For the past four years, Kathy Barco has chaired an organization that battles government regulation.
Now Barco will be among those writing the rules.
Gov. Jeb Bush recently appointed her to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency in charge of protecting manatees, panthers, sea turtles and a host of other species.
Barco, 45, of Jacksonville, said there's no conflict between her new job and her longtime role with the Southeastern Legal Foundation, which has repeatedly argued against rules limiting private property rights.
"I don't see a concern," Barco said. "It's a conservative law foundation. . . . I don't run the organization," she said of the agency, which also has an executive director. "I just believe in what they do."
"I'd be highly surprised if she was going to be a friend of fish and wildlife and public lands issues in Florida," said Frank Jackalone, Florida representative of the Sierra Club. He described the foundation as "archconservative and antienvironment."
He and other activists said Barco's appointment is part of a trend during the governor's two terms of "retreating from what had been seen as strong environmental positions."
Jackalone pointed out that Bush started as a strong defender of the Everglades, but last year approved a measure delaying deadlines for cleaning up pollution in the River of Grass.
Similarly, Bush formed a blue-ribbon panel to recommend improvements to the state's growth management laws, then failed to implement any substantive changes, he said.
Given that trend, "I think she's a pretty typical Jeb Bush appointment," said Patti Thompson of the Save the Manatee Club.
The governor's press office did not respond to repeated requests for comment about Barco.
Barco is a Florida native whose family's roots here go back to the 1700s. Her love of Florida is what led her to seek the wildlife commission seat, she said.
A real estate broker, she is president of Barco-Duval Engineering, a family-owned heavy construction company whose motto is "We Move the Earth For You."
The company has won government contracts on such projects as adding lanes to State Road A1A in Nassau County, building levees for the St. Johns River Water Management District and constructing drainage facilities for a Clay County landfill.
Barco is an avid angler who also enjoys skeet shooting and, occasionally, hunting and water skiing. She owns a 45-foot boat.
"Given the opportunity to do anything, I would go fishing," she said. "You can get in the ocean, and nobody can reach you by phone. It's your time."
She belongs to two hunting organizations, Safari Club International and Ducks Unlimited, and is a former Florida representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Since 1995 she has served on the board of trustees of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, an Atlanta nonprofit that challenges government rules ranging from immigration to the public display of the Ten Commandments.
The foundation has fought to overturn Atlanta's affirmative action policies and to prevent the granting of medical and other benefits to same-sex partners of employees.
"We're the conservative alternative to the ACLU," said foundation spokesman Todd Young.
Seeing someone from that organization appointed to a government agency charged with protecting the environment "raises a red flag," said Chris DeScherer, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Atlanta.
Barco's father was on the foundation's board until he died, Young said.
Barco has served as chairwoman since 2000.
Other board members include former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former Republican Sen. Mack Mattingly, Heritage Foundation co-founder Edward Noble and conservative commentator Phil Kent, author of The Dark Side of Liberalism: Unchaining the Truth.
The foundation, begun in 1976, reaped its biggest publicity bonanza when it pushed for former President Bill Clinton to be disbarred for lying under oath. The foundation declared victory when Clinton accepted a five-year suspension from the Arkansas bar and was assessed a $25,000 fine.
The foundation has spent 28 years fighting against government regulation of private property rights. It is representing the Greater Atlanta Home Builders and National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in a federal court challenge to Atlanta's impact fee program, and preparing a lawsuit against the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to challenge the way fines are assessed.
The foundation has been particularly active on wetlands issues, contending that government regulations on private property are in effect a government taking of the land.
"We're not antienvironment," Young said. "We would rather describe it as pro property rights."
Barco said she would not base her decisions solely on ideology.
"I base my decisions on facts," she said. "Everything is a balance. There's somebody way to the right, and somebody way to the left, and I listen to all the facts and make an educated decision."
The government agency that Barco is joining manages all fish and wildlife in the state. It oversees areas where hunters can track deer and other game, imposes and enforces speed zones for boaters that are supposed to protect manatees and reviews development permits in wetlands.
Seven unpaid commissioners run the agency, all of them appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. The last time any appointee ran into trouble during confirmation was in 1997 when Gov. Lawton Chiles' nominee withdrew amid allegations of cocaine use, lying, assault and animal cruelty.
Barco is not the first property rights activist Bush has appointed.
Another wildlife commissioner, lobbyist Brian Yablonski, is an adjunct fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Montana, which contends that private landowners can do a better job of protecting environmentally sensitive land than the government.
Records show Barco has contributed about $10,000 to Republican candidates, including the governor and his brother, President Bush.
The man she's replacing on the wildlife commission, apartment builder John Rood, is a major fundraiser for the Bushes who recently was named ambassador to the Bahamas.
Times staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
