Florida State Parks
We were all set to get you riled up about the proposed Guana Preserve land swap. That audacious and obnoxious proposal involved the state trading 600 acres of the state-owned Guana River Wildlife Management Area in northeast Florida to some…
We’re in what was supposed to be the final week of the Florida legislative session, but as of this writing the House and Senate budget proposals were still billions apart. That means the session will either be extended, or legislators…
For weeks Florida legislators have been meeting in committee, filing and debating bills and preparing for the official start of the 2025 Legislative Session on March 4. This session VoteWater’s Gil Smart will travel to Tallahassee to lobby for clean-water…
The first of what looks to be several bills regarding the controversial proposal to develop Florida’s state parks has dropped, and it’s good. But it could be better. Filed by state Sen. Gayle Harrell of Stuart, Senate Bill 80 — the “State Park Preservation Act”…
You might have seen the news last week that Florida DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton was stepping down; he’ll be replaced by Alexis Lambert, chief of staff of the state’s division of bond finance since 2018. There’s speculation that Hamilton’s departure…
Here’s a question for you: Did Florida DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton know about the controversial and now (temporarily) shelved plan to develop Florida’s state parks? Given that the Department of Environmental Protection was riding herd over the project, it would…
By now you may know the name of James Gaddis, the Florida DEP whistleblower who leaked the plan to “develop” Florida’s state parks. Gaddis, as you probably also know, was fired by FDEP for revealing the plan, which Gov. Ron…
The roar of outrage that greeted Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to develop our state parks was a sight to behold. For the time being, at least, we won; the outcry forced DeSantis to hit the brakes. But make no mistake,…
You did it! Just a day after huge crowds of Floridians flocked to rallies around the state demanding Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida DEP scrap a controversial plan to develop our state parks, DeSantis told the DEP to rework…
In backing the ultra-controversial plan for “improvements” at Florida State Parks – golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park; huge 350-room “lodges”/hotels at Anastasia and Topsail Hill Preserve state parks, and more – Gov. Ron. DeSantis walked straight into a…