More conservation voices needed on Florida wildlife commission 

By Joe Murphy 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has many things to be proud of. It is staffed with employees who are smart, dedicated and effective. Its wildlife officers risk their lives daily to protect the natural wonders of Florida and do it with bravery and valor.

FWC manages diverse ecosystems across Florida while ensuring Floridians’ ability to hunt, fish, boat and watch wildlife. FWC does good work. Floridians are lucky to have FWC stewarding our wildlife and wild places.

Despite their best efforts, though, we are heading into times ahead that will require more conservation voices leading the agency from the top. We will need new voices who come from the natural sciences and conservation management fields.

FWC needs more conservation voices on the seven-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the governor. Without an infusion of these voices who are leading as commissioners, we will not meet the challenges of the future.

The challenge facing FWC is that Florida is rapidly reaching a crisis point. Conserving Florida’s essential natural resources has never been more challenging. As our population explodes, development booms, the climate changes and sea levels rise, threatened and endangered species slip closer to being lost. What may have worked in the past will not always work in the future.

The current seven-member Board of Commissioners for FWC is comprised of individuals with a depth of experience in the corporate world as CEOs, trustees, presidents, etc. I have no doubt that they are concerned about hunting, fishing, boating and wildlife. Their collective experience may well serve FWC with skills sets designed to organize and operate large organizations. But, now more than ever, as we enter critical times in our conservation future, we need more voices on the commission who are deeply rooted in the practice of conservation.

In any other setting it would be considered obvious that a board overseeing an area of Florida’s economy, population or resources would in part be led by issue experts in that field. This is no different. We need strong conservation voices with rich backgrounds in wildlife ecology, land management, climate adaptation and natural resource conservation to ensure FWC is fully prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

As we approach the 2026 Florida gubernatorial race, now is the time for Floridians to call on all of the candidates running for governor to pledge to appoint commissioners to FWC who have a background or career in conservation. We need commissioners who have managed public lands, who have used prescribed fire, who have conducted field research and who have deeply studied the next generation of solutions and adaptations to offset climate change.

As candidates for governor move through the election season, they need to be asked to make the conservation commissioner commitment by editorial boards, by Florida conservation organizations and by the public. This question needs to be asked and asked again at candidate forums across Florida.

The future holds tremendous obstacles to successful conservation management in Florida. Florida’s natural resources are managed by FWC in public trust as they are the birthright of all Floridians.

FWC’s responsibility is growing and deepening. As it does, we must support additional voices leading the agency who have worked in the trenches of managing wild Florida for the people who love and use it, for the wildlife that depend on it and for future generations.

Joe Murphy lives in the southern Nature Coast. He has worked for several Florida conservation organizations and also for the FWC. Banner photo: Wildlife at a park in Central Florida (iStock image).

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