As the number of sites for which the Polk County Commission has agreed to pursue land deals under the Enviornmental Lands Program increases, the options for partnerships to stretch the local tax dollars is decreasing, as details of the recently approved state budget have emerged.
The budget is still under review by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his staff, but here is where things stand now.
The Legislature proposed $250 million for the Rural and Family Lands Protection program, which helps to fund conservation easements. Conservation easements keep the land in private hands but prevents intense development.
This works for many rural landowners who want to continue working the land without dealing with the financial pressure to sell out.
Polk’s program accommodates those kinds of deals.
But in other cases, the outright purchase of the property is a better option and this is where the problem lies.
The Legislature approved a measly $18 million for the Florida Forever program–it was $229 million in the previous budget– and nothing for the Florida Communities Trust program, both of which have been used extensively in past partnerships.
To put that in perspective, the amount of money budgeted for environmental land purchases just for Polk and surrounding counties totals roughly $42.5 million.
If you extend that figure statewide for all of the local, voter-approved programs, how minuscule the state’s proposed Florida Forever funding is.
It is also worth mentioning that a constitutional amendment approved by voters and supported by Sierra and other environmental groups was supposed to have provided more funds for the Florida Forever program. However, the Florida Legislature found ways to worm out of it and for reasons that defy the average person’s understanding was upheld in court.

The Ocklawaha River once flowed unimpeded to the St. Johns River, but that all changed decades ago when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to build a dam blocking the final 13-mile section.
For decades river advocates have been pressing state officials to undo the damage.
This year the proposed state budget contains $6.25 million to begin the job.
Sierra Club and other environmental organizations are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to leave the appropriation intact.
There continues to be lobbying from other interest groups interested in preserving the status quo of a fishing lake called the Rodman Reservoir, despite the fact that it flooded a good portion of the river floodplain and capped the flow of 10 springs.
The river’s watershed is extensive. much of it beginning in Polk County via the formation of a creek system in the southern portion of the Green Swamp Area of State Concern.
The creeks flow slowly through the sawgrass marsh north of Lake Lowery. and other lakes in the Haines City-Lake Alfred area covering more than 100 square miles before reaching Lake Louisa in Lake County and from there forming the Palatlakaha River, the Ocklawaha’s main tributary.
As many of you know, the dam is the legacy of an ill-conceived engineering project called the Cross Florida Barge Canal, which President Richard Nixon finally halted in 1971.
It was a project that had been discussed in one form or another even before Florida became a state in 1845 as a way of creating a shortcut for freight that avoided what were then the poorly mapped reefs in the Florida Keys.
The project also came at a time when the prevailing water management practices in Florida involved building structures–dams, canals, reservoirs–to deal with issues often better served by purchasing and preserving natural areas.
It would be a tribute to our better understanding of proper water management today to urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to support this portion of the proposed budget.

Polk County’s Enviornmental Lands Program will receive an estimated $13.7 million in the next fiscal year, according to preliminary figures released by Polk County Property Appraiser Neil Comee’s office.
That is up from $12.6 million in the current fiscal year budget.
The increase includes an estimated $545,997 from new construction.
The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The program has reviewed more than 40 siters involving more than 21.000 acres and has reached agreements to purchase 4 sites and decided not to try to pursue six other sites.
The final decision on all purchases lies with the County Commission.

Lake Alfred’s annexation of land at the Interstate 4-County Road 557 interchange for industrial development did not go unnoticed in Tallahassee.
As reported last year in this space, the city annexed part of Hilochee Wildlife Management Area’s Osprey Unit in 2023 to reach the interchange, allegedly without informing state officials what the city had in mind. And, by annexing land with no residences, avoided a referendum.
That annexation drew complaints from nearby property owners who said they wondered whether that would allow heavier development to creep closer to their rural homesteads along Old Grade Road.
State Sen. Colleen Burton of Lakeland filed a bill this year that would require cities to inform all members of the local legislative delegation in advance of the first public hearing on any annexation of state lands.
The bill passed the Houses and Senate unanimously and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law last month.
An aide to Burton confirmed complaints about the Lake Alfred annexation led to her filing the bill.
The change in state law does not affect Lake Alfred’s vote but could prevent any further stealth annexations without some kind of outside review.
Meanwhile permitting for a warehouse development on the annexed property is reportedly under way and will involve some wetlands destruction, which will have to be mitigated.

