Sometimes in Florida, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
Wetlands are crucial to the ecological health of the Sunshine state, absorbing floodwaters, filtering out pollutants to improve water quality, providing habitat for wading birds and more. But a recent Tampa Bay Times story on wetlands “mitigation banking” noted how a new law that took effect last summer changed the rules, making it easier for developers to pave or fill crucial wetlands so long as they pay to restore them somewhere else.
This has long been the premise behind mitigation banking, a regulatory scheme which allows developers to build over wetlands so long as they purchase “credits” from a mitigation bank, which are generated when wetlands are created, restored or enhanced elsewhere. For years “elsewhere” meant somewhere in the same watershed, which makes sense: You create impacts here, you mitigate the damage here.
But at some point, Florida’s development industry decided this was too restrictive. The industry recruited helpful state Legislators, who in 2025 passed a measure (SB 492) loosening the reins. No longer would developers be required to purchase credits generated in the same watershed. For a fee — or rather a “credit multiplier,” which required them to buy credits for more wetlands than they planned to destroy — they could use credits generated in some distant watershed. The further the distance, the greater the multiplier.
This offered myriad benefits — mostly for developers, who could now plow forward with projects once held up due to a lack of available credits in the impacted basin. And in fact, proponents claim that statewide, the new law is creating more wetlands than are being destroyed.
But even if that’s the case, the gains will be in those distant watersheds, while local watersheds in Florida’s fastest-growing regions suffer ever-more losses. The Times reported that more than 32 acres of wetlands in Hillsborough County have been destroyed under the new law; more will follow as wetlands once protected by a lack of available local credits are suddenly in play.
The previous system, imperfect though it may have been, served as a brake on the reckless destruction of wetlands. In the Times report, an attorney who advised developers on wetlands permitting noted that in many built-up regions, the only land available has “environmental concerns.” This new law may make it easier to pave those places, but the concerns remain and are amplified by the destruction of lands that provide so many benefits.
A region that loses a disproportionate share of its wetlands may be more susceptible to flooding and water quality problems. Groundwater recharge may be affected, as may storm surge protection. The benefits wetlands provide to a community are diminished, and while wetlands permits are often evaluated separately, the cumulative effect can degrade the function of the entire system.
This could take a particular toll in some of Florida’s most heavily built-out areas — the regions that arguably need wetlands the most could suffer the most from their continued loss.
What will be the ramifications in Jacksonville, South Florida and Tampa Bay, where the Times reports wetlands credits are now available thanks to this new law? Residents in those communities will surely find out, but rest assured the impacts won’t be environmentally beneficial.
In recent years Florida’s development industry has unleashed a full-court press in Tallahassee, with dozens of bills designed to make development easier and quicker. In a state where the economy depends so heavily on building ever-more asphalt and rooftops, this is no surprise. But neither should we be surprised if, or when, this results in dirtier water, heavier flooding and other impacts.
For at some point, the bill for this recklessness will come due — and you can take that to the (mitigation) bank.
Gil Smart is Executive Director of VoteWater, a 501(c)(4) organization based in Stuart which works to inspire Floridians to demand leaders and policies that promote clean water.
