Latest news with #StateParksPreservationAct
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Florida's new parks law is just a start. Now DeSantis must enforce it.
It didn't have the pomp and circumstance that it deserved, but Gov. Ron DeSantis did the right thing — albeit grudgingly — by signing legislation into law to protect Florida's 175 state parks from encroaching development. The challenge he and future Florida governors now face is to make sure that the State Parks Preservation Act is both respected and enforced. Floridians have made their feelings known ever since last summer's disclosures that developers wanted to build golf courses, pickleball courts and swanky hotels in nine parks, including the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. The outrage started with irate park visitors protesting in front of the targeted state parks. It only grew from there as more individuals and environmental groups across the state joined the fray. Their outrage prompted local lawmakers, state Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and state Reps. John Snyder, R-Stuart, and Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Boca Raton, to file bills — SB 80 and HB 209, respectively — that received unanimous support and approval within the Florida Legislature. Editorial: Florida's new parks law is just a start in protecting our state's environment The public sent a crystal-clear message that they don't want to see the state's natural and undisturbed forests, parks and "wild" open spaces transformed into gaudy tourist traps. The bill may have become law without the fanfare of a public signing event, but the fact that the new environmental protection law now exists shows that DeSantis has gotten the peoples' memo. Floridians will be vigilant in making sure that preservation remains a priority of state government, as evidenced by the thousands of texts and phone calls received by state lawmakers before and during this year's legislative session. Also, by their reaction via emailed Letters to the Editor, op-eds, Facebook posts and more to the USA Today Network-Florida Opinion Group's unrelenting campaign to get the legislation passed and signed into law. Opinion: How Gov. Ron DeSantis can spin signing the FL 'State Park Preservation Act' The debacle that resulted in the new law came from an unlikely source — the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. DEP, designed to be the lead agency for environmental management and stewardship, crafted a seemingly counterproductive initiative. Dubbed The Great Outdoors Initiative, the plan was designed to increase park interest by allowing developers to build attractions and facilities not normally associated with protected natural habitats. Access is one thing, but building three golf courses in the beloved Jonathan Dickinson State Park, as initially proposed, is simply outrageous. Harrell was the first lawmaker to recognize the mounting outrage. In the midst of the public outcry, she announced that she would file a bill to address the mounting concerns of commercializing Florida's parks. She filed SB 80 and that bill, and its House counterpart, won unanimous approval at each committee stop. By the time, the bills reached the floors of the Florida House and Senate, it was obvious that the legislation was heading to the governor's desk. The initial statewide protests caught the eyes of many lawmakers — both state and federal. When confronted with questions about the controversial initiative that clearly came out of an agency he controlled, Gov. DeSantis initially distanced himself from the proposal. He later blamed "left-wing groups" for stirring up opposition to what was very bad plan. Neither reaction slowed the determination of Floridians who wanted their state parks to remain parks. Nine months and a 180-degrees later, DeSantis signed the bill into law, and Floridians now have a new legal layer of park protection. It's both a victory and a start. The task now for the governor, DEP officials and indeed, for all Floridians, is to ensure that the letter and spirit of the new parks law is followed to fullest extent possible. This editorial was written as part of a campaign by the USA Today Network Florida Opinion Group to support Senate Bill 80 and protect Florida's state parks from development. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida has a new parks law. Enforcement must be priority | Editorial
USA Today
23-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Florida governor signs protection bill, meaning no golf courses in state parks
Florida governor signs protection bill, meaning no golf courses in state parks Show Caption Hide Caption Does Florida Parks bill offers lesson in how politics should work From proposal to develop to protest to bill for protection, Florida Today's John A. Torres asks our panel if this is how local and state politics should work Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill protecting state parks from commercial development. The bill, passed unanimously by the legislature, restricts development like golf courses and luxury lodges in favor of activities like hiking. The legislation was introduced after public outcry against a previous plan to commercialize state parks. As he said he would, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure to protect Florida's 175 state parks from development such as golf courses, luxury lodges and pickleball and tennis courts. The news came from a message on a legislative website: "Approved by Governor on Thursday, May 22, 2025 4:43 PM." There was no public bill signing event and no immediate comment from his