Ceasarweed (Urena lobata) is one of the serious invasive pests on public lands
There’s a bit of good news on the conservation lands front out of the Florida Legislature this year.
Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, have filed a pair of bills (SB 590 and HB 809) that would reward volunteers who spend at least 50 hours a year removing exotic invasive plants from state parks and other state conservation lands with an annual state park pass.
The park pass permits free or reduced entrance fees to all state parks.
The legislation has passed some preliminary steps, but will require additional committee hearings and floor votes before being sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing.
The timing of the proposals is apt, since April is National Volunteer Month.
There are certainly no shortages of potential volunteer efforts around the state that could qualify dedicated volunteers to apply for the park pass.
The legislation does include a provision to make sure state officials come up with a system for monitoring volunteer efforts to ensure the program is accountable, as it should be.
The fact of the matter is that the staffs at Florida’s conservation lands can use all of the help they can get in dealing with the multitude of invasive exotic plant species that have caused serious problems.
The exotics management problem has also been used by critics of obeying the voter mandate to restart funding for the Florida Forever program to argue against buying more land if the state can’t manage lands it already owns.
The fact is that some of the public land exotic vegetation management problems are the result of lack of management of these pest plants on surrounding private lands that can be sinks of serious infestations of plants, such as cogon grass and Old World climbing fern, that are spread by the wind.
This legislation deserves wide public support.