MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — The impact to wildlife has many people pushing back on a plan from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
“This is our Lorax moment,” said Tim Brown, the director of education at the Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital.
Brown and the entire staff are sounding the alarm.
“It would be destruction of habitat,” said Brown. “Our state parks are made to save that stuff, not to pave that stuff.”
Michael Roger, a rehabber at the Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital told WPTV that replacing natural land with golf courses will threaten a variety of different species. This includes the gopher tortoises, whose dens help 250 species in the park.
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“Any kind of construction out over that scrub land is definitely going to affect the little guys,” said Rogers. “They’re a keystone species and many other species rely upon them to keep their habitat for themselves.”
WPTV met with Shannon McGee, an animal services officer from the Martin County Sheriffs Office. McGee said that this development plan could make their job even harder.
“We're already just stretched so thin as a unit, because there's so many more houses being built and put in,” said McGee. “The wildlife is being chased out.”
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McGee said she fears more land loss will make the situation on the Treasure Coast worse.
“We take away this property,” said McGee. “There only going to be so few places left for them to go.”
Brown said once the habitat is gone…it’s gone.
“You don't get to go back,” said Brown. “We can save, we can't recreate.”
MORE WPTV COVERAGE OF THE STATE PARK PROPOSAL:
