Since the mid-1980s, the state of Florida has acquired roughly 2.75 million acres of land for environmental purposes, conserving large pieces of critical property from the state’s western panhandle to its iconic Keys.
, the 2013 Dorothy S. McCluskey Visiting Fellow in Conservation
at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES), says with pride that he’s had a hand in protecting much of that land.
During his career, including the last 18 years as director of the Florida Natural Areas Inventory
(FNAI), Knight has helped document the state’s rich biodiversity, producing an inventory of the state’s natural resources and identifying which pieces of land most urgently require protection.
For decades, these data have been a critical factor in convincing lawmakers, and the general public, to make conservation a state priority.
“Protection of the environment is so important to tourism in Florida, and tourism is such an important part of the economy, so it’s not such a hard sell,” Knight says. “Getting any legislature to spend $300 million a year for 20 years is not an easy effort, but the state has a long history of buying the most ecologically important property, so the public sees they are getting good conservation value for that investment.”