This year, for the first time since 1990, no new funds will be available for Florida’s highly successful and farsighted land and water protection program. The Florida Forever program, with its remarkable past achievements of preserving the special places in our state, has been sidelined even in this day of lower real estate prices. As the new state budget went into effect recently, no bonding for preservation for environmentally sensitive lands and urban recreation areas was included.

The popularity of the Florida Forever program crosses ideological lines and geographic regions. Fully 81 % of voters indicated they have a positive impression of Florida Forever. As importantly, the vast majority of Florida’s voters support funding for Florida Forever at previous levels according to a statewide survey conducted for The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. Statewide, 67 % of Republicans, 67 % of Independents and 67 % of Democrats supported maintaining funding. Voters in major population centers of the state also were consistently supportive:

As Manley Fuller, President of Florida Wildlife Federation, stated, “Florida Forever is a program to be proud of. It permanently protects sensitive lands and thereby provides public recreation, trail systems and wildlife habitat, and helps our water quality and quantity. It also serves as the source of funding to protect cultural and historical sites and most of all it improves our quality of life.”

Importantly, Florida Forever deals only with willing sellers. Many places have also been protected by conservation easements which disallow future development. With 18 million residents and 80 million visitors each year, we must retain the natural character that makes Florida so unique, both for our ecology and our economy.

What you can do: Let your state legislators know you strongly support renewed full funding for Florida Forever in the 2009-2010 Legislative Session.

Find your State Senator and Representative by going to: www.flsenate.org and www.myfloridahouse.org. Or look the Senator or Representative up in the local phone book.