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.
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