‘Not for sale:’ Third day of protests erupt outside Honeymoon Island State Park

The message was clear from more than 200 people gathered outside the entrance of Honeymoon Island State Park on Tuesday:

Florida’s state parks are not for sale.

It was the third day of protests in front of Florida’s busiest state park after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection last week unveiled plans for major developments at nine parks, including golf courses, two hotels, cabins, pickleball courts and more.

While the groups behind the golf course plan have backed down, state environmental regulators have not indicated that they are abandoning their sweeping statewide initiative that has unleashed a flurry of bipartisan opposition.

At Honeymoon Island, the state wants to pave 7,200 square feet for four pickleball courts.

“I don’t know anyone who moves to our state for our concrete and asphalt,” said Jeff Gow, a city of Dunedin commissioner.

He told the crowd of cheering protestors that he was upset to learn from Tampa Bay Times reporting Monday that the state secretly gave a luxury golf course company more than 300 acres of state forest land in a land swap.

Instead of investing in pickleball courts, Gow said the state should consider funding initiatives that the public has signaled they wanted added on Honeymoon Island: Kayak launches, mangrove trails and maybe an observation tower on Caladesi Island.

“Those are the types of amenities that we should be talking about,” he said.

Spokespeople for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have not answered questions from the Times about the controversy since Sunday. Spokespeople for Gov. Ron DeSantis haven’t answered questions since Thursday. While the state agency was initially defending the proposal online, it has since gone quiet as statewide opposition continues to mount.

On Saturday, the Times reported that a nonprofit veterans group, Folds of Honor, had previously floated the idea of building a golf course on Jonathan Dickinson State Park land to a state senator and a Martin County commissioner. Both told the nonprofit staff that it was a bad idea. In April, the group’s founder, Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, sat down one-on-one with DeSantis. That was one day before the start of the annual Masters golf tournament.

At 67, Kevin Reilly would appear to be the target audience for the state’s plan to put pickleball courts in at least seven state parks. He plays the sport multiple times a week, he lives a few minutes away and visits the park weekly. But even Reilly said he’s against the plan for courts.

“I play pickleball all the time at the YMCA. And that’s where the courts belong,” Reilly said. His shirt was drenched in sweat after he hiked five miles around the park Tuesday morning. But he didn’t want to miss the protest. “I come out here to enjoy nature, and we need to keep it that way: nature.”

Some statewide protests occurred simultaneously at 2 p.m. Tuesday and were originally scheduled at that time to be an hour before the state planned to hold its concurrent, hour-long and in-person-only meetings about their proposed changes. Facing a wave of outcry and accusations that Floridians were not giving enough time to allow for public feedback, the agency has postponed its meetings to the week of Sept. 2.

This week, if the Florida agency wants to abide by Florida law and stand by that Sept. 2 date, it needs to announce new meeting times and venues to accommodate the likely thousands of people who will show up to voice their concerns over the plans.

Lauren Gay, a 43-year-old blogger and podcaster from Wesley Chapel who goes by Outdoorsy Diva, said when she first heard of the plan, not only was she “deeply concerned,” she was “also, frankly, pissed off.”

Gay’s mission is to inspire Black women and people of color to step out of their comfort zones for new experiences, to use nature as therapy and to embrace outdoor recreation. Data gathered by the National Park Service in 2018 showed less than 1 percent of visitors were Black, and Asian and Latino parkgoers made up less than 1 percent. Gay is trying to change that through her advocacy, she said.

She has since taken to her social media accounts to share updates about the park saga, including citing the Times reporting, and advocated for her audience to reach out to lawmakers with their concerns.

Standing behind a lectern with dozens of people behind her with posters, Gay decried the secrecy surrounding the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s state park plans.

“If you got to do it in secrecy, then we already know all that we need to know,” Gay told the cheering crowd.