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Natural Florida Can Pay Off

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2007

It's not just land being developed that pumps money into Florida's economy. The state Department of Environmental Protection recently completed a study that found state parks contributed $936 million to local economies during the last year.

This is direct economic impact - money spent by nonlocal park visitors and by park operations.

The state's 161 parks, the study found, generated 18,700 jobs and attracted 19.5 million visitors.

Among the parks that had the greatest economic impact were St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, which contributed $47 million; Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin, which contributed $42 million; and John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, which contributed $38.3 million.

Preserving springs, rivers, beaches and wilderness is not just good environmental policy, it can be a smart economic policy as well.

We hope state and local officials as well as landowners will consider DEP's finding and recognize that sometimes the biggest payoff from natural land might come from simply leaving it alone.

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