Can the Florida Keys Become a National Park?

September 28, 3:14 PMNational Parks Recreation ExaminerRandi Minetor

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National Park Service photo: Loggerhead Key

Would the National Park Service be interested in saving endangered land in the Florida Keys by making it a national park? 

That’s what Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi and a cadre of politicians and officials plan to propose this week, according to a September 27 report in the Florida Keys Keynoter.

Gastesi plans to ask for $1.2 billion from state and federal governments to help keep a selection of areas in the Keys from being developed by their current landowners. 

The areas in question fit into Tier 1 and Tier 2 status in the county’s land mapping system, based on the amount of sensitive vegetation on each parcel.  Tier 1 lands contain the most sensitive species, and the county says that a series of more than six thousand vacant lots on the Keys—a total of 7,275 acres—qualify as Tier 1.  As such, the county believes that these should be rescued from potential development.

This land is privately owned by developers, however, so the process of securing the land is likely to lead to lawsuits.  The Keynoter reports that Monroe County is no stranger to such proceedings, paying out more than $12 million since 2002 to settle lawsuits in which the county took land for preservation by using eminent domain powers.

The county hopes that the federal government will purchase the land now in question, removing the onus of potential lawsuits from Monroe County.  The estimated initial cost of such a purchase: $1.2 billion.

Many areas near and around the Keys are already part of the National Park Service.  Everglades, Biscayne and Dry Tortugas National Parks each protect fragile ecosystems, some of which are also represented on islands in the Keys. In addition, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Key West and Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuges protect habitat for tropical birds, the endangered manatee, and fish that live on flats—areas of waters so shallow that the fish are clearly visible from the surface. The National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key protects a small deer species found only in the Florida Keys. 

So while Monroe County’s initial request comes with a high price tag, there is precedent for the protection of open land and sea in the Keys.  Taking land away from landowners for this purpose, however, may be a leap for the National Park Service.

A study launched in 1996, the Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study, was meant to determine how much more development the Keys can handle.  Monroe County officials planned to review the results of the study soon, to find out if the Keys have reached capacity and if additional development would be harmful to the islands’ environment.

None of this deterred the attorney for the landowners, Jim Mattson, from seeing the quest for national park status as “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

He told the Keynoter that he was “going to send a letter to everyone with a vacant lot in the Keys and tell them not to sell [to the government].  Let them settle it in the courts.  They aren’t going to pay $1.2 billion.”

The question remains:  Is a string of vacant lots an appropriate venue for a national park, even in a place as remote and beautiful as the Florida Keys?  It will be up to the National Park Service to make this determination as this effort moves forward.