Environmentalists scooped green sludge from polluted water in South Florida and brought it to the Capitol Tuesday to urge lawmakers to buy nearly 47 thousand acres of Everglades wilderness.
Advocates are charging lawmakers with violating Amendment 1.
Audubon of Florida executive director Eric Draper says buying agricultural acres owned by U.S. Sugar is what voters had in mind when they approved the constitutional mandate.
“The voters said by 75 percent to put the money into the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to buy land and some of the land we want is in the Everglades Agricultural Area.”
Amendment 1 sets aside some 750 million dollars this year from an existing tax, and lawmakers are proposing diverting some 235 million of it to a handful of state agencies for what they say is land management.
