RALLY CRY: Amendment 1 is not your slush fund!

“What do we want?  Clean water!  How do we get it?  Buy the land!”

“Amendment 1 is not your slush fund!”

“Buy the land!  Send water south!”

These are some of the loudest chants heard on February 18, when 400 activists gathered together at the Floridians for Clean Water & Amendment 1 Rally on the Historic Front Steps of the Capitol Building in Tallahassee. The crowds delivered a resounding message to the Governor and the legislature:



1. Protecting conservation lands is essential to protecting our water resources – we must protect our waters at the source;
2. We must invest in our undeveloped natural areas before they are gone; and
3. We must stop pollution at its source rather than allowing it to enter our waterways.



The historic convergence was a collaboration between the 150 organization-strong Floridians'
Clean Water Declaration Campaign Coalition and the Florida's Water & Land Legacy
Coalition which succeeded in getting the “Amendment 1” land and water conservation constitutional
amendment passed by 75% of Florida voters last November.

Five buses stopped in ten cities across Florida to pick up close to two hundred activists for a trip to Tallahassee for the day (bus rides were between seven and three hours long one-way)!  Others came by carpool and air from as close as the Panhandle and as far as the Florida Keys.  Rally goers and speakers came from every region of the state and represented water quality, land conservation, and wildlife conservation organizations; twenty-six speakers and eight St. Lucie River Kidz filled the two-hour agenda.


After the rally the crowd spread out over the Capitol to talk water
and public lands with decision makers.

Photos can be accessed here and here.  The event received an enormous level of press attention - see here for 20 plus media  hits (that keep on coming).

RALLY SPEAKERS:
Aliki Moncrief (Florida's Water & Land Legacy) - MODERATOR
Ryan Smart (1000 Friends of Florida) - MODERATOR
Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda - (Florida House of Representatives)
Estus Whitfield (Florida Conservation Coalition)
Bill McCollum (Florida Attorney General)
Rep. Mark Pafford (Minority Leader in the Florida House of Representatives)
Jim Stevenson (Wakulla Springs Alliance, Tallahassee)
Preston Robertson (Florida Wildlife Federation, Tallahassee)
Kevin McGorty (Tall Timbers Land Conservancy, Tallahassee)
Shannon Blankinship (St. Johns Riverkeeper and Duval County Soil and Water
Conservation Commission, Jacksonville)


Eric Rollings (Orange County Soil & Water Conservation District)
Laura Dailey (Spectrabusters, Fort White)

Bob Knight (Florida Springs Institute, Gainesville)
Gary Appelson (Sea Turtle Conservancy, Gainesville)
Chuck O’Neal (League of Women Voters of Florida, Orlando)
Dawn Shirreffs (Everglades Foundation, Palmetto Bay)
Katie Tripp (Save the Manatee Club, Maitland)
Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez (Florida House of Representatives)
Leesa Suoto (Marine Resources Council,
Palm Bay)
Cathy Harrelson (Sierra Club, St. Petersburg)
Andy Mele (Suncoast Waterkeeper, Sarasota)
Maggy Hurchalla (Martin County Conservation Alliance)
Mark Perry (Florida Oceanographic Society, Stuart)
Celeste De Palma (Tropical Audubon, Miami)
Millard McCleary (Reef Relief, Key West)
John Scott (Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association – Riverwatch, Ft. Myers)

-- Cris Costello, Senior Organizer, Sierra Club

ALERT: Legislature Seeks Your Input on Amendment One

Florida voters overwhelmingly approved the Florida Water and Land Legacy (Amendment One) by 75 %, more than any other environmental constitutional amendment in the history of the state.  Now the Florida Senate wants to hear what you want them to do as far as making it happen.  

TAKE ACTION:

1) Submit your comment on this website:  http://www.flsenate.gov/Media/Topics/wlc

President Gardiner has given the Environmental Preservation and Conservation committee the job of figuring it out and they’re asking for your input.  Chairman Dean has set up a webpage where you can submit comments on how the legislature should discharge its responsibilities in regard to Amendment One: http://www.flsenate.gov/Media/Topics/wlc The site also has information about the amendment you may find of interest. 

The  Jan. 7 meeting  of Sen. Dean’s committee was devoted to the Amendment and can be seen here: http://flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/EP/  Scroll down to the 2015 Meetings Records box and click on ‘Post Meeting Packet’ and ‘Video’.

2) Meet with your legislators:  Just as important as sending comments to the site is meeting with your legislators, building a relationship with them, and urging them to stand up for the environment.  It will make a big difference if everyone’s legislator knows how important it is to do what the voters expect – restore full funding for water and land conservation.  Remind them of the benefits conservation programs have provided your community – from parks to aquifer recharge to eco-tourism that stimulates the local economy.  You can find talking points and examples of past and future conservation projects organized by county and region at: 

http://floridawaterlandlegacy.org/sections/page/legitoolkit

Find your Rep. and Senator at:http://myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/myrepresentative.aspx andhttp://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find   These sites will take you to each legislator’s page where you’ll find their district addresses and phone numbers.

3) Let me know what your legislator says:  If you talk with your legislators or their staff about Amendment One, please let me know what they say.  That kind of feedback will really help my work as the Sierra Club lobbyist.

Thank you for everything you do for the planet!

David Cullen, Sierra Club Florida lobbyist