If you want to spend a great day outdoors, visit a state park on Memorial Day. It’s free.
There are several state parks in our area.
The oldest is Highlands Hammock State Park west of U.S. 27 in Sebring in Highlands County. It contains a boardwalk, trails and other recreational amenities.
It was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The first state park in Polk County was Lake Kissimmee State Park on Camp Mack Road east of Lake Wales. It contains a network of trails, access to Lake Kissimmee, a boat ramp and a replica of a 19th century cow camp.
Nearby is Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park, which is located east of Haines City on Firetower Road off Hatchineha Road.
Colt Creek State Park is located on State Road 471 in the Green Swamp north of Lakeland.
Other state parks in the area are Paynes Creek State Park near Bowling Green, Lake June-in-Winter Scrub State Park near Lake Placid and Lake Louisa State Park near Clermont.
To find out more about state parks and to plan your visit at FloridaStateParks.org.

The news that emerged earlier this month that a Jacksonville corporation had proposed slicing off a 600-acre prime piece of real estate in Guana River Wildlife Management Area for some kind of development scheme probably left a lot of us in the conservation community scratching our heads.,
That is, what part of no don’t our so-called environmental officials in Tallahassee and Gov. Ron DeSantis who appointed them understand?
First we saw the proposal to turn some state parks into resorts with golf courses and hotels.
Then, there was the proposal to give some prime conservation lands in Withlacoochee State Forest to a neighboring golf course developer in exchange for a beat-up pine plantation that was isolated from any conservation lands.
The latest proposal involved trading 600 acres of state conservation land for 3,065 acres spread across four counties that had some vague connections to existing conservation lands.
In all three cases the official position of the state agencies overseeing these properties was to support the idea to avoid the fate of the state employee who blew the whistle on the state park scheme.
He was fired.
Add to that the staggering dishonesty of DeSantis and his subordinates on the park scheme until political reality finally smacked the governor in the face, That was when the Florida Legislature unanimously passed a bill to protect state parks from overdevelopment.
He signed it.
The other two proposals went away a little more quietly, but not until after the state’s conservation community, including Sierra Club. organized public opposition against them.
Was this be the end of these schemes?
We hope so, but experience shows us we have to watch state officials in this administration closely.

Just as we heard the news that a controversial proposal to swap prime conservation land in the Withlacoochee State Forest in Hernando County for a beat-up pine plantation in Levy County was dead and that Gov Ron DeSantis had signed a bill to stop plans to develop hotels and other intense projects with Florida’s state parks, we have learned the mischief regarding state conservation lands is not over.
On Wednesday the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council will consider proposal to swap 600 acres at Guana River Wildlife Management Area for a mishmash of private lands in Lafayette, Osceola, St. Johns and Volusia counties totaling 3.065 acres.
People who use Guana River oppose the swap because it would remove a popular section of trails within the 9.815-acre site.
But there is a much larger issue involving the permanence of public conservation lands and what kind of precedence this sets.
Another issue is transparency.
Surely someone in state government knows who requested the swap, which has the odor of a surplus without calling it that, and who put together the package of lands involved in the proposal, but that information is not being shared in the agenda packet.
On the surface this might look like a good deal if viewed only from the perspective of acreage given up and acreage gained.
However a closer look at the maps shows land that at best can be described as sorta kinda near other conservation lands with no clear access in some cases and no listing of current ownerships to give the public an idea of whether this is an arm’s length transaction of something else.
Sierra Club’s position is to deny the request.
It is also in stark contrast with three more straightforward requests for less-than-fee acquisitions in our area that are also on Wednesday’s agenda.
They involve the 347-acre Joshua Land Ranch northeast of Polk City, the 2,470-acre Rogers Ranch northwest of Groveland and the 660-acre Ludwig Ranch in southern Hardee County.
The first two are in the Green Swamp and the third is in the Horse Creek Basin. Horse Creek is a major tributary to the Peace River.
We are supporting those requests.
If you would like to add your voice to the items on the ARC agenda–especially the bad one–it would be welcome.