The opposition to the vaguely worded Amendment 2 to the Florida Constitution is growing.
The latest opposition comes from the Florida Wildlife Federation.
Like Sierra. FWF has concluded the amendment is unnecessary because there is no threat to hunters and anglers pursuing their outdoor activities as already supported by state law and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulations
Additionally, FWF agrees with opponents concerns that the proposed amendment’s’ language may threaten establish wildlife management measures.

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The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) is gathering information to improve identification of flood prone areas in Highlands County.

The District will provide a virtual public comment period now through Nov. 11 at WaterMatters.org/Floodplain for the public to view preliminary data for flood prone areas within the Highlands Hammock watershed. The website will present preliminary data for flood prone areas and the public will have the opportunity to submit comments.

After addressing the public comments, information will be finalized and presented to the District’s Governing Board for approval to use the data for regulatory purposes. This information is not currently being incorporated into the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs); however, it may be used in future DFIRM updates.

The information, which identifies areas prone to flooding, can be used by local governments for land use and zoning decisions, to help manage development in and around floodplains and wetlands, to reduce flood risks, to preserve land and water resources, and for emergency planning. It will also provide valuable information to the public for decisions about purchasing and protecting property.

For more information or to find out which watershed you live in, please visit WaterMatters.org/Floodplain or call the District at (352) 415-0974.

October 2, 2024


Rick Dolan, Director

Florida Forest Service

3125 Conner Boulevard

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1650

Via email at Richard.Dolan@fdacs.gov


RE: Opposition to proposed swap of 324-acres of the Withlacoochee State Forest (WSF)

Dear Director Dolan:

We, the undersigned sixty-seven (67) organizations and businesses, vehemently oppose the proposal to declare as surplus a 324-acre parcel of land in the Withlacoochee State Forest (WSF) in order to facilitate a swap of the parcel for a privately owned 860-acre stand of pine plantation) in Levy County.

Our attention is directed to you, because the Governor’s and Cabinet’s June 12, 2024 decision related to the Cabot Citrus OpCo LLC proposal is not the final word; it is in the power of the Florida Forest Service (FFS) to stop it before it is taken up by the Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC).

Our partners at Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) have determined the parcel has substantial conservation value and therefore does not qualify to be declared surplus pursuant to §253.0341(1), F.S. FNPS also determined the proposed exchange would not result in a net conservation benefit. If the FFS review includes the same level of scrutiny—field visits and a review of the Florida Forever Conservation Needs Assessment spatial data maintained by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory we know you will come to the same conclusion. There is no doubt that this swap proposal should be rejected when contiguity with other publicly owned conservation land, significant habitat connectivity within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, overlap with the sandhill component of Under-represented Natural Communities data, High recharge value, and the protection of endangered species are taken into account.

Moreover, the Florida public’s recent overwhelming display of across-the-political-spectrum-outrage over development within state parks should signal that this type of proposal is anathema to our collective dedication to protecting Florida’s wild places from development.

Please stop this ill-conceived proposal now by making it clear FFS will not support it.

Sincerely,


Adventure Coast Group, Sierra Club
Tom St. Clair, Conservation Chair


Ancient Islands Group, Sierra Club
Tom Palmer, Chair


Apalachee Audubon Society
Kathleen Carr, President


Apalachicola Riverkeeper
Susan Anderson, Executive Director


Avian Research and Conservation Institute
Kenneth D. Meyer, PhD., Executive Director and Senior Research Ecologist


Bear Warriors United
Katrina R. Shadix, Executive Director


Broward Group, Sierra Club
Leah Weisburd, Chair


Cactus Island Nursery
James Freeman, Owner


Calusa Group, Sierra Club
Rhonda Roff, Conservation Chair


Calusa Waterkeeper
Captain Codty Pierce, Waterkeeper


Cape Coral Wildlife Trust, Inc.
Lori Haus-Bulcock, Board of Directors


Center for Biological Diversity
Ragan Whitlock, Staff Attorney



Coastal Plains Institute
Ryan C. Means, President


Creative Environmental Solutions, Inc.
George Foster, Owner


Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant
Laurilee Thompson, Co-owner


Earth Ethics, Inc.
Mary Gutierrez, Executive Director


Earthjustice
Alisa Coe, Deputy Managing Attorney, Florida Office


Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida
Becky Ayech, President


Environmental Matters Contracting & Consulting, LLC
Pauline Irene Stacey, President/CEO


FL National Organization for Women (FL NOW)
Debbie Deland, President


Florida Birding and Nature Festival
Joe Guidry, Vice President


Florida Defenders of the Environment
Jim Gross, Executive Director


Florida Ecotours Weeki Wachee LLC dba Get Up and Go Kayaking Weeki Wachee
Taylor Masnjak, Owner/Operator


Florida Keys Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America
Michael F. Chenoweth, President


