Sunshine Sentinel

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, wide ranging legislation to spend $400 million to help protect the state’s natural areas that was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this month, is an example to the world, a naturalist said.

National Geographic Explorer and Path of the Panther Founder Carlton Ward Jr. expressed his gratitude for the new legislation in a joint statement issued by the governor's office on July 19.

Gov. Ron DeSantis at the launch of a new literacy initiative on July 22 | twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/

"I thank Governor DeSantis and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for their investment in the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act," Ward said in the statement. "Through their leadership, Florida will set a global example for how world-class natural areas, like the Everglades; rare and endangered wildlife, like the Florida panther; and a robust and growing economy can thrive together.”

DeSantis announced he'd signed the active, Senate Bill 976, during a July 19 press conference at the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Wilderness Preserve. The governor was joined at the press conference by Ward and "champions of land conservation," DeSantis said in a Twitter post that day, adding that the act is "the result of decades of work by numerous scientists and conservation organizations to address habitat loss in Florida."

"This landmark legislation, combined with the $300 million investment in the Florida Leads budget, provides Florida with the opportunity to increase progress towards protecting our lands for future generations," DeSantis said in a reply to his Twitter post.

The Leads budget funding is in addition to $100 million allocated to the Florida Forever program, according to the joint statement.

The funding can be used to acquire Florida Wildlife Corridor lands, according to the  joint statement.

The act designates the 18 million square-mile Florida Wildlife Corridor, which included about 10 million acres in conservation lands, "as an existing physical, geographically defined area," the joint statement said.

"The Florida Wildlife Corridor relies on and continues the decades of work by numerous scientists and conservation organizations that recognize landscape-scale conservation approaches, and specifically corridors, as a way to address habitat loss and fragmentation across Florida," the joint statement said.

The act unanimously passed the Senate on April 22 and the House, also unanimously, four days later.

DeSantis, in the joint statement, thanked the Legislature.

"Today we celebrate another milestone of this year’s legislative session, which was a resounding success for Florida’s environment," DeSantis said in the joint statement. "I thank the legislature for their support of this landmark legislation that will conserve critical natural ecosystems and working landscapes for the protection of Florida’s unique and diverse wildlife while preserving Florida’s green spaces for generations to come."