DeSantis restores money to buy lands in the Florida Wildlife Corridor
By Steve Newborn
July 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM EDT
The $200 million had been swept from the corridor acquisition money by state lawmakers — before a line-item veto reversed that move.
What first looked like a veto by Gov. Ron DeSantis for money to buy land in the statewide wildlife corridor is actually a shifting of funds. The $200 million will be restored to help preserve sensitive lands.
The money appeared on a list of items vetoed by the governor as he signed the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
But it turns out he reinstated money that had been swept by lawmakers from funds previously set aside for land acquisition.
ALSO READ: The group spearheading the Florida Wildlife Corridor gets a $1 million boost
Jason Lauritsen, chief conservation officer of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, said the veto keeps money in the pot to purchase environmentally sensitive land.
"The House and Senate had recommended pulling some of that back into general revenue and taking it out of land acquisition, and the governor's veto basically restores $200 million back into the acquisition funding pool available for Florida Forever," he said.
He said having a consistent source of money is essential for land purchases.
"It enables staff to be efficient, to plan ahead," he said. "Having that $200 million in there for continuing to move deals along the pipeline - that's important. Some of the land deals are pretty complex, and they're not things that you can do over the course of a few weeks."
The money will be used to buy key links in the proposed Florida wildlife corridor around the northern Everglades and between two national forests in north Florida. Those are the Ocala to Osceola Corridor and the Caloosahatchee Big Cypress Land Acquisition Project. There was a funding appropriation of $850 million in 2023 for those two projects, but there was a sizable chunk left, Lauritsen said.
Map of the Osceola National Forest to Ocala National Forest corridor (768x994, AR: 0.772635814889336)
"Those are both part of what the Center for Landscape Conservation plans model shows as critical linkages there," Lauritsen said. "There's a lot of really high-quality habitat in both of these regions of the state, and securing those connections would be a big deal. So it's very important funding."
The money is especially important because the new state budget sets aside only $18 million for the Florida Forever preservation program. That's down from $229 million that was allocated in the 2024-25 budget. That was the highest appropriation for the program in 16 years, in a budget that was padded with federal dollars from the previous administration.
A lot more money is being directed into a program that pays farmers and ranchers along the wildlife corridor not to develop their land. About $250 million is going to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. That's up from $100 million in last year's budget.
Map of the Big Cypress Preserve to Caloosahatchee River corridor links (1978x2560, AR: 0.77265625)
The money appeared on a list of items vetoed by the governor as he signed the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
But it turns out he reinstated money that had been swept by lawmakers from funds previously set aside for land acquisition.
ALSO READ: The group spearheading the Florida Wildlife Corridor gets a $1 million boost
Jason Lauritsen, chief conservation officer of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, said the veto keeps money in the pot to purchase environmentally sensitive land.
"The House and Senate had recommended pulling some of that back into general revenue and taking it out of land acquisition, and the governor's veto basically restores $200 million back into the acquisition funding pool available for Florida Forever," he said.
He said having a consistent source of money is essential for land purchases.
"It enables staff to be efficient, to plan ahead," he said. "Having that $200 million in there for continuing to move deals along the pipeline - that's important. Some of the land deals are pretty complex, and they're not things that you can do over the course of a few weeks."
The money will be used to buy key links in the proposed Florida wildlife corridor around the northern Everglades and between two national forests in north Florida. Those are the Ocala to Osceola Corridor and the Caloosahatchee Big Cypress Land Acquisition Project. There was a funding appropriation of $850 million in 2023 for those two projects, but there was a sizable chunk left, Lauritsen said.
Map of the Osceola National Forest to Ocala National Forest corridor (768x994, AR: 0.772635814889336)
"Those are both part of what the Center for Landscape Conservation plans model shows as critical linkages there," Lauritsen said. "There's a lot of really high-quality habitat in both of these regions of the state, and securing those connections would be a big deal. So it's very important funding."
The money is especially important because the new state budget sets aside only $18 million for the Florida Forever preservation program. That's down from $229 million that was allocated in the 2024-25 budget. That was the highest appropriation for the program in 16 years, in a budget that was padded with federal dollars from the previous administration.
A lot more money is being directed into a program that pays farmers and ranchers along the wildlife corridor not to develop their land. About $250 million is going to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. That's up from $100 million in last year's budget.
Map of the Big Cypress Preserve to Caloosahatchee River corridor links (1978x2560, AR: 0.77265625)