Florida Ornithological Society
Ann Paul, President

Florida Rights of Nature Network
Joseph Bonasia, Chair


Florida’s Right to Clean Water
Capt. Karl R. Deigert, PAC Chairman


Food & Water Watch
Brooke Ward, Senior Florida Organizer


Friends of Etna Turpentine Camp, Inc.
Robert F. Roscow, President



Friends of Split Oak Forest
Valerie Anderson, President


Friends of the Hillsborough River
Phil Compton, Chair


Friends of the Pelicans, Inc.
Jeanette Edwards, Founder/CEO


Friends of the Polk County Parks Foundation
Marian Ryan, President


Gopher Tortoise Council
Eric Sievers, Senior Co-Chair


Greater Orlando National Organization for Women (Greater Orlando NOW)
Penelope Canan, Climate Justice Chair


Healthy Gulf
Martha Collins, Executive Director


Homosassa River Alliance
Brad Rimbey, Vice President


Humane Society of the United States
Kate MacFall, FL State Director


Hundred Acre Hollows
Tom Unrath, President


Kissimmee Waterkeeper
John Capece, Waterkeeper


Labor Community Alliance of South Florida
Lorenzo Canizares, Co-Coordinator


Loxahatchee Group, Sierra Club
Linda Smithe, Chair


Martin County Conservation Alliance
Donna Melzer, Chair


Matanzas Riverkeeper
Jen Lomberk, Esq., Executive Director & Riverkeeper


Merritt Island Wildlife Association
Charlie Venuto, President


Miakka Community Club
Cathy Lewis, Vice President


Moms in Nature’s Defense
Catalina Lemaitre, Founder


National Wildlife Federation
Joe Murphy, Wildlife Policy Specialist, Gulf of Mexico Program


Nature Coast Conservation, Inc.
DeeVon Quirolo, President


Our Santa Fe River, Inc.
Joanne Tremblay, President


People Power United
Laurie Woodward Garcia, Leader


Polk Clean Energy Alliance
Katherine Sutherland


Progress Florida
Mark Ferrulo. Executive Director


Residents United for Rural Levy (RURL)
Laura Catlow


Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation
James Evans, CEO


Save the Manatee Club
Beth Brady, Senior Science and Conservation Associate


Sea Turtle Conservancy
Stacey Gallagher, Policy Coordinator


Sierra Club Florida
Susannah Randolph, Chapter Director


Speak Up Wekiva, Inc.
Chuck O’Neal, President


Stone Crab Alliance
Karen Dwyer, Ph.D., Co-founder


Suwannee-St. Johns Group, Sierra Club
Maryvonne Devensky, Executive Committee Chair


Tampa Audubon Society
Mary Keith, PhD, Conservation Chair

Thaell & Associates Property Management, LLC
Cliff Thaell, Senior Partner


The Downriver Project
Gil Damon, Director


The Paper Bear Inc.
Arix Zalace, President and Co-Founder


Volusia-Flagler Group, Sierra Club
Steve Wonderly, Chair


WWALS Watershed Coalition
John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper

If you have been wondering about ways to lower your electricity bills or have been considering going from gas to electric when you drive around town, this upcoming event is for you.
It will occur at The Well 114 E. Parker St., Lakeland, from 10 am. to 2 pm..
A number of EVs will be on display. EV owners will be available to answer questions.
The free event will also feature information on energy efficiency and clean energy options.
Organizers of the event include Ancient Islands Sierra. the Polk Clean Energy Alliance and the League of Women Voters of Polk County.
Sponsors are Lakeland Electric, The Well, Wawa, Regal Lakeland, Nissan, Wells Fargo, Edison International and EVAL.