office. Regardless, the signing on May 22 is likely the final chapter in a saga that began last summer: DeSantis' Department of Environmental Protection announced a plan to commercialize Florida's 175 state parks with custom amenities at beloved natural icons like Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County, Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, and Topsail Hill Preserve in Walton County. Critics quickly likened the plan to "paving over paradise," and DeSantis himself shelved the Great Outdoors Initiative, saying it included "a lot of that stuff was just half-baked and was not ready for prime time." In a stunning rebuke to the DeSantis administration, two Stuart Republicans – Sen. Gayle Harrell and Rep. John Snyder – took the lead in carrying the legislation (HB 209). It was co-sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, among many others – 48 in all from both parties, or almost a third of the Legislature. And the bill passed both chambers unanimously. The Harrell-Snyder legislation, named the State Parks Preservation Act, mandates that DEP focus park management on passive traditional recreational activities that leaves the land mostly undisturbed. And lawmakers define what those activities are, like hiking. HB-209 was co-sponsored by Representative John Snyder (R-Stuart), Senator Gayle Harrell (R-Stuart), and Representative Peggy Gossett-Seidman (R-District 91). The bill passed both legislative chambers unanimously and mandates public transparency through required hearings and digital access to updated land management plans —ensuring public oversight and protection of Florida's natural and historic resources. 'The passage of this bill ensures that our state parks are protected forever. This is democracy at work. The voices of the people have been heard,' Harrell said in a statement. Lawmakers also created a straitjacket of regulations to maintain DEP's focus on preservation by requiring the department to ask for public input to develop park management plans that must be updated every ten years. Any changes to those plans would require two public hearings while they are being developed and written. The new law was endorsed by Audubon Florida, a conservation group that helped create the first state park in 1916 (Royal Park, now part of the Everglades National Park). 'This may be one of the most monumental environmental laws Florida has ever passed,' said Rep. Gossett-Seidman. 'Our parks are not for sale—they're sacred public spaces filled with natural beauty that must be protected for future generations. The new law also renames the St. Marks River Preserve State Park in Leon and Jefferson counties to the "Ney Landrum State Park" in honor of the late director emeritus of Florida State Parks who passed away in 2017. Landrum served as state parks director 1970–89. (This story was updated to add new information.) James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida's new parks law is just a start in protecting our state's environment
It didn't have the pomp and circumstance that it deserved, but Gov. Ron DeSantis did the right thing — albeit grudgingly — by signing legislation into law to protect Florida's 175 state parks from encroaching development. The challenge he and future Florida governors now face is to make sure that the State Parks Preservation Act is both respected and enforced. Floridians have made their feelings known ever since last summer's disclosures that developers wanted to build golf courses, pickleball courts and swanky hotels in nine parks, including the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Their outrage prompted local lawmakers, state Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and state Reps. John Snyder, R-Stuart, and Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Boca Raton, to file bills — SB 80 and HB 209, respectively — that received unanimous support and approval within the Florida Legislature. The public sent a crystal-clear message that they don't want to see the state's natural and undisturbed forests, parks and "wild" open spaces transformed into gaudy tourist traps. The bill may have become law without the fanfare of a public signing event, but the fact that the new environmental protection law now exists shows that DeSantis has gotten the peoples' memo. Floridians will be vigilant in making sure that preservation remains a priority of state government, as evidenced by the thousands of texts and phone calls received by lawmakers during the session. Also, by their reaction via emailed Letters to the Editor, op-eds, Facebook posts and more to the USA Today Network-Florida Opinion Group's unrelenting campaign to get the legislation passed and signed into law. Opinion: How Gov. Ron DeSantis can spin signing the FL 'State Park Preservation Act' The debacle that resulted in the new law came from an unlikely source — the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. DEP, designed to be the lead agency for environmental management and stewardship, crafted a seemingly counterproductive initiative. Dubbed The Great Outdoors Initiative, the plan was designed to increase park interest by allowing developers to build attractions and facilities not normally associated with protected natural habitats. Access is one thing, but building three golf courses in the beloved Jonathan Dickinson State Park, as initially proposed, is simply outrageous. Harrell was the first lawmaker to recognize the mounting outrage. In the midst of the public outcry, she announced that she would file a bill to address the mounting concerns of commercializing Florida's parks. She filed SB 80 and that bill, and its House counterpart, won unanimous approval at each committee stop. By the time, the bills reached the floors of the Florida House and Senate, it was obvious that the legislation was heading to the governor's desk. DeSantis signed the bill, and Floridians now have a new legal layer of park protection. It's both a victory and a start. The task now for the DEP, governor and indeed, for all Floridians, is to ensure that the letter and spirit of the new parks law is followed to fullest extent possible. This editorial was written as part of a campaign by the USA Today Network Florida Opinion Group to support Senate Bill 80 and protect Florida's state parks from development. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida has new state parks law. Enforcement is now key | Editorial
