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Stop the rock mine. Save the Everglades.

The future of Everglades restoration depends on one thing above all: acquiring the land we need to send clean water south. And right now, a dangerous project is reminding us exactly what happens when we fail to protect that land south of Lake Okeechobee. You may have heard that the Southland rock mine (a mining proposal backed by Big Sugar) wants to blast away 8,600 acres just north of the EAA Reservoir. The proposal offers no verified environmental benefit and has no approved role in Everglades restoration plans.  Despite what sugar’s high-paid lobbyists claim, this is not a water project — it's a taxpayer-funded rock mine designed to make the already rich even richer. Plain and simple: This is [...]

2026-10-19T16:28:50-04:00April 16th, 2025|Rescue the River of Grass, Southland Rock Mine|
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WATCH NOW – Did you miss our live 2025 mid-session report?

https://www.youtube.com/live/oH3QuY2SN5I?si=R0AG_h7o_0BnwF5C We are halfway through Florida’s 2025 legislative session. Today's livestream with Executive Director Eve Samples and Policy Director Gil Smart led us through the key updates surrounding the state parks legislation, shining a light on how your voices have made a real difference throughout this process.  As Gil pointed out today, the worst thing that could happen is we celebrate the passage of a weak bill with loopholes that leave us back at square one — with harmful development threatening state parks again. Friends of the Everglades will persist in working to strengthen state law to safeguard state parks from future attacks.  (One point of clarification: The amendment to SB 80 referenced at the end of this video [...]

2025-04-15T15:18:56-04:00April 15th, 2025|Florida Legislative Tracker, Florida Legislature, Friends of the Everglades LIVE|
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Friends of the Everglades 2025 Florida Legislature: Mid-session report

With less than three weeks left in the 2025 Florida Legislative session, huge questions remain. On the state parks issue, a pair of bills filed to prevent the inappropriate development proposals that generated a political firestorm last summer recently picked up steam as a result of amendments that tightened the language. Friends of the Everglades and other conservation groups were concerned about loopholes in the bills, House Bill 209 and Senate Bill 80, that could have allowed damaging development in our state parks. But in early April HB 209 sponsor Rep. John Snyder amended his bill to eliminate those loopholes, allowing Friends to support the proposal as it passed its final committee stop. It was then approved by the [...]

2025-04-17T15:08:52-04:00April 15th, 2025|Florida Legislative Tracker, Florida Legislature|
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WATCH NOW — A WIN for state parks in Tallahassee

https://youtu.be/e4PmMBgalVk?si=Ln4nc9WaycGhVEAP From Florida's state capitol, Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples brings you your Voice of the Everglades update: Every now and then, the good guys score a win in Tallahassee. That’s exactly what happened last Tuesday, when a bill to protect state parks from harmful development was amended to close a couple of gaping loopholes. Friends of the Everglades and our allies have been working hard to ensure the threats we saw last summer – golf courses, hotel-like lodges, pickleball courts – don’t reemerge in our cherished state parks.  State Rep. John Snyder, the lead sponsor in the House, listened to our concerns and responded with an amendment to HB 209 that gets the job done. [...]

2025-04-11T16:19:43-04:00April 14th, 2025|Florida Legislative Tracker, Florida Legislature, Save Florida's State Parks, Voice of the Everglades|
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2025 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Legacy Celebration Highlights

Thank you for joining us at the 4th Annual Marjory Stoneman Douglas Legacy Celebration at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables! Your presence helped make the day a truly inspiring tribute to Marjory’s life’s work — and a powerful reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the Everglades. The day featured moving remarks from Clyde Butcher and his daughter, Jackie Obendorf, and honored Richard Grosso for his decades of legal work defending Florida’s wild spaces — including a surprise proclamation from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. We are so grateful to all who joined us. Your support helps carry Marjory’s vision forward. Being surrounded by so many passionate advocates was incredibly uplifting. Take a look at some [...]

2025-04-09T14:14:40-04:00April 9th, 2025|Marjory Stoneman Douglas Legacy Celebration|
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Florida Sportsman calls on the state of Florida to BUY THE LAND for Everglades restoration

Florida Sportsman has been a household name since its first publication in 1969. The magazine now joins Friends of the Everglades in the effort to Rescue the River of Grass — and breaks down the reasons you should, too, in its latest issue. 🐊The plan is simple: Buy land south of Lake Okeechobee to store and clean water before it’s sent south to the Everglades. ⏰ Why now? Amendment 1 generates over $1 billion a year from real estate sales for public land purchase and will continue to do so for the next 10 years.  💭 It’s not a new idea: We’ve always known that more land south of Lake Okeechobee is key to Everglades restoration. Florida Sportsman championed [...]

2025-04-04T06:18:27-04:00April 7th, 2025|All Posts, Rescue the River of Grass|
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Your moment of Everglades zen: Baby birds mark the arrival of spring at Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Wakodahatchee Wetlands bursts with new life Each year, the spring equinox brings new life and longer days.  I first noticed signs of spring while driving to the Friends of the Everglades office in early March. The bright yellow blooms of tabebuia trees light up Ocean Boulevard in Stuart.  This year, cold fronts extending deep into March offered crisp mornings and breezy evenings worthy of longer walks and outdoor dinners. Without a doubt, my favorite part of spring is an annual visit to Wakodahatchee Wetlands, where dozens of bird nests burst with new life. South Florida nature photographers and nature lovers flock to the [...]

2025-03-31T14:07:13-04:00April 1st, 2025|All Posts, Everglades Zen|
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Your voices were heard — damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges are ending March 29

Finally some good news! After almost four months of damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just announced they will close the gates to the St. Lucie and scale flows to the Caloosahatchee back to 1,400 cubic feet per second — within the beneficial range — on Saturday, March 29. Note that remaining flows going west are necessary to maintain optimal salinity. These discharges began back on December 7 under the premise of “Lake Okeechobee recovery,” with no guarantee they’d improve the health of the lake — while our estuaries paid the price. Thanks to nearly 3,000 of you who joined us in sending messages to Col. Brandon Bowman, the Army Corps has finally complied. [...]

2025-03-27T14:50:09-04:00March 27th, 2025|Lake Okeechobee, Rescue the River of Grass|
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Tropical Audubon’s Rock Salt: “The Science Is Clear — Rescue the River of Grass”

https://youtu.be/02fEeG7bY8Y?si=_atwkpWcP0Hg7MZZ “For decades, people have acknowledged the need for substantially more land in the EAA area… Now we must act before it’s too late." — Rock Salt, Tropical Audubon Society Few understand the history and challenges of Everglades restoration better than Terrence “Rock” Salt, former commander of the Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Now a citizen advocate who serves as Vice President of Tropical Audubon Society in Miami, he says one fact has remained unchanged over the decades: Restoring the Everglades requires more land, more dynamic water storage, and more water-cleansing marshes in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) south of Lake Okeechobee. Rock sees a logical and timely path forward in the campaign to Rescue [...]

2025-03-24T17:46:58-04:00March 25th, 2025|Rescue the River of Grass|
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