Jacob Ogles
The Florida Forever program will receive $15 million from the Senate, fueling further land conservation efforts in the state. The move came after the House sought drastic cuts in the program this year.
The Senate directed the sum as part of its supplemental funding initiatives, known as the sprinkle list. That’s an assortment of projects the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near closure to provide typically small apportionments to regional items.
Meanwhile, a Senate budget offer included specific direction to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding use of funding. That document alludes to the “acquisition of lands that are partially or wholly within the Ocala to Osceola Wildlife Corridor within Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Hamilton, Lake, Marion, Putnam, Union and Volusia counties or within a Florida Forever project boundary in Flagler, St. Johns or Nassau counties.” It said funding must be spent on projects that are part of Florida Forever’s priority list.
Florida Forever started in 2001, replacing the state’s Preservation 2000 effort, and has become one of the largest public land acquisition programs in the nation, according to DEP.
The state program has purchased more than 1 million acres of land for conservation, at a cost of roughly $3.8 billion. Just in the last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet utilized Florida Forever to help purchase 78,000 acres in North Florida. That deal was negotiated and arranged by groups including the North Florida Land Trust, but Florida Forever provided the foundation for the vast property purchase.
In November, the Governor and Cabinet used $111 million from the Florida Forever Fund to buy more than 24,000 acres to include in the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
Smaller purchases have also been funded through the program, including a purchase of 385 acres in Putnam County earlier this month.
But funding for the program fell into the sights of House budget negotiators, who sought drastic cuts while exploring tax relief instead this Session.
The $15 million just directed to the program through the Senate will come from nonrecurring general revenue. But the funding represents a fraction of what the program used to receive regularly from the Legislature.
Florida voters in 2014 approved a constitutional amendment to fund the program. Between that and the original Preservation 2000 Act, the state should be putting at least $300 million to the program each year, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
DeSantis recommended $100 million go to the program this year in his budget proposal, a substantial reduction from the more than $220 million included in the budget the year before.
But the House went into the budget process not wanting to put any money in. The Senate supplement in the sprinkle list may be the biggest source of funding the state awards this year.
