NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Concerned Floridians are breathing a sigh of relief after a proposal that would have brought changes to nine of Florida’s state parks was postponed.
Some conservationists say some of the lands in question weren’t even suitable to begin with.
“Almost everything in sight here is an area where we’ve done stewardship or work,” Urban Paradise Guild founder Sam Van Leer said during a walk around Oleta River State Park in North Miami Beach.
Since Van Leer founded UPG in 2008 as a climate-action organization, he and his team have been championing the preservation of the few remaining wild spaces in urban Miami-Dade.
“Our initial mission was to re-naturalize northern Biscayne Bay to bring it back towards its environmental potential…and so this is where I started,” Van Leer explained.
With the support of the park, UPG started small and gradually grew into a dedicated volunteer force.
“But by 2009, we were working with Miami-Dade College and starting to do major events in the park,” he reflected.
The group’s first big project took place on the park’s north end, lasting 7 years. Together, with volunteers, an area once dominated by invasive Australian Pine was restored to the way nature intended it to be.
“We have invested I don’t know how many thousands of volunteer hours there…. From prepping the seeds to removing invasives,” Van Leer explained. “And now we’ve got a beautiful forest there.”
Park employees now call it Sam’s Hill in honor of the work done there.
“That area, Sam’s Hill, and around it is closed to the public,” explained Urban Paradise Guild Executive Director Jackeline Bonilla. “They’re allowing it to stay as a conservation area and you can see it.”
But Sam’s Hill and other Florida wild spaces could be under threat. Last week, under a 2023 executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced an extension of its “Great Outdoors Initiative.”
On Wednesday, the governor said he would call on FDEP to go “back to the drawing board” on the initiative.
The now-postponed plan proposed increasing park property campsites, cabins, and lodges and digging up the wild to make room for golf courses, pickleball courts and disc golf courses across nine state parks.
According to FDEP, the proposed disc golf course at Oleta would be “in an area previously dominated by invasive Australian pines.”
We're looking at ways to provide more recreational opportunities for local communities. Here is our proposal. pic.twitter.com/aCUmjbuBlD
— Florida DEP News (@FLDEPNews) August 23, 2024
But Van Leer says the proposed course would have totally disrupted the existing ecosystem.
“It’s totally unsuitable for disc golf the way it is now,” he explained. “To put a guess on it, probably at least 50% of the area is wetland.”
On the other end of the park, pickleball courts were on the table.
“When you build more pavement, you create more runoff,” explained Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples. “Even if you have good stormwater protection, you’re putting the bay more at risk.”
On Tuesday, protesters of all ages gathered on the proposed pickleball site to fight for the preservation of our most precious resource.
“The message is we want to keep our state parks wild,” said Art History in the Park founder and protest organizer Catalina Lemaitre. “These spaces matter to our families.”
They joined a chorus of tens of thousands on social media and in person who pushed back against what they saw as unwanted additions to our state parks.
“There are so many organizations from all over the state and activists speaking up, educating and encouraging, inspiring the community to speak up and do something about this,” said Founder of Clean Miami Beach Sophie Ringel. “These spaces are protected for a reason because they are the original nature from how Earth was built and created.”
FDEP also proposed the development of recreation areas at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park. It’s an area that even the Florida State Parks official website calls “the last example of an undeveloped coastal ecosystem in Broward County.”
“It’s like stepping back in history once you drive into the park,” said resident Desiree DiClemente DiSalvo.
She is the founder of the Sun of a Beach Cleanup organization that regularly hosts cleanups in and around the state park.
“It’s nice to have this untouched piece of preserve,” she added.
These remaining green spaces reinforce our urban resiliency and help us mitigate floods, erosion, and other destructive natural events; it is no wonder that the public pushed so hard to protect them.
“This piece of wilderness in the city, there is nothing like it,” reflected Van Leer.
While many celebrated the postponement as a victory, conservationists who spoke with Local 10 News advised that Floridians remain cautious.
“A huge credit to all the people who united in opposition,” reflected Samples. “That said, we won’t rest easy until the so-called ‘Great Outdoors Initiative’ is completely dead.”
“Everyone should stay vigilant on what the state might do next and be prepared to resist,” Van Leer added.