The state and federal government withheld the truth. We’re fighting back.

At Friends of the Everglades, we don’t just protect Florida’s water and wild places.

We hold government officials accountable when they fall down on the job. 

That’s exactly why we’re back in court.

Last Wednesday, we filed an updated lawsuit against the state and federal government in our case against “Alligator Alcatraz,” the mass detention camp the government recklessly built in the middle of the Everglades. We detailed how the state and federal defendants withheld key information from the courts last summer — delaying justice, and allowing the Everglades to be harmed for a year. 

The defendants misled the court by representing that Florida hadn’t applied for federal funding. They used that as an excuse to dodge compliance with the federal law we sued under: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

However, we now know the state had submitted a formal FEMA application on Aug. 7, 2025 — in the midst of our court hearings on Alligator Alcatraz — and was later approved for a $608 million grant. The defendants never disclosed this to the trial court or the appellate court. Instead, the appellate court relied on their misrepresentation to overturn a preliminary injunction that we had won, and activity at Alligator Alcatraz was allowed to resume. You can read more about our latest action in this good report from WGCU News.

Setting the record straight matters. It’s especially important now, as our country’s bedrock environmental protections are under assault by our own government. 

Our updated lawsuit also brings new claims under the Endangered Species Act. We’re committed to staying the course to protect Big Cypress with our fellow plaintiffs at Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe.

This is the kind of hard work we’ve been doing since our founding in 1969 by Marjory Stoneman Douglas. We’re honored to do it at this moment in history, when so much is at stake.

None of it would be possible without you — and we thank you for standing with us.

For the Everglades,
Eve Samples