Although unclear on his goals for the Environmental Agency, Gov. Rick Scott may be slowly getting a better appreciation for Florida’s natural environment as he vowed on Friday not to close any of the state’s 160 parks and preserves.
Gov. Rick Scott toured the state’s Department of Environmental Protection offices Friday and emerged with a book on Florida parks and a vow not to close any of them.
The agency last fall outlined a plan to reduce spending by 15 percent, including shuttering 53 state parks. But Scott, who ended his hour-long building tour touting “all these great parks” which attract 20 millions visitors a year, ended talk of park closures.
“No, we have beautiful parks,” Scott said. “As you know, we’ve gotten two gold medals for our parks. I think we have 20 million-plus visitors. So, no, we’ve got great parks, and we’ve got to make sure we preserve them and take care of them.”
Scott’s comments followed his budget staff making a similar declaration to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations panel earlier this week. But the governor struggled to articulate his goals for the agency, which his advisors have recommended merging with the departments of transportation and community affairs, refocusing it as part of a “more muscular state economic development agency.”
Concerns among environmentalists about which direction Scott may tilt the agency were heightened when the Republican governor last month chose Herschel Vinyard, formerly director of a Jacksonville shipyard, to head the agency.
“We all live in this great state. We have parks everywhere,” Scott said. “But we live here because it’s a pretty pristine environment, and we love her, whether it’s the beaches, or whether it’s the Everglades or the rivers.”
On his tour with agency officials, Scott said, “I was asking them about the longest hiking trail, which I guess is nine miles, which I’d like to go take. So, I don’t think it’s one thing. I think it’s keep going down the path of keeping this as nice as we can.”
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida, said he was pleased by the governor’s stand – saying he hoped Scott would come around on other environmental issues, as well, after further study.
“The governor is actually starting to learn something about Florida, and he realizes that parks have a real economic value,” Draper said. “My hope is that he will modify other views as he tours agencies and learns what they do.”
Draper said Audubon and other environmental organizations were still wary of Scott’s budget proposal to cut property taxes paid to water management districts over the next two years, saying the move could threaten these five regional districts’ ability to monitor water quality.
“To arbitrarily reduce their revenue just doesn’t make sense,” Draper said.
Scott on the day he qualified as a candidate for governor, famously told a Tallahassee political gathering that his extensive campaign travel would lead to where, “by the end, I’ll know…every county’s name.” And Friday, Scott seemed to gain a new appreciation for the state’s outdoors, saying he planned to hang a photo in his Capitol office that is depicted in a state park book given him by agency officials.
But, he added, “to do all these things, we’ve got to grow jobs…As we grow jobs and we grow revenues in the state, there’s a lot more we can do.”
By John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
