80 state parks to reopen Monday
First phase leaves out Wekiwa Springs, Blue Spring and 95 more
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday about 80 state parks will partially open starting Monday, as the state begins easing restrictions meant to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
But several major Central Florida parks, including Wekiwa Springs, DeLeon Springs and Blue Spring, aren’t on the list. The Indian River Lagoon Preserve in Brevard County and the Hontoon Island in Volusia County are on it and will be open Monday.
Overall, there are 97 parks that will remain closed.
“If people are out there and they’re not in large groups I think it’s a low-risk environment,” DeSantis said during a news conference at Little Talbot Island State Park in Jacksonville.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the parks system, said the parks were selected based on how easy it would be to maintain social distancing.
“This first re-opening phase focuses on trails (multi-use paved trails) and remote access park entry points where social distancing can be practiced and risk to staff and visitors can be managed,” DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said in an email. “It includes beaches and boat and kayak/canoe launches outside of and
not requiring access through main parks, with reduced parking and reduced hours.”
DeSantis did not mention state parks when he announced the initial phase of Florida’s reopening on Wednesday, telling reporters to “stay tuned” when asked about them.
On Friday, he said there would some restrictions on the reopened state parks, which stretch from the Panhandle to South Florida, but he didn’t immediately elaborate.
Later, a news release from his office said, “reopened parks will resume normal operation hours of 8 a.m. to sunset, with the exception of beach areas. Access to beach areas will have reduced daily hours that may vary locally along with reductions in visitor capacity to ensure social distancing.”
Some of the reopened parks will have limited facilities, the release stated, and beach areas will be limited to active recreation: no sunbathing, chairs, canopies or coolers.
“Outdoor transmission is less likely than transmission in an enclosed environment,” DeSantis said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t transmit it. Obviously, if you pack in 1,000 people right next to each other, and they cough on each other that’s going to be risky.”
DeSantis has left it up to individual counties whether to reopen their beaches, and some have done so with social-distancing rules in place.
The governor held the news conference with Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who opened up his beaches two weeks ago. The governor was clearly agitated about criticism the state has received from non-Floridians about Curry’s decision, and he said opening parks will be good for people’s health.
“There [were] a lot of people, not from Florida, but from between [Washington] D.C. and New York, who thought that this was like the most significant thing that has ever happened, that the sky was going to fall. They did misleading pictures, acting like it was Lollapalooza on the beach,” DeSantis said. “This is what they were focused on. Not dirty subway cars, not other things that have been major transmitters of this disease ... and people here were mocked.”
When Curry reopened the beaches, the hashtag #floridamorons began trending on Twitter.
Go to floridastateparks.org/learn/safety-updates for the complete list of reopening parks.