“What did we miss?” was the question asked by Jason Hight, director of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conservation planning, at the public meeting in Kissimmee on Thursday regarding the FWC plan for mitigating damage to Split Oak Forest if a toll road is built there.
What you missed was any evidence that FWC understands or follows its own rules for releasing land that they control.
What you missed is that these lands cannot be released unless they are no longer needed for conservation; FWC documentation shows that 100% of Split Oak Forest is being used for conservation.
What you missed are peer-reviewed, updated, environmental site assessments that would confirm how incredibly biodiverse Split Oak Forest is. As such, you missed that only a very small portion of the proposed donation contains habitat comparable to the southern portion of the forest that would be destroyed in this massive road project.
What you missed is that a canal that connects Lake Mary Jane and Lake Myrtle splits this so-called “donation” into separate parcels, so only a small amount of the land is actually contiguous to Split Oak Forest.
What you missed is that the impact of building a highway through Split Oak Forest will far exceed the 160 acres that will be directly or indirectly impacted. Plant life and animals will recede from the encroachment, and controlled burns will not be able to be effectively conducted — further impairing proper management of the forest.
What you missed is any data concerning the gopher tortoise population and whether or not a minimum viable population will remain after more than 10% of Split Oak Forest is destroyed or fragmented.
What you missed is that FWC has never released conservation land to put in a highway and has never accepted an application in which an applicant called a highway a linear facility — as if it were merely a power line or a water pipe.
The FWC board of commissioners voted in December to continue negotiations with Orange and Osceola County. What you missed was that they have excluded Orange County from their negotiations and they have not included anyone in the Split Oak Coalition — including biologists, ecologists, conservationists, wildlife rehabilitators, and scientists.
What you missed is that the developers strong-armed the Orange County Commission into agreeing to accept this shady deal by threatening to give the more than 900 acres of land in Orange County to Osceola County.
If the FWC had done their due diligence, it would have been clear to them that there is no net positive conservation benefit in this mitigation package. FWC is scheduled to vote on this matter at their May 1 meeting. This is outrageous. They should delay a decision until they have followed their own rules and the Florida’s Constitution regarding the release of conservation lands. To do otherwise undermines their credibility and would set a precedent that would threaten every single acre of current or planned conservation land in the State of Florida.
Kathleen Fitzgerald of Orlando is a retired public-school teacher, Lucky’s Lake Swimmer, and environmental advocate.