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'A monumental moment': How grassroots power is reshaping Florida's environmental agenda
As spring flings go, Florida environmentalists just had an epic one. In the Florida Capitol's halls of power, they enjoyed a string of rapid-fire successes, starting with efforts to protect the state's parks from the construction of luxury lodges and the sharp 'pop-pop-pop' of pickleball courts. The winning streak began in May, when the Legislature passed the State Parks Preservation Act, and a bill to prohibit oil drilling along the Apalachicola River. (And Gov. DeSantis already has signed the parks bill.) And then, over the next two and a half weeks, away from the legislative arena and along the bureaucratic front, an alliance of statewide and local groups scored two more victories. They stopped proposed land swaps with developers that were scheduled for review by the state's Acquisition and Restoration Council. One involved pristine wetland along the Guana River in St. Johns County, and a second included 324 acres of the Florida Wildlife Corridor in the Withlacoochee State Forest. This display of political muscle by advocates of natural Florida was historic, according to environmental activists, elected officials, and academics. They compared it to the 1960s when Jupiter Island's Nathaniel Reed convinced Gov. Claude Kirk to stop plans to cut the state in half with a cross-Florida barge canal. Reed also got Kirk to halt construction of a jetport in the Everglades. Reed would go on to become Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Nixon and Ford. The parks bill and oil drilling ban, as examples of the public exerting its will on the Legislature, reminded one expert of when the late Gov. Bob Graham led efforts to pass the Growth Management Act of 1985. 'What you are seeing as advocacy is Florida voters wanting to be active participants in democracy,' said Tara Newsom, a St. Petersburg College political scientist professor and director of the Center for Civic Learning & Community Engagement. The display of political effectiveness by a dozen statewide and local organizations comes at a time when an increasingly bitter feud between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature has nearly brought state government to a full stop. Even though the regular 60-day legislative session was supposed to be over by now, Florida still needs a state budget in time for the beginning of the 2025-26 fiscal year on July 1, and lawmakers are not scheduled to be back in Tallahassee until June. The Florida House and DeSantis have been arguing over whether to cut the state sales tax or property taxes while the Senate has looked for a compromise. In the meantime though, advocates for natural Florida are celebrating a successful May: 'This is really a monumental moment about how people made something magical happen,' said Susannah Randolph, chapter director of Sierra Club Florida. 'Something happened that we didn't like. We told our legislators, and they took action. That's the way government is supposed to work,' Randolph said. The Sierra Club is among a coalition of groups that also include the Florida Native Plant Society, Audubon, Wildlife Federation, 1000 Friends of Florida, Kill the Drill and Stand-up for Wekiva, among others. They opposed oil drilling and proposed development at state parks, and feared the land swaps would signal conservation land bought by taxpayers could be bought by developers. The Guana Wildlife Management Area was purchased with tax dollars in 1984 to be protected for eternity; it was created by a forerunner of the Florida Forever conservation program. When the state's Acquisition and Restoration Council, under the Department of Environmental Protection, scheduled a meeting to trade 600 acres of pristine Guana wetlands for fragmented parcels elsewhere, opposition quickly organized. Opponents soon realized another land swap had been in the works involving the Withlacoochee State Forest. In fewer than six days after the Guana land swap was made public, the obscure corporation behind the proposed Guana swap pulled out, blaming "public sentiment resulting from misinformation" as the deal killer. More: After outrage, group behind land swap involving sensitive Florida wetlands kills deal More than 50,000 petitions against the swap had been collected. A weekend of demonstrations was held, and a bus to Tallahassee was chartered for people to attend a hearing in Tallahassee when the Guana land swap was to be discussed. The other swap also was pulled. 