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NFC: Fw: Protect Florida's Preservation 2000
Funds for Florida's Wildlife Habitats have been Stolen!!
Florida's state senators have voted to stage an unprecedented,
$100-million raid on state conservation funds. The senators want to
rob $100 million from the state's Preservation 2000 fund – money the
legislature had previously dedicated to a long term commitment to
save thousands of acres of Florida's vanishing wild lands from
development, roads and sprawl. The conservation funds, set aside for
additional land acquisition projects, are urgently needed to protect
habitat critical to the survival of threatened and endangered
species -- including the Florida scrub jay, the red-cockaded
woodpecker, the Florida panther and the Florida black bear.
So far, the Florida House has held to maintain the state's
commitment to preservation and land acquisition, but these lawmakers
need your help. Several legislators have publicly stated that they
haven't heard much opposition from the environmental community on
this issue. Let them know the public is overwhelmingly against this
raid on Florida's conservation funds. House and Senate will meet
this week to decide whether or not to allow these funds to be
transferred.
The best way to show support for Preservation 2000 funding is to
urge your legislator today to stand up for Preservation 2000 funds
to protect important wildlife habitat!
What You Can Do
1. Log on to our website at http://www.Denaction.org and send your
emails and faxes to your state legislators through the DENAction site.
2. Write, call, fax and e-mail House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate
President John McKay to object to the raid on Preservation 2000
funds and ask them to support the governor's promise to spend the
money to preserve wildlife habitat.
The Honorable Rep. Tom Feeney
Room 420, The Capitol
402 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone (850) 488-1450
Fax (850) 488-1456
e-mail: feeney.tom at leg_state.fl.us.
3. Senate President John McKay
Office of the Senate President
Suite 409, The Capitol
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
Phone (850) 487-5229
Fax (850) 487-5486
e-mail: mckay.john.web at leg_state.fl.us.
4. Write, call, fax and e-mail your state representative and senator.
For information about how to contact your representative or senator,
go to http://www.leg.state.fl.us or phone the state of Florida at
1-800-342-1827. Often, their local numbers are listed in the "blue"
pages of the phone book too. Or you can log on to:
http://www.defenders.org/habitat/savewildflorida/ to find your
senators and representatives.
5. Write letters to editors of Florida's newspapers expressing your
views and urging our lawmakers to protect wildlife and their habitat
by preventing the raid on Preservation 2000 funding.
Background
1. For 10 years, the Preservation 2000 fund has financed the
acquisition of conservation, recreation and water resource lands
throughout Florida. All of the remaining fund balance is needed for
completing specific land acquisition projects over the next eight
months. By withdrawing these funds, these lands may not be acquired.
Thousands of acres of wildlife habitat will not be conserved. When
the Preservation 2000 fund was created, the Florida Legislature made
a promise to Floridians to preserve Florida's imperiled lands and
waters. For 10 years, lawmakers kept that promise. But the state's
senators would break it by raiding Preservation 2000 funds. The
Senate has acted against the will of the people.
2. The Senate would spend Preservation 2000 funds to make up the
state's share of the cost of restoring the Everglades. And that
breaks another promise — the promise the Legislature made to fund
Florida's share of Everglades restoration from general revenues for
10 years. This sends a terrible message to Congress that Florida's
funding commitment to protecting the Everglades is not certain and,
thus, jeopardizes federal funding and the entire Everglades
restoration agreement.
3.Funding for the environment amounts to only 3 percent of the state
budget. The Senate's raid on environmental funds sets the precedent
that the environment is not important to Florida's future and that
the Legislature, without public comment, can grab already insufficient
environmental funding and use it for other purposes.
_____________________
Sample Comment Letter
_____________________
Dear
I am writing to urge you to oppose the state senate's recent action
to use for other purposes $100 million set under the Preservation
2000 Program (P2000).
The Preservation 2000 program represents a long term commitment by
the legislature to finance the acquisition of significant
conservation and recreation lands throughout Florida. It is
essential to the protection of many of Florida's threatened and
endangered species. Florida must fulfill its responsibility to the
citizens and to the federal government to pay our share of Everglades
Restoration costs without reducing funding for other environmental
programs. With the current raid of P2000 funding, legislators are
putting wildlife at risk. All of the remaining P2000 balance is
needed for completing specific land acquisition projects over the
next eight months. By withdrawing these funds, these specific lands
may not be acquired and thousands of acres of wildlife habitat might
never be conserved.
When P2000 was enacted, the Florida Legislature made a promise to
Floridians to preserve Florida's imperiled lands and waters. For 10
years, the legislature kept that promise. I urge you to keep the
Preservation 2000 promise and oppose the current raid on this vital
program.
Sincerely,
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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading national conservation organization
recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for
wildlife and its habitat and known for its effective leadership on
saving endangered species such as brown bears and gray wolves, Defenders
advocates new approaches to wildlife conservation that protect species
before they become endangered. Founded in 1947, Defenders is a nonprofit
501(c)(3)organization with more than 420,000 members and supporters.
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