From Audubon of Florida’s recent email update:

State Revenue Shortfalls Prompt 10% Budget Reductions for Natural Resource Agencies

As a result of state revenue shortfalls, Governor Crist has requested 10% budget cuts from all state agencies. The current state budget situation is daunting, and no agency will be immune from the belt-tightening necessary to help our state weather this economic downturn. For many of our lean natural resource agencies, these proposals raise grave concerns that reductions will come at the expense of natural resources.

State Parks Propose Closure or Transfer of 21 Parks

To meet this reduction, the Florida Park Service is proposing to “temporarily close” nineteen state parks to public access and reduce their management to a “caretaker” staff until the state budget returns to levels that can support the full functioning of the parks. An additional three parks, managed for other agencies, will be returned to those agencies. Some of these closures could have grave implications for Florida’s rarest natural communities and wildlife. Florida’s parks and other conservation lands are held in trust for the people of Florida. Holding land in trust means a commitment to good management and responsibility for stewardship of vulnerable natural resources.  Audubon is calling on Governor Crist to give substantial consideration to the impacts of these reductions on the state’s ability to adequately manage these sensitive resources.

Examples of Proposed Park Closures and Transfers: Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and Egmont Key State Park

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in Okeechobee County is the largest intact remnant of Florida’s globally imperiled dry prairie ecosystem. It is the largest of only three sites in the world that still support the federally endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrows. This species has suffered dramatic declines in recent years and requires that managers conduct labor-intensive summer burns on half the prairie—more than 20,000 acres—each year. The proposed “caretaker staff” for the Prairie cannot reasonably meet these prescribed fire needs, let alone the preserve’s additional management obligations including monitoring the Prairie’s 54,000 acres for lightning-ignited wildfires; maintaining fire lanes and perimeter fencing; patrolling the Prairie’s more than 50 miles of boundaries for poaching, trespassing, dumping and arson; identifying and eradicating exotics; as well as monitoring the health of the Prairie’s sparrow population.

Similarly, Egmont Key represents an important natural resource for imperiled beach-dependent birds in Tampa Bay. Reversion of this property to the National Wildlife Refuge system may provide some cost-savings, but the short timeframe proposed would not give the federal cooperating agency sufficient time to find the resources to replace the important functions the state park currently provides at Egmont. The current cooperative agreement between the refuge system and State Parks provides Egmont Key with a staffed presence to manage the more than 170,000 annual boater visits to the island, and protect the island’s unique historical and natural resources, including nesting marine turtles and extensive shorebird and seabird colonies. Without this presence, the park’s sensitive resources would be left without on-site, round-the-clock management, and the island would be vulnerable to trespass and resource abuse.