When the 1994 environmental lands referendum funding was set to expire, the discussion among Polk County commissioners went something like this.
There was already a lot of protected land in the county and what’s the point to going further.
It is somewhat like the recent statement by Herschel Walker in the Georgia race of U.S. Senate in which he asked how many trees are really necessary.
Well, if you listen to critics of many development, a recurring theme involves the disappearance of trees (and wildlife) from the property.
Looking more broadly, a recent column that ran in the Tallahassee Democrat raised the issue of how much conservation land Florida needs. The column described Florida’s national ranking and calculated that there is only 0.4 of an acre per capita, arguing land acquisition has not kept pace with population growth.
Here in Polk County the situation is worse.
The calculation comes out to about 0.2 of an acre per person.
We can do better, but only if Polk County voters approved the environmental referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot.
To learn more about the effort, go to polkforever.com .