'All of our public lands, all of our wildlife management areas, all of our forests would be threatened if the swaps were approved,' said Gil Damon of the Downriver Project, a nonprofit focused on protecting north Florida's groundwater and surface water. A couple of weeks earlier when the parks protection bill had stalled in legislative committees, environmentalists produced more than 100,000 signatures opposed to a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson State Park alone. When a Florida Senate committee finally met and considered an amendment viewed as softening the bill, Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, told bill sponsor Joe Gruters, a Republican senator from Sarasota, that his amendment had 'blown up my Twitter.' Sen. Rosalind Osgood, D-Tamarac, thanked him for the additional thousands of emails she had received. Kim Dinkins, policy and planning director for 1000 Friends of Florida, a "smart-growth" advocacy organization, concedes the secret to the unofficial alliance's success this past spring is Floridians' love for its natural places. It's not just an Old Florida value, she explained. It's in a Floridian's DNA. 'Even for transplants. They are drawn to Florida's beauty and recognize there is something special about Florida and its natural landscape, even if they live in the middle of a city,' Dinkins said. Newsom said social media provides today's activists with an effective organizing tool they are just beginning to discover how to employ. Class presentations by her political science students demonstrate how they use social media to recruit followers, share information, and educate each other about the nuances of an issue. A recent presentation involving state parks detailed how social media was used to organize protests, schedule events, and provide transportation. 'Grassroots movements are always the beginning of trends that land in the ballot box,' Newsom said. 'I suspect what is showing now is the tip of an iceberg that might emerge in the midterm elections.' That election is more than a year off. Of more immediate concern for many of the groups involved in this spring's battles over how to manage natural Florida is a pending bear hunt. Activists on both sides packed four meeting rooms when the Fish and Wildlife Commission voted May 21 to develop rules for an annual bear hunt, starting this December. 'It often feels like the dust has hardly settled after one fight to protect Florida's special places before another threat emerges,' Dinkins wrote in a memo to 1000 Friends of Florida on May 20. The FWC's final vote on a bear hunt will be in August. Veterans of Florida's environmental battles said while they may be on a roll of successes now, more clashes lie ahead. 'It's always been two steps forward, one step backward in Florida," said Julie Hauserman, an activist and former journalist who has written about the Florida environment for 40 years. "There's always going to be developers, miners, and despoilers trying to get their way .... 'But occasionally we get some wins," she added. And the victories this May "are great wins.' James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: May brings rare string of victories for Florida environmental allies
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida state parks saved from development as Gov. DeSantis signs protection bill
As he said he would, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure to protect Florida's 175 state parks from development such as golf courses, luxury lodges and pickleball and tennis courts. The news came from a message on a legislative website: "Approved by Governor on Thursday, May 22, 2025 4:43 PM." There was no public bill signing event and no immediate comment from his office. Regardless, the signing on May 22 is likely the final chapter in a saga that began last summer: DeSantis' Department of Environmental Protection announced a plan to commercialize Florida's 175 state parks with custom amenities at beloved natural icons like Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County, Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, and Topsail Hill Preserve in Walton County. Critics quickly likened the plan to "paving over paradise," and DeSantis himself shelved the Great Outdoors Initiative, saying it included "a lot of that stuff was just half-baked and was not ready for prime time." In a stunning rebuke to the DeSantis administration, two Stuart Republicans – Sen. Gayle Harrell and Rep. John Snyder – took the lead in carrying the legislation (HB 209). It was co-sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, among many others – 48 in all from both parties, or almost a third of the Legislature. And the bill passed both chambers unanimously. The Harrell-Snyder legislation, named the State Parks Preservation Act, mandates that DEP focus park management on passive traditional recreational activities that leaves the land mostly undisturbed. And lawmakers define what those activities are, like hiking. Lawmakers also created a straitjacket of regulations to maintain DEP's focus on preservation by requiring the department to ask for public input to develop park management plans that must be updated every ten years. Any changes to those plans would require two public hearings while they are being developed and written. The new law was endorsed by Audubon Florida, a conservation group that helped create the first state park in 1916 (Royal Park, now part of the Everglades National Park). The new law also renames the St. Marks River Preserve State Park in Leon and Jefferson counties to the "Ney Landrum State Park" in honor of the late director emeritus of Florida State Parks who passed away in 2017. Landrum served as state parks director 1970–89. (This story was updated to add new information.) James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis signs new law to protect Florida parks from development
