Florida Native Plant Society Blog

We need your help NOW to convince Governor DeSantis that he should veto Senate Bill 2508 because FLORIDA DOES NOT NEED A COMPLETE MAKE-OVER OF OUR IMMENSELY SUCCESSFUL LAND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS! The Florida Legislature passed this terrible bill and it is now awaiting the Governor’s signature. It threatens to upend our successful approach to land conservation by essentially replacing the science-based, transparent, and accountable Florida Forever program with one designed to keep agricultural lands in production. The Rural and Family Lands Program (RFL) was created to purchase conservation easements over privately owned forests and ranches, and is a valuable complement to Florida Forever because the working lands it keeps in production sometimes have supplemental habitat value for native plants and wildlife, and can maintain connectivity within wildlife corridors. But Florida Forever has been, and should remain, our principal land conservation program . Call Governor DeSantis at (850)

On March 16th we sent a letter to Governor DeSantis recommending that he veto the atrocious Senate Bill 2508 which would replace the scientifically-rigorous and highly successful statewide conservation land purchasing program known as Florida Forever with the agricultural land protection program Rural and Family Lands that had been run alongside Florida Forever as a complementary easement program. You can read our letter here and please consider contacting the Governor to veto this bill.