The reaction to Governor Scott and the state legislature's decision to revamp the way Florida manages its water is still being heard. The St. Pete Times writes in an editorial:

Piece by piece, Florida's water policy is being dismantled. First, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature forced the state's water management districts to slash property tax collections. Then the Scott administration pressured the Southwest Florida Water Management District to eliminate its local basin boards, and its executive director to resign.

Audubon wants citizens to remember that the Save Our Rivers program was started by state agency staff working for then Governor Bob Graham. The goals of this program were to acquire lands necessary to protect and sustain Florida's  surface and ground waters. Up until the Governor Scott administration, all Governors, agency heads and WMD boards had supported this vital program and Water Management District staff have been very creative in partnering with local, state, private and federal conservation programs to acquire both fee and less than fee watershed related lands. Today these lands sustain our riparian flows, wildlife corridors, aquifer recharge, spring flows, tidewater flows to estuaries and our economy by supporting population growth, fisheries, tourism and agriculture.

The St. Pete Times adds:

Last month, Swiftmud's board was poised to approve the purchase of 800 acres in Pasco County to expand the 20,000-acre Starkey Wilderness Preserve...Then the Department of Environmental Protection, which routinely signs off on such purchases, abruptly signaled it was reconsidering its position. By June 1, just 13 days after approving the transaction, Mike Long, the assistant DEP director for state lands, wrote a second letter rescinding the approval.

Audubon responds: WMD funds for land and water conservation come from bond sales which are attractive to buyers for tax and income purposes.  But, the catch is that once sold the bond funds must be used for the purpose intended and in a specific timeline. Stopping WMD approved purchases from private landowners does not mean that the funds can be "saved" and used for other purposes.  In fact you jeopardize the tax status of the bonds with the buyers if you attempt to utilize the funds in a manner other than the purpose for which they were sold.

This administration's stopping of well thought out WMD projects which  have been crafted over many years - like the Starkey Family Ranch transaction - harms the private landowner trust of government and the ability of agencies to carry out their 5 Year Save Our Rivers regional land and water conservation plans that were at the heart of the Save our Rivers program.

Using science and landowner trust, extraordinary river fronts have been protected from septic tanks, trash and urban flooding situations. Instead, we have scenic natural corridors for our residents and tourists who come from around the world to see nature in the wild.....in places like Wakulla Springs and River, The Loxahatchee River Wild and Scenic River corridor, The Choctawhatchee-Apalachicola-Perdido-Yellow-Shoal Rivers, Econfina Creek springshed, Silver Springs Run, the majority of the Suwannee River from Georgia border to the Gulf of Mexico and numerous springs along that route....and many, many more.