In the 1960s, plans to build the world’s largest jetport were underway. Environmentalists like Marjory Stoneman Douglas pushed back. She founded the organization Friends of the Everglades with the sole purpose of stopping construction. Her group and others put so much pressure on local, state, and federal governments that construction was stopped, and the jetport plans were scrapped. All that was left were a few buildings and a single runway.
Conservationists’ work led to an environmental awakening, spurring new landmark environmental laws and agencies. It also played a part in the dedication of Big Cypress Swamp as a National Preserve, the creation of regional planning councils, and may even have spurred the first Earth Day.
Now, on the same land environmentalists fought so hard for, there are rows of tents and temporary structures. It’s an immigration detention center the state dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Environmental groups, including the one Douglas started to close the jetport, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, are suing to shut it down. Lawyers are citing the same laws put in place after the jetport.
This limited series tells the stories of people who were there, fighting to preserve and protect some of Florida’s most precious ecosystems.
(New episodes drop each Wednesday.)
Episode 1: The Prologue
Meghan Bowman interviews Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples, Center for Biological Diversity attorney Elise Bennett, and landscape photographer Clyde Butcher about the lawsuit to stop “Alligator Alcatraz.” Panelists reminisce about how similar the battle for this land is to the 1970s plan to build the world’s largest airport at the same location.
Want to join the conversation or share your story? Email Meghan at bowman4@wusf.org.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
