Senator Bob Graham announces coalition to protect Florida’s natural resources.
At a November 30th press conference on the steps of the Capitol in Tallahassee, Senator Bob Graham announced the formation of the Florida Conservation Coalition (FCC), a non-partisan group of non-profit organizations and concerned citizens who will work together for the protection of our state's environment. Senator Graham, a former two-term Florida governor and three-term U.S. Senator, called on Governor Scott and state legislators to join in the protection and management of the state's natural resources.
Other speakers included: Senator Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland); Nathaniel Reed, Chairman Emeritus of the 1000 Friends of Florida Board of Directors; Eric Draper, Executive Director for Audubon of Florida; Manley Fuller, President of the Florida Wildlife Federation; and Samantha Ruiz, co-president of the University of Central Florida student organization Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions (I.D.E.A.S.).
You can Senator Graham's address from the FCC press event by clicking here.
St. Johns Riverkeeper is proud to be a charter member of the Florida Conservation Coalition.
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Florida Conservation Coalition Principles
- Florida’s water belongs to the people and must be maintained as a public resource.
- We must maintain effective state safeguards to ensure that we have abundant and clean water for us, our children and grandchildren.
- It is essential to protect Florida’s rivers, streams, springs, lakes, aquifers, sinks, and wetlands and their associated systems to safeguard our water resources, fish and wildlife, and the many recreational benefits they provide.
- We must protect Florida’s estuaries and near-shore waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico as they are dependent on clean fresh water flowing from the land and are the basis of recreational and commercial fishing and Florida’s seafood industry.
- It is imperative that we protect Florida’s significant natural lands as they cleanse and store our drinking water as well as the water needed to support agriculture and the environment.
- We must protect our water supply from over use which can be caused by over-development, over-pumping for bottled water, agriculture and other uses, and is made worse in times of drought.
- To accomplish these principles, Florida’s regional watershed-based system of managing and protecting water needs to be maintained for the benefit of all Floridians and avoid a one size fits all approach that would disrupt current and future efforts to protect critical clean water supplies.
Florida Conservation Coalition Priorities
- Restoring reasonable funding for Florida’s regional water management districts to provide for water quality protection, adequate water supplies, flood protection, and natural resources protection.
- Funding Florida Forever including acquiring land for water resource protection.
- Reaffirming Florida’s commitment to restore the Everglades, upon which South Florida’s water supply and quality of life depends.
- Managing Florida’s water resources at the regional, not state level.
- Ensuring that growth management laws and policies support sustainable use of water.
- Promoting efficient use and conservation of water.
- Opposing efforts to privatize Florida’s water.