Rumors of a sudden major increase in impact fees in Polk County were, like Mark Twain’s death, exaggerated.
Instead, this week we had business as usual, a slow walk in implementing 100 percent of the consultant-recommended fee increases until 2027.
Impact fees are one-time charges on new construction that are intended to recoup the costs of the demand new development creates on traffic, park capacity, public safety and other local services They are imposed so that the expense does not fall on the backs of taxpayers in general who did not create the new demand for services.
Impact fees have been used for this purpose in Florida since 1965, but it was not until 1990 that Polk County commissioners began to impose them.
And, since then the commissioners’ philosophy has been to charge as little as possible in response to lobbying pressure from local homebuilders, who argued. the fees harmed their business.
This practice finally caught up with the county two decades ago.
So in 2005 a carefully choreographed series of public meetings organized by the local business community under banner of Polk Vision concluded the county’s policies had resulted in a $581.7 infrastructure deficit, $300 million of which involved unfunded road projects.
The solution was to approve the largest single property-tax increase in anyone’s memory to reduce the deficit and to consider additional and higher impact fees to prevent the deficit from recurring.
However, old habits are hard to break. The year before commissioners had appointed an Impact Fee Advisory Committee, which was dominated by folks from the development community and regularly recommended reducing impact fees.
Commissioners continued to balk at charging the full amount of impact fees consultants said were justified based on studies that are always required to adopt new impact fees.
Then when the real estate bubble burst in 2008. Commissioners voted to halve impact fees and by 2010 had approved what turned into a five-year moratorium on imposing impact fees.
When impact fees resumed in 2015, commissioners continued to charge lower rates than the consultants recommended.
This has continued and more recently the Florida Legislature, which has been increasingly becoming involved in local government decision-making, passed a law limiting how often and how much local officials could impose impact fees.
However, the law also allows local officials to charge more if they vote with a super-majority to declare they were facing a funding emergency and produced the data to back it up.
They declared the emergency all right, but when it came to a vote Tuesday, they decided it wasn’t much of an emergency after all.
Members of the local development community pushed the go-slow approach, arguing that a sudden increase was a “potential for disaster.” And so it went.
They also argued the increases would affect local residents who are buying new homes but neglected to mention that many of these new homes are in once rural areas once occupied by citrus groves and ranches once served by narrow country roads that are now faced with overwhelming new traffic demand.
The only person who testified in support of the impact fee increase was Tom Palmer, chair of the Ancient Islands Group, arguing commissioners had a choice taking a bold step or conducting business as usual.
Commission Chairman Bill Braswell, who was on the losing end of the 4-1 vote and initiated the discussion about a major impact fee increase, argued the costs the county incurs from dealing with new development is increasing and Tuesday’s vote “just kicked the can down the road.”
Meanwhile that road and all the others become more congested courtesy of the Polk County ‘Commission.
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If you think the roads are too crowded, the forests are disappearing too fast and the quality of life is suffering, you have a chance to give county planners some ideas for better alternatives at a series of meetings scheduled now through October.
The format of the meetings is a brief presentation on the history of planning and zoning in unincorporated Polk County–that’s the part outside the cities where most of county’s residents live–followed by an opportunity to write down your suggestions for improving how to go about decision-making to avoid aggravating the county’s growth problems.
These comments will be included in a plan update of the county’s growth plan as it looks ahead to 2050. The proposed changes will go before the County Commission next year.
However, a little bit of reality awareness will be helpful going into this exercise.
No one is going to stop issuing building permits and all of the existing regulations that were written in many cases to enable developers are not going away.
But the exercise could provide an opportunity to quiz the county planners and the consultants who are assisting them on just what are the options for improving growth management in unincorporated Polk County.
The schedule for the meetings, all of which will occur from 6 to 8 p.m. is:

SEPT. 24 Coleman-Bush Building, 1104 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., Lakeland.

OCT 3 – Tom Fellows Community Center, 207 North Boulevard W, Davenport.

OCT 15 -| James W. Sikes Elementary School, 2727 Shepherd Road, Lakeland.

OCT 22 – American Legion Post 95, 225 E Wall Street, Frostproof.

You can also participate online at
 https://www.inspire-engagement.com/polk-county-comp-plan :  

The cost of maintaining septic tanks in Polk County has suddenly become an issue. if you read or listen to this week’s news reports.
The fact of the matter is that this was not sudden. Instead it was the result of miscalculations by county officials and probably some folks in the septic tank business.
There are more than 100.000 septic tanks in Polk County. They need to be pumped out every few years to keep them functioning properly The waste used to be treated and disposed of in pastures and other sites in rural areas of the county.
As anyone who drives around the county much knows those rural areas are shrinking.
That means the waste needs to go somewhere else.
For a few years. some people thought the answer was BS Ranch & Farm on the outskirts of Lakeland.
County commissioners bent over backwards to approve the project even though there were early warning flags such as the fact that the business began operating without proper zoning approval or state environmental permits.
Neighbors quickly noticed odor problems and there were questions about just how environmentally proper the company was handing the waste.
But by that time the county had already issued a permit.
Years of litigation and environmental enforcement ended recently when the state ordered the business to shut down.
That has forced septic haulers to truck the waste to a facility in Hillsborough County, which means their customers have to pay a lot more for the service.
Polk officials are building a facility to deal with the waste, but it will not be open for two more years. Haulers said they proposed a plan for a private facility a few years ago, but were rebuffed by county officials.
Not that it matters now, but Polk County officials certainly have a lot to answer for in their hasty decision to approved BS Ranch & Farm in the first place. They bought the company’s PR tour without checking with someone besides the applicant on how this kind of waste facility should be operated, whether the treatment area should be indoors or outdoors and just what kinds of products do facilities like this really produce.
In the case of BS Ranch & Farm. the answer was tons and tons of material was coming in and very little was going out.
This issue comes up at an apt time.
Polk County officials are in the process of updating their growth plan, which is a guide to what kind of development regulations will be imposed.
This seems to be a good time to ask just what is being proposed that would prevent a recurrence of the BS Ranch & Farm fiasco.