Dozens of protesters at Wekiva Springs State Park Saturday decried moves by state officials to extract profits from parks by opening them to logging, grazing, hunting and other for-profit activities.
The “state should be doing everything it can to preserve, promote and protect our state parks, not dismantle them,” said Marjorie Holt, a member of the Sierra Club, which organized similar protests at 11 state parks.
Wringing profits from parks emerged as a controversy last year when Jon Steverson, head of the state Department of Environmental Protection, began to lobby to make Florida’s system of 171 parks “at least striving to be self-sustaining.”
That triggered backlash from environmentalists and park supporters, who think Gov. Rick Scott’s administration may go so far as privatizing parks to boost revenues.
His agency has denied attempts to undo rules that largely prevent for-profit grazing and timber cutting.
“There are no proposals to expand hunting or cattle grazing in any state parks at this time, nor are there any ‘commercial’ or other timbering activities proposed or underway that are inconsistent with any park’s current unit management plan,” Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Lauren Engel said in a statement issued Friday.
But environmentalists remain suspicious that Steverson will push to make parks earn their entire $80 million annual budget. With nearly 24 million annual visitors, the park system already takes in more than $60 million annually.
Another fear is that Steverson’s Department of Environmental Protection will try to degrade management and conditions of parks to justify privatizing their operation.
“The direction DEP is heading with our parks is disturbing,” Holt said.
Many of the more than 40 people joining the protest said their views have been colored by lawmakers’ refusals to dramatically boost land protection through the voter-approved Amendment 1. They also fear a pair of bills in the current legislative session would set the stage for some dismantling of parks.
“Today’s event is essentially to send a signal to Tallahassee that we are here for the people, we are here for the parks, we are here for the future of Florida and we need to preserve our parks,” Sierra Club member Maria Bolton-Joubert said.