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Everglades crusaders have history on their side

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published February 5, 2006

Allison DeFoor would be on a lot of people's list of "most interesting Floridians." At a youthful 52, his resume so far includes:

County judge.

Circuit judge.

Crusading sheriff of Monroe County (the Florida Keys).

Unsuccessful Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in 1990. (I still have a "D4" campaign button in my collection.)

Former czar of Everglades policy under Gov. Jeb Bush.

More recently, DeFoor earned a doctor of divinity degree from the Florida Center for Theological Studies. As he already had a law degree, he now has both ends of the spectrum covered.

DeFoor is a native of Pinellas County and a descendant of founding pioneer Odet Philippe, about whom he has written a book. These days he lives in Wakulla County and is state coordinator for a private environmental restoration firm.

Last week, he was on the campus of the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg, wearing his former czar's hat to deliver a talk titled "Everglades Restoration: 40 Years and $13 Billion."

Some of what he had to say was a surprise. For example, if you are an enviro-warrior, you will not be happy to hear his mild views toward the sugar industry.

"I would say bluntly," DeFoor opined, "that Big Sugar has gotten a rawer deal than it deserves." Pointing out that the dairy industry shares the historical blame for Everglades pollution, he noted: "Big Milk just doesn't stick as a label."

Neither, DeFoor said, would it be wise for the country to cut off subsidies to the sugar industry overnight. There's no way Florida could afford to buy that much land so fast to protect it, meaning it almost certainly would be developed, he argued.

I only partly agree. True, the sugar industry has cooperated in bringing down pollution levels. But as recently as a couple of years ago, there were still sneaky attempts in the Legislature to reraise pollution standards, and to make it harder for the state to acquire land. Not very nice. I don't trust those guys.

As for DeFoor's other point - that if we shut down sugar at once, development is the only alternative - surely that depends on the gumption and the will of the people of Florida.

DeFoor gave an audience of about 60 an entertaining and useful thumbnail history of the Everglades, and how 5-million unique square miles were whittled down to 2.5-million over the past century.

In a sense, DeFoor said, it was a battle of men vs. women. The save-the-Glades movement was born of women's clubs and state organizations in the early 1900s, even as the men who ran the state charged full speed ahead to drain and develop the land. That was the principal platform of Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward in 1904.

The next year, the Coconut Grove Garden Club, led by a crusading Boston transplant named Mary Barr Monroe, began campaigning to save the Everglades. The movement spread to statewide women's organizations.

Florida's first female member of Congress, Ruth Bryan Owen (daughter of William Jennings Bryan), worked to have the park designated. Later, the daughter of a Miami editor wrote a book about the Everglades that got a little attention. Her name was Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and her book was The Everglades: River of Grass.

The double whammy of ruined water flow and pollution destroyed much of the Everglades. Some of the species that lived there fled or died, and exotic new invaders threatened the rest.

But today, at least, the state and federal government are undoing some of the damage. And we are close - not there yet, but close - to reducing pollution to the point that it stops doing damage.

"After 101 years," DeFoor concluded, "the ladies of the Coconut Grove Garden Club won."

With respect for my old friend, I would add "if." If we see the pollution reduction through. If we finish the engineering. If we don't let bad guys sneak anything into the law. And if we don't trade Big Sugar for Big Pavement. Then, he'll be right.

[Last modified February 5, 2006, 01:21:06]