The pursuit of our mission: A call for decisive action and commitment
By Rob Moher | Conservancy of Southwest Florida President & CEO
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has long been a highly respected conservation organization with a clear focus and mission: we are here to protect Southwest Florida’s water, land, wildlife and our collective future. We do so through the use of science-based policy and advocacy, scientific field work and research, wildlife rehabilitation and through the delivery of environmental education programs on site at the Nature Center and throughout the community.
In the course of our history, there have been key moments where the Conservancy chose to pursue legal avenues to accomplish a critical conservation goal. What has driven those decisions, and why is it today that we are involved in one of the most important legal cases in our history? I believe it is important that we communicate to you, our members and supporters, as to how we make investments in conservation. We are a Charity Navigator four-star rated organization because of our transparency and organizational effectiveness on the ground.
For the Conservancy Board of Directors and senior leadership team, making decisions together regarding legal undertakings, has always been a key principle. Secondly, legal options are only brought forth after all other efforts have been exhausted. We truly stand by the principle of “providing solutions, not just opposition” to those projects or issues we are addressing. We have always been willing to roll up our sleeves to work out the details to find a better way forward knowing that we may not always get everything we feel is necessary, but enough to ensure we are protecting key facets of our environment.
The development of the now award-winning community of Pelican Bay is a perfect example. In this case, Westinghouse originally proposed a development footprint that would have heavily impacted the existing ecological assets in the area including coastal dunes, mangrove forests and water flow. After unsuccessful attempts at offering policy prescriptions to the original plan, it was under the threat of legal action by the Conservancy that negotiations created a compromise that allowed development, but set aside far greater natural areas and protected many key ecological functions that would otherwise have been destroyed. Was it a perfect solution? No. Was it quantifiably a better outcome than without the threat of legal action? Yes.
Today, we see the same pattern playing out in eastern Collier County. For nearly 20 years, the Conservancy has been attending nearly every workshop, Planning and County Commission hearing, and submitting countless technical and policy comments and solutions. Our goal has always been simple and straightforward: to ensure that future development in eastern Collier County will not damage the wildlife that also call Collier County their home — like the Florida Panther and 16 other listed and threatened species — and to ensure that development complies with the smart growth principles that are the foundation of Collier County’s Growth Management Plan. By ensuring that future developments are located away from environmentally sensitive lands, and are compact, walkable and fiscally neutral, among other features, smart growth benefits everyone — wildlife, future residents and current citizens of Collier County. The Conservancy has even created and shared a comprehensive vision map that would allow reasonable levels and locations for smart growth in eastern Collier County.
Despite all of these efforts, in early 2020, the County approved Rivergrass Village — another sprawling gated community, situated primarily on primary panther habitat and the antithesis of smart growth, with the false promise of being fiscally neutral. We had exhausted all other options and were left with no other choice but to legally challenge that decision.
Undertaking a legal challenge against our own county is not a step the Conservancy takes lightly. However, the pursuit of our mission is why we exist. If we are not willing to stand up for precedent-setting issues that will fundamentally impact thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive lands, then we do not deserve the mantle of being called the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
We are here to serve our community by protecting our land, water and wildlife and securing a better future for ourselves and future generations. This is the mission of the Conservancy that we serve proudly, and we are grateful that as supporters and members, you support the need for decisive action and commitment.
