The last few days have been crazy around the sudden public discovery of plans for egregious development of golf courses and more on Florida state parkland, including Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County as well as eight others across the Florida. As of August 22, 2024, leaked information from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revealed what appeared to be a plan to expedite development of two 18-hole golf courses, one 9-hole golf course, and remove the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower. The plan will impact at least a thousand acres of natural habitat.
When the public became aware of these plans, known as "The Great Outdoors Initiative," just a few days ago, social media blew up. To call the reaction fierce opposition is a bit of an understatement. These plans were met with swift and collective outrage by individuals, agencies, and environmental organizations. On Wednesday, two days after the DEP announced the proposal, more than 100 people from a Facebook group (that was created the same day of the DEP’s announcement) showed up to the state park in Martin County to demonstrate their opposition to the DEP’s proposal.
“The Protect Jonathan Dickinson State Park Facebook Group" was created on Monday by Jessica Namath, a former Tequesta Environmental Advisory Committee member, and mobilized over 100 people who demonstrated at the park Wednesday. As of Friday the group had gained over 25,000 followers. Saturday morning there were hundreds of protesters at Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
The drama unfolded late Monday, August 19, after partial information about the plans were leaked. Later that day, the DEP officially announced the plans. On Tuesday it announced public meetings required to give affected communities the chance to comment with only a week's notice. On Tuesday night DEP released a draft of the plan for all nine parks and more information about the public meetings. The meetings were all scheduled on the same day at the same time, August 27, 2024 from 3-4 pm in venues with limited capacity. James Howe, conservation chair for Audubon of Martin County called the move "stealthy" and pointed out that the room for the meeting in Stuart only holds 150 people and that the crowd would bring gridlock to Stuart. Eve Samples, former TC Palm journalist and current Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades referred to the plans as "sneaky."
So, not surprisingly considering the reaction, DEP announced the following on Saturday morning:
“Due to the overwhelming interest with the 2024-25 Great Outdoors Initiative, DEP is looking for new venues to accommodate the public.
“We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate. Public input is vital to DEP decision-making. To gather feedback on your favorite state parks, we’ve launched a dedicated webpage for more suggestions: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7983173/Great-Outdoors-Initiative
“New meeting dates will be announced soon, with meetings expected the week of Sept. 2, 2024.”
Huh... how about that? So much for sneaky and stealthy.
Reality check: the "Great Outdoors Initiative" is not new, nor is not a both-sides issue. In 2011, a bill introduced that would have greenlighted legendary golfer and golf-course designer, Jack Nicklaus to build courses in several state parks, was squashed in fierce opposition by conservationists. This was part of then-Governor Rick Scott's plan to boost tourism, a palatable euphemism for turning parkland into profit centers. Golf courses weren't the only bad idea under consideration either. The state has also considered some other really dumb things, like leasing parkland to ranchers and timber companies, and evaluating all of the parks for their hunting potential. These ideas were losers then and they are still losers today. When the justification is that the parks should pay for themselves and generate more revenue for the state consider this:
In 2023, Florida's state parks and trails served more than 28 million visitors generating $3.6 billion to their local economies throughout the state. Over $241 million was contributed to state revenue from sales taxes. More than 50,000 jobs are supported by state park operations and the system has an annual operating budget in excess of $80 million. Entrance fees cover nearly 75 percent of it.
Florida's 161 state parks and trail systems are fiscally robust because they create a generous return in huge tourism. Most people, including golfers and hunters alike, do not want to see these lands developed beyond their original purpose which is protection and preservation of natural habitat. Floridians are pretty protective of their award-winning state parks and trails and are much more environmentally conscientious than the rest of the country may realize. And it's only fair to point out that there are also politicians who feel the same way. Congressman Brian Mast posted this on social media yesterday: "Over my dead body will there be a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson State Park!"
The idea that public lands should be profitable is hooey because where does that stop? Florida has more than 1,100 miles of coastline and spends unmentionable amounts of money on beach renourishment. Should the state hire concessionaires to collect a fee from people who want to walk the beach? Perhaps some developer could be granted permits to build fancy sunbathing platforms on the sand and rent them out. Maybe we should let someone put a hotdog stand on Pelican Island or lease out the spoil islands to people who want to build Airbnbs. It's ridiculous and illustrates the obvious. There is only one beneficiary of this kind of commercial encroachment upon public land, and that is the developer. As for the rest of Floridians... well it appears they have the same answer to that as always: NOPE.
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