TALLAHASSEE -- In the deepest of sweeping cuts to environmental programs, Florida lawmakers plan to ax the state's premier land-buying program, Florida Forever.

The Legislature is moving to freeze the $300 million annual land fund, which has preserved more than a half-million acres of ecologically sensitive lands across the state -- enough to cover a third of Everglades National Park.

They also aim to whack programs that mend injured manatees, clean up polluted waterways and build new gopher tortoise habitat to make amends for those buried alive under development.

Senate budget Chairman J.D. Alexander said lawmakers, forced to slash the state budget because of a $2.3 billion revenue shortfall, have to set priorities. So far, highways have ranked higher than healthcare, education and the environment, with transportation projects facing comparably small cuts.

''Building roads creates jobs and we need that in this economy,'' said Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

Rep. Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican expected to be the next House speaker, said environmental programs shouldn't go unscathed when lawmakers are cuttings schools and healthcare.

''It is more important that we prioritize people over things,'' he said.

Environmentalists argue it's exactly the wrong time to halt Florida Forever, when plummeting real estate prices make land more affordable and available.

They also say the proposal, which would stop the state from issuing the remaining $250 million of $300 million worth of bonds issued each year, wouldn't save much. The estimate: about $20 million in debt and interest payments each year.

The move, also being considered by the House, would jeopardize a program that has been praised as a national model and was only last year extended through 2020 by Gov. Charlie Crist and lawmakers. Only six months ago, Florida Cabinet members agreed the state should look into taking advantage of sagging real estate prices and buy more land.

Asked Wednesday if he had heard about the move, Crist, who has made ''green'' programs a centerpiece of his administration, said: ``I haven't yet. I hope I don't.''

Lawmakers, in the midst of a special session to deal with the state's economic crisis, are proposing other environmental program cuts as well:

• $5 million from a fund to build new habitats for gopher tortoises, paid out of mitigation fees from developers. That is half what was budgeted for this year.

• $35 million from a land management trust fund that pays for such programs as prescribed burns to prevent massive forest fires.

• $440,0000 for manatee rehabilitation at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, the Miami Seaquarium and Sea World in Orlando. Programs can continue through the budget year but the future is uncertain.

• $10 million -- all this year's funding -- from a trust fund that helps communities clean up polluted waterways.

Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, was among the few lawmakers who questioned why more cuts weren't made elsewhere first, such as in transportation programs. Both road and environmental projects rely on the same shrinking resource: a tax on real estate sales.

''Some of the dangers I see in what we're doing here, is we're making permanent changes to things that have been well thought out over many, many years -- and were good policy,'' she said.

Between 2001 and December 2006, Florida Forever dollars purchased nearly 550,000 acres -- including land for Everglades restoration. This year's list includes some 16,500 acres of already approved deals and 26,700 acres of anticipated purchases -- with many of the largest tracts in the Panhandle.

The biggest South Florida chunks are a 15-acre expansion of Doral North Park for $3.62 million, a nine-acre addition to the Chapel Trail Nature Preserve in Southwest Broward County for $336,000 and a 251-acre expansion of the Cypress Creek Natural Area in Palm Beach County for $63 million.

Over the years, South Florida water managers have used their $36.75 million for buying land from the floodplains along the Kissimmee River to Everglades wetlands in South Miami-Dade.

Eric Draper of the Audubon Society said he understood why the program is under the gun right now but he's worried the one-year freeze could become permanent.

''If they're taking a one-year break because the economy's bad, we can live with that,'' Draper said. ``But if this is stopping Florida Forever, let's call it what it is.''

Herald/Times bureau staff writer Marc Caputo and St. Petersburg Times staff writer Craig Pittman contributed to this report. Jennifer Liberto can be reached by e-mail at liberto@sptimes.com.

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