Update: As of 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has POSTPONED all public meetings around the state on its “Great Outdoors Initiative” and hopes to reschedule them the week of Sept. 2 at larger venues, to accommodate the huge crowds expected.

The public pressure is working – keep it up. And stay tuned for more updates.

Original post: By now you’ve heard the news: The Florida DEP (more likely Gov. DeSantis) wants to “improve” our state parks by ruining them.

That is, FDEP’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” would build THREE golf courses on more than 1,000 acres of Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound; construct 350-room “lodges” (massive hotels) at Anastasia State Park (St. John’s County) and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park (Walton County); and build other “recreational opportunities” at other parks including pickleball courts, disc golf courses, new cabins at more.

The Jonathan Dickinson proposal is particularly noxious. It would devastate sensitive habitat and the amount of water and fertilizer needed to keep the courses green – and the fact the soils are sandy – would mean most of the fertilizer would run off directly into the Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and the Indian River Lagoon, making existing water quality worse.

FDEP/DeSantis are tying to ram it all through; on short notice, officials scheduled a single hour-long meeting in each area where a park would be affected, and attendance has been limited (UPDATE: However, the original round of meetings has been canceled and new meetings at larger venues will be announced).

YOU SHOULD COME OUT TO THESE PUBLIC MEETINGS and let FDEP know what you think.

The more people who show up, the louder the message: The people don’t want this.

The more people who show up, the greater the chance we have to stop these ridiculous proposals in their tracks.

See you there.