What is the proposed Florida Wetlands Protection ballot amendment?

The Florida Wetlands Protection Amendment intends to prohibit the dredging, filling, draining or other degradation of wetlands.

Chuck O’Neal is the Chairman of the Florida Rights of Nature Network and he is chairman of the FL5 DOT Org Political Committee. He says Florida's wetlands are the hydrological kidneys of the state, and that they serve to filter the water that comes into them.

"We really have these free solar-powered water filtration operations going on within the state. They're called wetlands," said O'Neal. "People look at them. And they say, well, that's just a bunch of weeds, they're coming out of water. But they are so critically important to the state. Florida was given, from its creation, the most acreage of any state in the country with natural wetlands."

O’Neal laments that over half of Florida’s wetlands have been dredged and filled for development.