Wiggins -- in the UNF Bookstore and Library! The Club periodically publishes a newsletter called The Swamp Stomper.

 
Members of Sawmill Slough

• go on canoe and camping trips
• assist the UNF Park Ranger in the upkeep of the Nature Trail System
• operate an organic community garden on campus
• provide support for the annual Earth Kinship Conference at UNF
• network with organizations like the Northeast Florida Environmental Education Resource Council, the Northeast Florida Sea Grant Extension Agency, the St. Johns River Water Management District, the regional office of the Department of Environmental Protection, the regional chapter of the Sierra Club, etc.
• volunteer at sites such as BEAKS ("Bird Emergency Aid and Kare") and the Humane Society
• encourage environmentally responsible behaviors and attitudes such as conserving, reusing, and recycling
• publish a periodic newsletter

There is one system old yet new
Which alone and above all still stands true
Reverence and compassion is from where it grew
This is, of course, the Sawmill Slough.
-- Peter Bystrowski, SSCC Vice President, 1998-99