What is happening in the state parks?

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced that they plan to make amendments to the unit management plans of 9 state parks across Florida under the Great Outdoors Initiative. This plan included changes to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a 10,000 acre park located in Martin County, making it the largest state park in Southeast Florida.

The amendment was calling for the addition of various overnight and recreational facilities, including the addition of two 18-hole golf courses and one 9-hole. You can view a map of these proposed developments here. The plan also included the removal of the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower, which standing at 86 feet, is the highest natural point south of Lake Okeechobee. The proposal for the developments in Jonathan Dickinson has now been withdrawn due to strong public opposition. However, the plans for similar developments across the 8 other state parks across Florida still remain.

Jeff Corwin Commentary- Florida state park are natural jewels. Don’t destroy them

Jeff Corwin, local biologist and wildlife television host, speaks more about the issue here.

Jonathan Dickinson is composed of 16 distinct natural communities, one of which is the Florida scrub, a rare and endangered habitat of ancient coastal dunes that formed over millions of years of the sea level rising and falling. The scrub habitat within Jonathan Dickinson represents some of the highest quality and largest unfragmented scrub habitat on the east coast of Florida. As stated on Jonathan Dickinson State Park’s website, “The plant community which occupies these sand dunes, the sand pine scrub, is a disappearing habitat which is home to plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.”

Loss of this habitat would have negative impacts on many species, such as Florida scrub jays, gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpeckers, Florida mice, indigo snakes, gopher frogs, scrub lizards, and so many more unique species. This development would also encourage the introduction of invasive plant species and impair critical wetland resources.