Nat Reed, Florida Forever and another ‘lost summer’
We, as Floridians, all depend upon our fragile environment. Our economy is based upon people’s desire to visit and live in our beautiful state. That’s why we all lost recently when advocate and legend Nathaniel Reed died after an accident while fishing in Canada. Personally, I lost an inspiration, a mentor and a friend.
By the time of his passing, Reed had long since secured a place in history as one of Florida’s greatest environmental advocates. He served two Republican presidents and six governors from both parties in that role. He helped draft and implement groundbreaking state and federal environmental laws. He helped found two statewide organizations for which I am proud to serve — 1000 Friends of Florida and the Florida Conservation Coalition.
Reed’s legacy includes his pioneering role in the farsighted policy of conserving natural lands by buying them in the public’s name. He understood that permanently preserving Florida’s most ecologically valuable acreage would yield enormous and enduring benefits for our state’s environment and the economy that depends on it.
Reed’s decades of leadership laid the foundation for a series of initiatives for purchasing and preserving land from destruction. These culminated in Florida Forever, a program for which I co-sponsored legislation during my final term in the Florida House of Representatives in 1999. That legislation passed with bipartisan support, and Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law.
With a sound scientific process for selecting land most in need of preservation, the continued backing of lawmakers in both parties and steady funding of $300 million a year, Florida Forever became the nation’s model environmental conservation program. But a decade ago, legislators began starving Florida Forever of dollars.
Florida voters fought back in 2014, approving by a 3-to-1 margin Amendment 1, an amendment to the state constitution that earmarked some $20 billion over 20 years from real-estate tax revenues to land and water conservation. Reed was among the advocates who led the successful campaign to pass Amendment 1.
But legislators ignored the voters and continued to shortchange Florida Forever. They diverted hundreds of millions of Amendment 1 dollars for salaries, insurance premiums, vehicle purchases and other operating costs in state agencies that normally would have been bankrolled with general tax revenue. It was a classic case of bait and switch.
Environmental groups responded by filing suit, and last month, they won a resounding victory. Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson, ruling from the bench in lieu of a trial, agreed with the groups that legislators had defied the will of voters.
But rather than abide by the judge’s verdict, a spokesman for House Speaker Richard Corcoran called the ruling “a clear abuse of judicial power” and promised to appeal it. This is outrageous. The only clear abuse here is the Legislature’s treatment of the trust of Florida voters.
This refusal to honor voters’ intent is especially infuriating in light of the environmental and economic disaster unfolding in waterways across Florida. Toxic algae is blooming again in lakes, rivers and lagoons, just as it did two years ago. Once again, the Sunshine State is making national headlines for all the wrong reasons. It’s shaping up to be another lost season for Floridians who depend on the health of the state’s waterways for their livelihoods and enjoyment.
Every Amendment 1 dollar that lawmakers divert to agency overhead is one more dollar that can’t be spent to buy natural lands. This includes lands in watersheds that can be restored to help improve water quality, or protected from development and the kind of runoff that would feed algae blooms in nearby waterways.
There are many other environmental and economic benefits to buying natural lands: conserving wildlife habitat; recharging groundwater; controlling floods; preserving agriculture; and maintaining recreational and educational opportunities. As our state grows, and development pressure intensifies, these goals are more important than ever. The money is there to achieve them — if legislators will only do what voters and the Florida Constitution compel them to do.
If Nathaniel Reed were still with us, I’m confident he’d join me in urging legislators to respect the voters and do right by Florida’s environment and economy.