Since 2001 Florida has protected more than 2.4 million acres of land through the Florida Forever program. And in 2014 75% of voters said they want tax money to go toward land conservation. Yet, lawmakers have zeroed out Florida Forever funding for three years in a row. We’ll take a look at the history, and future, of Florida Forever with the Nature Conservancy's Land Program Manager, Lindsay Stevens, and Will Abberger, director of The Trust for Public Land’s Conservation Finance service.
We're also joined by Cathy Olson, Conservation Lands Manager with Lee County Parks & Recreation to discuss Conservation 20/20, the county's environmentally-sensitive land acquisition and stewardship program. This program, which preserves and protects environmentally critical land in Lee County for the benefit of present and future generations in Southwest Florida, has acquired 128 properties totalling more than 25,000 acres since 1996.
