Everglades Trust names new CEO, announces ‘restructuring’

After a legislative session in which they were blindsided by a sugar industry maneuver to reverse their progress on restoring water flow to the Everglades, the leaders of the Everglades Trust say the organization is turning a corner.

The political arm of the nonprofit Everglades Foundation announced on Friday that effective May 16 its new CEO will be Anna Upton and it will launch a restructuring, beginning with moving its headquarters to Tallahassee.

Upton is the general counsel and vice president of government affairs for the Everglades Foundation, the nonprofit organization focused on scientific research and advocacy for the restoration of the Everglades. She previously worked in the Tampa office of Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, the law firm started by her mentor and former Everglades Trust General Counsel Thom Rumberger.

In an interview, Upton referred to the sugar industry’s efforts to get Senate leaders to file SB 2508, a controversial budget conforming bill that used the state’s budget process to make major changes to goals established by the South Florida Water Management District. She vowed that it wouldn’t happen again.

“The days of these sneak attacks are over. I am polite, but I am fierce and we are not going to tolerate this anymore,’’ she said.

Senate President Wilton Simpson, who is running for agriculture commissioner, said the bill, SB 2508, was needed to achieve what he said were important land and water conservation goals. But water advocates said the measure — which sought to force water managers to advocate for more water for agriculture users as a condition of receiving state funding for Everglades restoration projects — gave sugar farmers an unfair advantage.

Over the past three years, water managers shifted the approach to management of water releases from Lake Okeechobee — which for decades had given preference to the sugar industry — to one they said provided a “balanced approach” for all stakeholders.

Environmental advocates ‘rooting’ for Upton

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, a citrus farmer, and Senate leaders gave the public only one opportunity to comment on the measure and limited the ability of opponents to amend it.

South Florida Water Management District officials said they were “blindsided” by the measure and felt hamstrung because the Senate used a budget conforming bill as the vehicle to change funding relating for key water projects — building reservoirs in the Everglades Agricultural Area and the Indian River Lagoon, a wetlands project for Biscayne Bay and a seepage wall for Everglades National Park in Miami-Dade County.

“It’s basically holding the whole South Florida ecosystem restoration program hostage over this bill,’’ said Drew Bartlett, SFWMD executive director, at a meeting of the governing board in February.

Captains For Clean Water quickly led a campaign to protest the proposal, swarming legislators with nearly 40,000 petitions and more than 1,200 phone calls. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed the water management district, threatened to veto the bill.

After weeks of pressure, Senate leaders watered down the measure to remove provisions that advocates said would have led to toxic discharges, more red tide blooms and dead fish on beaches. But the Senate left in provisions sought by the sugar industry, such as a policy that restricts the flexibility of water managers as it relates to various water projects, and the measure remained in the final budget proposal sent to the governor.

Upton said Florida’s political environment is starting to shift and, unlike decades earlier when agriculture contributed a substantial portion to Florida’s economy, the industry now “contributes less than one percent of the state’s GDP (gross domestic product)” and the Everglades and its tributaries fuel the state’s “economic engine, which is tourism.”

“We are a peninsula and are surrounded by water and Floridians get it,’’ she said. “When we had toxic algae affecting our coastal communities, one of the highest places of cancellation was Disney. People who visit Florida don’t understand its geography but the tourism community and the real estate community understand the relationship between clean water and their business better than anyone else in the state. This notion that agriculture runs our economy is completely ridiculous.”

The sugar industry, however, is one of the most powerful sources of campaign contributions to Florida legislators of both parties. Since the last election cycle in 2020, Florida’s largest sugar growers have given more than $6 million in campaign contributions.

“It is a lot of money and we are not going to be able to go toe-to-toe on the money, but we can be right on the issues,’’ Upton said.

Prior to leading the Trust, Upton served as the general counsel for the Everglades Foundation since 2011 and as vice president of government affairs since 2021. In addition to serving as the outside general counsel for the foundation, Upton represented nonprofit clients in Everglades-related water quality litigation and administrative proceedings in state and federal court at trial and appellate levels.

“I’m rooting for her,’’ said Kimberly Mitchell, who stepped down as Everglades Trust executive director earlier this year.

The Everglades Foundation and the Everglades Trust were founded in 1993 and 1994 by the late George Barley and Paul Tudor Jones II to focus on scientific research and advocacy for the restoration of the Everglades.

This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 1:30 PM.