Whether it's wildfires in the West, or floods in Florida, the consequences of ill-conceived land-use policy is wreaking havoc in the lives of too many citizens. Until the late 1900s, land-use policies were based on principles that included free enterprise, multiple use of public lands, and private-property rights. These principles have given way, first to what has been loosely called "conservation" principles and, more recently, to what's called "sustainable development."

This "wrenching transformation," as Al Gore described it in "Earth in the Balance," has taken land-use policy decisions away from local elected officials, and empowered a hierarchy of bureaucrats, and professional stakeholders, who mold policy to achieve an ideological agenda, which is then promoted by willing media and by campaign-fund-seeking politicians who are endorsed by environmental organizations.

Florida has been a high-priority target for transformation by The Wildlands Project. Dr. Reed Noss, author of the plan, says that "... at least half of the land area of the 48 conterminous states should be encompassed in core [wilderness] reserves and inner corridor zones … assuming that most of the other 50 percent is managed intelligently as buffer zones."

A center spread in the Patagonia catalogue in 1993, displayed three maps of Florida. The current map showed only 10 percent of the state in public ownership; the third map, illustrating the state when The Wildlands Project is fully implemented, displayed 90 percent in public ownership, with the remaining 10 percent of private land in the major urban centers.

One of the primary tools to achieve this remarkable transformation is the CERP – the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. None of the agencies involved in the implementation of CERP will admit any relationship to The Wildlands Project. Nevertheless, the result of the CERP will achieve many of The Wildlands Project objectives.

One of the first objectives, is to move people out of the area in order to "restore" the Everglades to its "natural" condition. There is, perhaps, no better example of how land-use management principles have been transformed from free enterprise to conservation.

Devastating floods in the early 20th century resulted in a massive federal program that constructed 1,700 miles of canals and levees to control the floods and supply water to more than a half-million acres of newly-created agricultural land. This project was clearly to benefit people engaged in free enterprise.

The rising tide of environmental awareness in the late 20th century, blamed the project for "destroying" the Everglades.

Now, 6 million residents, and nearly 40 million tourists, rely on the flood-control system. No restoration plan can be devised that will not adversely affect these people.

Madeleine Fortin lives in an "eight-and-a-half square-mile area" of Dade County, along with about 2,000 other residents. As recently as 1989, Congress authorized and appropriated the funds to construct the Modified Water Delivery System, and the C-111 Canal. The legislation specifically required the project to protect the private land owners from flooding.

Neither project has been constructed. Rather than protect the private land owners, the Corps of Engineers now wants to flood two-thirds of the area. The value of the land has plummeted. Owners, who want to sell, cannot sell at a price that will cover their mortgage. Most of the owners don't want to sell. They want the Corps to do what Congress instructed them to do in 1989. But the CERP calls for removal of the people - consistent with the objective of The Wildlands Project.

The CERP consists of 52 projects throughout South Florida. These projects have already flooded 11,000 acres of prime farmland, according to David Kaplan, president of the Dade County Farm Bureau.

In adjacent Collier County, the largest county east of the Mississippi, nearly 87 percent is already in some form of "conservation" protection, according to local resident, Cindy Kemp. What started in 1994 with a plan to acquire 17,800 acres from willing sellers in Southern Belle Meade and Southern Golden Gate, turned into a 55,000 acre acquisition, and resulted in the destruction of roads and filling of canals. But that was just the beginning. Some 200,000 acres are now targeted for removing the people to restore the Everglades.

Throughout the Keys, people are being moved out, and prevented from moving in. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was proposed, and local residents said in a referendum that they did not want the Sanctuary. It was imposed anyway. Now, "No Entrance" signs block public use of the public lands. Building permits require that mitigation land be purchased and set aside for conservation – by the permitee – as a condition for securing a permit. New FEMA requirements are forcing some homeowners to destroy homes that were properly permitted by the county years ago.

CERP is trashing property rights in South Florida, forcing people off their land, transforming the state into a vision The Wildlands Project published nearly 10 years ago.