VoteWater

04/08/2026

Appellate court decision on whether to uphold order shutting down Alligator Alcatraz rests on the question of who has control over it

04/08/2026

At this point they'd be better off renaming "Florida Forever" as "Florida Never"

Building something large and enduring, like a house, requires both funding and tools. Without funds, nothing can be built. Without the right tools, the job becomes harder, slower or even

04/07/2026

Update - big day in court today, remains to be seen how the judges rule

04/07/2026

04/06/2026

Big week

April 7, 2026, brings our next big day in court. That’s when we appear before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown Miami for oral arguments in an attempt to halt harmful activity at the ICE detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

With us, we will have an expert legal team, a wealth of scientific evidence and 57-year legacy of protecting the Everglades — a legacy born from the very site we are still fighting to protect.

April 7 also marks the birth date of our founder, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who helped lead the successful charge against the Everglades Jetport on this same land in 1969.

We’re taking this synchronicity as a hopeful sign. A lot is at stake, but Marjory’s environmental legacy is on our side.

Will you stand with us?

04/02/2026

Jose Javier Rodriguez is the real deal. He’s stood up for clean water and the Everglades, and stood against corruption, a massive problem in Florida politics. He’s the clear choice in the Attorney General race, and VoteWater is proud to endorse him.

VoteWater, a South Florida clean-water advocacy group, has endorsed Jose Javier Rodriguez for Florida Attorney General. “We’re proud to endorse Jose Javier Rodriguez,” said Gil Smart, VoteWater Executive Director. “As a member of the Florida Legislature, he stood up to…

04/02/2026

Of course this bill will be back. Bad ideas in Tallahassee are like vampires, always rising from the dead.

A proposal to spur intense development in some of the most rural areas of the state died in the final days of the regular legislative session, due largely to strong opposition from Republican senators who declared that their constituents didn’t want any part of it. While its critics cheered the id...

04/01/2026

Ummm...

The "God Squad" voted unanimously to remove protections for Gulf animals, for "security." It's not the first time federal agencies cited the "energy emergency" to avoid rules meant to protect animals.

03/31/2026

This is probably true but the LAST thing we want is a year-round Legislature doing favors for special interests and making our water dirtier year-round

Lawmakers don’t always finish their work in a regular session, and their pay — less than $30,000 a year — means only those with other incomes, and an ability to be in Tallahassee for weeks at a time, can serve, they say.

03/31/2026

"As winters are warming up, invasive fish species such as the Mayan cichlid are surviving year-round and expanding into new waterways, disrupting their ecosystems. This trend is not only being accelerated due to climate change but also by canal systems and large-scale restoration projects, allowing them different pathways to move."

Tropical fish such as the Mayan cichlid are expanding into new waterways, disrupting their ecosystems.

03/31/2026

Understand, Florida's leaders don't really want to preserve wetlands - they get in the way of development.

The ruling upheld a previous judge's ruling that said the federal government giving control over building in Florida's wetlands to the state could imperil endangered species like the Florida panther.

03/30/2026

Sure, Florida could grow smarter. But there's a tremendous amount of money behind our current pattern of stupid growth, growth at all costs. And, with that much money involved, there's no incentive to grow smarter. The only thing that will change Florida's ways are when the problems created by stupid growth become so severe that we have no choice.