News: Longtime Everglades Environmental Activist Passes On

July 15, 2010 

Johnny Jones, one of Florida's most ardent and successful environmental champions has left us. For 15 years, John was the passionate executive director of the Florida Wildlife Federation. He led many significant efforts to combat ill-conceived drainage plans, the over development of marginal lands, the destruction of the Everglades ecosystem and above all, the major effort to force the Florida Legislature, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Congress to address the ecological damage caused by the channelization of the Kissimmee River. 

It was his major effort to highlight the ecological disaster that was inflicted on Lake Okeechobee, the liquid heart of south Florida, that led to the legislature and finally the Congress to fund the acquisition of thousands of acres of land adjacent to the once-meandering river and begin the ongoing work to restore the Kissimmee River as a functional part of the Okeechobee basin ecosystem.

Johnny was responsible for galvanizing the support of the hunting and camping fraternity to support the acquisition of the Big Cypress Preserve when many of his members were seriously concerned about the obvious need to impose regulations that might limit certain uses and keep the off-road vehicles on designated trails. He recognized that the Big Cypress would be lost to development and that sacrifices of certain freedoms to travel wherever any one wanted to go had to be regulated.

Jones was one of Dr. Arthur Marshall's greatest advocates, constantly supporting the necessity of acquiring extensive land within the Everglades Agricultural Area to connect Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Everglades, re-creating a natural flow-way and cleansing the polluted water entering the system from Lake Okeechobee and the extensive sugar plantations.

His friendship with Governor Bob Graham and Philip Lewis -- then President of the Florida State Senate -- was important, as both men supported major environmental issues that have made a great difference to the future of Florida.

John Jones was a giant in the history of Florida's environmental movement and will be sorely missed.

Nathaniel P. Reed
Vice-Chair
Everglades Foundation