Opinion: Protect Florida's State Parks From Their "Protectors"

Florida's award-winning state parks are a unique and irreplaceable resource for our state and its tourism economy, a delight for visitors and residents alike. They offer our burgeoning population affordable places to "get away" from urban crowding without an airline ticket.

Courtesy Wikipedia

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are a "keystone species" whose nesting cavities become home to multiple other species. They now live in extremely limited ranges, restricted to old-growth pine forests Less than one percent of their original numbers remain. The woodpeckers are only one of scores of species that would be driven from "protected" lands withint he state park system by the DEP plan.

State park usage has grown in recent years, even as the state's population has swelled past 22 million.

They have also proven invaluable in efforts to protect and conserve natural resources and disappearing wildlife.

Now they have come under a serious threat from our state's own Department of Environmental Protection, which seems to have forgotten the last word in its title.

A proposal being advanced by DEP would bulldoze hundreds or thousands of acres of our precious and disappearing habitats to create pickle-ball courts, disc-golf courses, and even a 350-room lodge, undoubtedly with acres of parking lots.

Among the targets is an extremely rare stand of old growth coastal pine forest at Jonathan Dickenson State Park. Those ancient trees provide the essential nesting cavities for red-cockaded woodpeckers.

The birds were extirpated locally, but were re-introduced by biologists. Less than one percent of the original population remains across the nation, but their park territory would be converted to yet another golf course, despite the current roster of more than two dozen golf courses with a short drive of the state park.

These is ample reason to suspect that the golf course concept, which would destroy more than 1,000 acres of park lands, has been advanced by Gary Nicklaus, who was appointed to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022. He is the son of famed golfer Jack Nicklaus and has designed golf courses across North America and Europe.

The ill-conceived plan was revealed in a press release from FDP, cynically stating in part that "today's announcement reinforces the DeSantis Administration's record support for conserving our natural landscapes..."

The proposal, undoubtedly driven by private interests seeking state contracts, flies in the face of reason.

In an obvious attempt to limit public input, FDEP scheduled eight simultaneous public hearing on the nine parks on short notice.

The meetings, all slated for this Tuesday, August 27 at 4 p.m., effectively prevent opponents from gathering the necessary information to detail the negative impacts upon water conservation, wildlife habitat, and other resources.

Many knowledgeable ecologists who might otherwise testify in more than one hearing will, of course, find that impossible.

Courtesy Wikipedia

Longleaf pines themselves have become an increasingly-rare species as more of Florida is bulldozed for development. Protected stands within Florida's state park system should neve be threatened by development.

The announcement drew rapid reaction from at least two cabinet members and other elected officials. State Senator Jay Trumbull of Panama City issued a statement saying that he stood "in strong opposition to the proposed expansion of state parks to include golf courses and associated facilities in our state parks..."

Kathleen C. Passidomo, president of the Florida Senate, has now joined Trumbull in opposition to the plan.

Although state parks in southeastern Polk and surrounding areas, including Lake Kissimmee State Park and Sebring's Highlands Hammock, were not included in the initial list of impacted parks, Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis spoke out against the proposal, calling it a "slippery slope." It's not difficult to see how such a plan could turn into the creeping erosion of the system to feed for-profit interests.

Not every state asset needs to be about money. Our parks are truly OUR parks, the property of the people of Florida, and not those of a privileged group of temporary appointees.

To add you voice to the opposition to this ill-conceived plan, you may phone the DEP at 850-245-2118 or send an email to [email protected].