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Editorial: Kill hunting for cash in state parks

 
Do we really need the state to spend any time evaluating whether there should be hunting at Honeymoon Island State Park, above, or Hillsborough River State Park?
Do we really need the state to spend any time evaluating whether there should be hunting at Honeymoon Island State Park, above, or Hillsborough River State Park?
Published Nov. 9, 2015

How many times does it have to be said: Florida's parks are no place for hunting. That should be obvious to anybody. Yet the Department of Environmental Protection has left hunting on the table as another moneymaking scheme in pursuit of the misguided goal that the parks system pays for itself. This is a terrible idea even for Gov. Rick Scott's administration, which has been no friend of the environment or the parks.

A report Sunday by the Tampa Bay Times' Craig Pittman shows the DEP is still pushing ahead to include hunting as a potential revenue generator in Florida's award-winning parks system. Hunting was initially considered for only the largest parks. But weeks ago, a former park planner told the Times, staffers were told to include the "hunting" category for each of the state's 161 parks. Do we really need the state to spend any time evaluating whether there should be hunting at Honeymoon Island State Park or Hillsborough River State Park?

The governor should have shelved this idea when it first emerged publicly this summer. Turning public nature preserves into a killing field for hunters to shoot deer, turkey, hogs, bears or any animal is completely at odds with the mission of the state parks system. State law entrusts the DEP to "conserve these natural values for all time" and "without depleting them" so that residents and visitors alike can appreciate Florida's history and beauty. But to DEP Secretary Jon Steverson, the parks should be measured by profits and losses — and no idea that churns money at the gate is too preposterous. If the threat to public safety alone is not enough, imagine the impact to tourism as hunters blast away wildlife that paying visitors had come to appreciate and respect.

As incomprehensible as this idea is, it's par for the course for an administration that operates behind closed doors and reduces governing to dollars and cents. In 2011, Scott killed an idea to add campgrounds at Honeymoon Island after it sparked an outcry. He's cycled through two directors of the state's land division in two years after questionable efforts to monetize public property. In recent months, the DEP floated new moneymaking ideas, from allowing expanded timber harvesting to cattle grazing at the parks. Now hunting is on the checklist. And the public, as usual, is caught by surprise.

Steverson wouldn't talk to the Times — he is far too busy, his staff said, to talk to reporters. But with the agency looking to make money on new revenue schemes by the end of the year, the time is short to avoid a policy and public relations mistake. The governor hasn't seen fit yet to intervene, so it's up to the Legislature to tell Steverson to move on, leave the parks alone and to build public support for an adequate budget. Florida's natural beauty is more than a retail opportunity. It's a public trust that Steverson and this governor must protect, to hand down one day for the next generation.