TALLAHASSEE — When longtime environmentalist Chuck O’Neal first bought a wildlife conservation license plate, he thought the extra $25 he paid yearly was going to an organization dedicated to preserving Florida wildlife, especially its dwindling black bear population.
So it seemed like a betrayal to O’Neal when he discovered that organization he supported for nine years donated $250,000 to the group pushing for voters to approve a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to kill bears and other wildlife in the state constitution.
“People unknowingly are buying license plates whose revenue is going to an organization that is promoting activities they absolutely abhor,” O’Neal said. “I thought this money was supposed to protect animals, not put them in the crosshairs.”
The Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida donation represents 31% of the $805,000 raised so far by the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political committee, which wants voters to make hunting and fishing a “forever” right and the preferred method for managing wildlife.
The political contribution came from donations, not the revenue from specialty license plate fees, the foundation said.
“None of our license plate funds were used for the donation,” foundation spokeswoman Michelle Ashton replied in an email to the Orlando Sentinel.
The foundation raised $1.8 million in license plate sales last year, according to records from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The foundation is the “citizen support arm” of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The political donation reflects its mission, which is “the conservation of all Florida wildlife and fostering traditional outdoor recreation, including hunting, fishing, boating, birding, etc,” Ashton wrote.
That does little to appease O’Neal, a longtime environmental activist from Apopka who runs Speak Up Wekiva and created the NoTo2 political committee to fight Amendment 2’s passage.
“What matters is that the donation came from the organization that receives the revenue from the license plate,” and people in Florida believe that organization has a mission to protect wildlife, he said.
Amendment 2 is part of a nationwide movement by national hunting groups, sportsmen’s associations, and the National Rifle Association’s legislative arm to get states to make hunting and fishing part of their constitutions. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a hunting group focuses on public policy, came up with the recommended ballot language.
So far 24 states have adopted similar measures.
Unlike the popular amendments to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights that are also on the November ballot, the hunting and fishing amendment was not citizen-driven, O’Neal said.
Instead, the hunting groups lobbied the Florida Legislature, which voted overwhelmingly to put the measure on the ballot. It passed with a total vote of 154-1 in the two chambers, with only Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, voting against it.
But even some lawmakers who voted for the amendment said they didn’t think it was necessary.
“It would be like preserving tennis. I mean, seriously, I don’t understand why we’d be doing this,” Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said during a committee meeting on the bill in March of 2023.”
The movement arose to combat anti-cruelty measures and laws that supporters contend go too far by criminalizing hunting and fishing under certain circumstances. Several states in recent years have banned hunting contests and the hunting of predators and non-game animals, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Association reported.
And in Oregon in 2022 environmental groups sought to criminalize all hunting and fishing with a measure that missed being on the ballot by 20,000 votes.
“We know there are threats to our hunting and fishing traditions,” said Luke Hilgemann, chairman of the national movement and president and CEO of the International Order of T. Roosevelt, a pro-hunting lobbying group, whose political arm also donated $250,000 to Florida’s Amendment 2 campaign. Hilgemann — who is from WIsconsin — filed the paperwork to register the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political action committee in Florida and is listed as its chair.
The Florida Legislature already adopted a law in 2002 stating the same protections, but making it a constitutional right makes it harder to change, Hilgemann said.
“There isn’t a threat today but there might be one tomorrow,” said Josh Kellam, a foundation board member and former FWC commissioner who chairs the Amendment 2 campaign.
Hunting and fishing are a huge part of Florida’s heritage, and a big source of revenue, Kellam said. Amendment 2’s campaign literature says fishing draws $13.8 billion in annual economic impact for Florida and supports 120,000 jobs, while hunting raises another $2 billion a year and supports 14,300 jobs.
The amendment would need approval from at least 60% of voters to pass. A Florida Chamber of Commerce poll shows 74% support for the amendment.
The amendment, Kellam added, could help boost wildlife protection. In North Carolina, for example, a similar amendment is being used by environmentalists to try to force the state to enact fishing regulations, including a ban on gill netting.
Environmentalists counter that shortly after the North Carolina amendment was adopted in 2018, the state authorized black bear hunting on 92,500 acres previously designated as a bear refuge.
“Our wildlife is threatened enough as it is,” said Amy Tidd, a Rockledge political consultant and longtime environmental activist.
She has had a “Conserve Wildlife” bear plate on her car since 2008 and was outraged that the wildlife foundation is supporting an amendment that could make it easier to approve more bear hunts.
“It’s like supporting the American Cancer Society and finding out they’re giving money to the tobacco industry,” Tidd said.
