Trump’s Chief of Staff joins the chorus against the controversial Florida land swap

Over the weekend, anger over Florida’s latest controversy, including public land spilled on sidewalks, as residents began protests. By Sunday night, we had also arrived at the White House.

Susie Wills, President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff and a longtime resident of northeast Florida, issued a statement to the Tampa Bay Times denounced private companies for its proposal to swap 600 acres of the Guana River Wildlife Management Area.

“The Guana Reserve and its beauty, familiarity and tranquility are woven into the structure of our community and are in fact treasures of northeast Florida.

“Elections and appointed leaders should maintain this extraordinary natural bounty by voting against this development wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Wills said. Her comments were first reported by The Tributary, a Jacksonville non-profit news outlet.

Wills’ comments presents an extraordinary example of powerful, often behind the scenes figures shaking over nervous local political issues across the state, particularly northeast Florida. But she also joined a bipartisan chorus of opposition from state and local officials to the proposal to exchange 600 acres of protected wildlife areas in exchange for more than 3,000 acres of patchwork from four counties.

State Rep. Kim Kendall, a Republican from St. Augustine, is scheduled to hold a press conference against swaps alongside county commissioners on Tuesday near the St. John’s County Wildlife Area. Kendall will also hold another press conference at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday morning. This is just before the proposal is reviewed by the state Land Acquisition Council.

Kendall blasted out emails on every member of the Florida home around 4:30am Saturday, calling for the construction of the opposition. She also emailed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to ask them to reveal the identity of the person or company behind the proposal, she told The Times.

Lindsay Cross, a tanton of Lindsay Cross of St. Petersburg and Allison of Tallahassee, also expressed anger over the weekend, so opposition to the swap reached across the party’s line.

Last week, the director of the state’s land division suddenly resigned.

On Sunday, the top official at the Florida Wildlife Agency, which manages Rodney Barrett, the Guana River wildlife management area, posted a photo of herself on Facebook standing next to DeSantis and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“This morning was a great day of golf at the Biltmore Hotel,” Barrett wrote in a social media post.

In the photo, DeSantis wears a dark hat that appears to be the logo of Cabot Citrus Farm, the developer of a luxury golf course at the heart of a previous land swap proposal revealed by the Times last year. Cabot Citrus was looking for more than 300 acres of Withlacoochee State Forest to expand its golf business in Hernando County.

In June, the proposal was added to the Cabinet’s agenda the day before the meeting through an unusual last-minute process that is usually reserved for natural disasters and other expansion conditions.

The email indicates that Desantis’ Desantis’ Deputy Chief of Staff Cody Farrill drafted an agenda language with environmental agency officials one day before the rest of the cabinet was officially notified of the new item.

The Desantis office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Facebook posts or Sunday nights regarding Wiles’ statements. Wills managed the first campaign for DeSantis’ governor, but the two later suffered a fierce dropout.

The Times first reported last week after a spokesman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said that a spokesman for the Cabot Citrus Farm “informed the department that they are no longer pursuing an exchange.”

But just as one hot button land swap proposal was shelved, another agency announced a previously scheduled meeting for the Land Acquisition Council this Wednesday.

The rushing meeting is scheduled at the same time as the top officials of Barrett’s wildlife agency, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee, and will be convened to discuss one of the most controversial proposals in Florida, one of the most controversial proposals of many years.

Environmental groups preparing to oppose the hunt quickly expressed their anger that they were unable to be in two places at once to oppose the proposed exchange of guana land.

Hundreds of Floridians protested the contract on the corner of A1A in St. John’s County on Saturday morning.

In a letter sent to the Land Acquisition Council, Clay Henderson, an environmental lawyer and former president of the Florida Audubon Association, pointed to similar outrage from Floridians last year over the development plans for the state park.

“Floridians care deeply about our state parks and reserves,” he writes. “This strange proposal could destroy the confidence that Floridians have come to appreciate that the protected areas should be permanently protected.”