Discover Top Posts Tagged with #state parks

Smith Rock State Park

Terrebonne, Oregon

Bob Cronk

#smith rock #State parks #oregon #terrebonne #nature #nature photography #bob cronk #landscape #pnw #trees #mountains #landscapes #hiking #camping #photographers on tumblr #original photographers #original photography #photography on tumblr #bob cronk photography

Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Gardens. location: San Francisco, California, USA

The employee’s dismissal letter, shared with the Tampa Bay Times, said he released ‘unauthorized’ information to the public.

James Gaddis had just returned home Saturday afternoon when he found a dismissal letter waiting on his Tallahassee townhouse’s doorstep.

The former two-year Florida Department of Environmental Protection employee told the Tampa Bay Times he was the one who leaked information about the state’s plans to build golf courses, 350-room hotels, pickleball courts and more at nine state parks, including two in the Tampa Bay area.

Now, the agency appears to be firing him, according to a copy of the letter shared with the Times.

Gaddis, 41, who was hired by the agency as a cartographer, said his actions weren’t political, and that there were two main reasons he chose to speak out: The rushed secrecy that was behind the park plans, and the vast environmental destruction that would be caused if they were to be completed.

“It was the absolute flagrant disregard for the critical, globally imperiled habitat in these parks,” Gaddis said in an interview Tuesday morning. Gaddis said he was tasked with making the proposed conceptual land use maps that depicted the golf courses and other developments. Two proposals were especially egregious in his eyes: The Jonathan Dickinson State Park golf course, and the 350-room hotel at Anastasia State Park.

“This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat,” Gaddis said. He recalls his hand, hovering over a computer mouse, shaking with anger and frustration as he was told to rush his maps from senior leadership. “The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.”

…

Gaddis said the directive was coming straight from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office, and that the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Cody Farrill, was the liaison between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection senior leadership and the governor’s office. Farrill and a DeSantis spokesperson have not responded to requests for comment.

#whistleblowers #wildlife conservation #environmental protection #florida #state parks #fuck the gop

Russian Gulch State Park Mendocino, CA

©morningcallsphotography

#photography #lensblr #photoblr #photographers on tumblr #nature #russian gulch state park #norcal #california #west coast #mendocino #california state parks #state parks #travel #hiking #travel photography #fern canyon to falls loop trail #morningcallsphotography

I need y'all who protested the golf courses being put into state parks to put the same energy into protesting Senate Bill 290. Those same parks that we fought to keep golf courses off of (and all of the others, plus more protected preserved land!) are now going to be able to be bought for private use, used for farming, or be taken away from preservation.

Lawmakers want to turn state parks into cattle farms and privately owned land. HAVE THE SAME ENERGY.