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Florida’s main environmental agency announced a plan Monday to “expand public access, increase outdoor activities and provide new lodging options” across various state parks — but this could mean replacing natural land with golf courses and pickleball courts.
In South Florida, three state parks could be affected by the Department of Environmental Protection’s project: Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Dania Beach, Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound and Oleta River State Park in North Miami Beach.
“In addition to increasing the number of campsites, cabins and lodges on park property, the initiative will increase the number of outdoor recreation opportunities available at Florida’s state parks, including pickleball, disc golf, golf and paddling,” DEP wrote in a statement.
The agency did not respond to questions about the plan on Thursday afternoon.
According to the Florida DEP website, the mission of the Florida Park Service “is to provide resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources.” Critics of the plan, thousands of whom voiced their indignation on social media, say the initiative does not fall within this mission.
In DEP documents further detailing plans to overhaul parts of the parks, specific amenities are proposed for the three potentially impacted South Florida parks.
At Jonathan Dickinson State Park, more than 1,000 acres, which is about a tenth of the park’s total 10,500 acres, are suggested for use in constructing three entirely separate golf courses, two with 18 holes and the third with nine holes.
The park contains some of the region’s last-remaining scrub habitat and could also develop land that includes wilderness hiking and biking trails along with forcing a closure of the Hobe Mountain boardwalk and observation tower.
In a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, the DEP wrote: “We are considering the addition of golf — one of our nation’s most popular sports — in a way that will minimize habitat impacts and leverage already-disturbed areas.”
The park is surrounded by 14 golf courses that either abut the park, or sit within a four mile radius of its boundaries. And Martin County, where the park sits, is home to 28 golf courses, according to LetsGolf.com.
Outcry has rapidly gained traction since the plan was unveiled Monday.
“Destroying some of the last pristine scrub land in Southeast Florida would be a crime,” said Linda Smithe, who is part of the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group.
Scrub is among some of the most critically endangered plant communities in the state.
Julie Wraithmell, the executive director of Audubon Florida, the oldest statewide conservation organization, said Florida scrub “is a very rare and declining habitat type in part because it is high and dry and well drained.”
It is also prime habitat for the Florida’s only endemic bird, the scrub-jay, listed as threatened under the federal government’s Endangered Species Act. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the scrub-jay’s largest threats include habitat destruction and environmental degradation from development.
“Oftentimes (their) habitat is developed, and the jays have nowhere else to go,” Wraithmell said.
When Smithe first heard about the initiative, she said she thought it was a “hoax.”
“There might be a problem in that many golf courses are expensive and you have to be a member and all that sort of thing. But you have to balance that with the greater good… protecting our Florida legacy,” she said.
Gopher tortoises, also a threatened species, could also be impacted by development on state parks because the burly reptiles require dry uplands to create the burrows that serve as their homes.
“It feels like a sad day to me that state parks, which is a place where you would expect that imperiled species would be protected, would instead potentially be a place where they’d be applying to relocate imperiled species because of development,” Wraithmell said.
Though some golf courses try to limit chemical use, most fairways and greens are made of monocrop grass, free of weeds and wild grass. This means using pesticides, weed killers and fertilizer, all of which harms ecosystems.
Fertilizer in particular is harmful to South Florida waterways — phosphorus fuels algae blooms. In fresh water, those blooms can produce toxic fumes, in saltwater, algae blooms choke out vital seagrass habitat and can lead to fish kills.
At Mizell-Eula Johnson Park, which sits on a slim, 2.5-mile barrier island in Dania Beach, the DEP is proposing up to four pickleball courts, which would be wedged among the park’s vast mangrove waterways, bird habitats and beachfront.
“Dr. Von. D Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park is in the heart of one of Florida’s busiest regions,” DEP wrote on X. “Converting an underutilized paved area to pickleball courts will benefit both locals & out-of-town visitors.”
Oleta River State Park, which sits on more than 1,000 mostly forested acres in the northern tier of Miami-Dade County, could also get up to four pickleball courts, as well as a disc golf course and up to 10 new cabins or what the DEP called “glamping opportunities,” which is a portmanteau of “glamorous” and “camping.”
The park’s three existing “primitive” campsites can host up to 30 campers each, according to its website. The sites have two tables, a fire circle, a bathroom and a cold-water shower.
Oleta is somewhat of an oasis among its highly congested urban surroundings, offering trails for mountain biking or walking, and openings to Biscayne Bay or the Oleta River for swimming, snorkeling, kayaking or fishing.
New less nature-focused activities could be introduced if the Great Outdoors initiative is implemented, such as pickleball, which is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S.
DEP’s reasoning for modifying the park, according to a post on X, is to keep up “with increasing demand by adding additional cabins, pickleball courts and disc golf courses.”
South Florida is no stranger to the pickleball trend. A wave of courts has already hit South Florida in the past couple years, with cities including Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coconut Creek, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach either recently launching new pickleball facilities or planning to in the future.
Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R- Highland Beach, guesses that the motivation for the Great Outdoors plan could be to create more jobs and provide more public recreation opportunities — but she also conceded the initiative seems quite contradictory to DEP’s previous preservation efforts.
Her concerns are similar to many of those outraged on social media: “Find out why this came about, what’s behind it, and who thought of turning our parks into what normally is handled by county and municipalities,” she said.
Gossett-Seidman has previously worked hand-in-hand with the DEP. In June, her legislation, The Safe Waterways Act (House Bill 165), was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis despite overwhelming support from both the state Senate and House. The bill would have increased warnings about potentially hazardous waterway conditions, particularly those that could create health risks.
The DEP “did a great job” in helping Gossett-Seidman with the bill, she said, which is also why the new state park proposals are puzzling, to say the least.
“I’ve not had one letter of support (for the DEP proposal),” she said, rather: “I’ve had several letters of shock and dismay.”
Public meetings for each of the eight affected counties will be held all at the same time from 3 to 4 p.m. on Aug. 27. State law requires “reasonable notice” of public meetings, hearings and workshops at least seven days before the event, a requirement which was just barely met.
A petition titled " Protect Jonathan Dickinson State Park: stop the golf courses!” created Tuesday had more than 60,000 signatures on Thursday afternoon. Audubon Florida created a form that submits letters to DeSantis’ office urging for the abandonment of the Great Outdoors’ proposals.
Lisa Hoffmeyer, who has lived in Hollywood near the Mizell-Eula Johnson Park for more than 25 years, plans to attend the Aug. 27 meeting but has a public comment email drafted if she can’t make it.
“Parks should be left more passive, and I am tired of seeing them pave over our green places,” she said.
The move “feels like an assault on the remaining pieces of the state that kind of feel like old Florida,” said Allie Hartmann, the communications director for Friends of the Everglades.
“The best tool we have in our toolbox right now is the public outrage,” Hartmann said. “This just massive public response is what’s giving us hope that this proposal can be stopped.”
The other state parks that could be affected are:
— Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County
— Hillsborough River State Park in Hillsborough County
— Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County
— Camp Helen State Park in Bay County
— Topsail Hill Preserve in Walton County
— Grayton Beach State Park in Walton County