Friends of the Everglades

The organization gained significant national attention in 2025 when it filed a federal environmental lawsuit challenging the construction and operation of a state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Florida state officials. Friends of the Everglades argued the facility was built without the environmental review required by federal law. The case produced a preliminary injunction ordering the facility to wind down operations, but a panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed that order, allowing the facility to remain open while litigation continued. ^{2 3}

Background

Journalist and environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas founded Friends of the Everglades in 1969 at the age of 79. The group was initially established to oppose the proposed construction of a commercial airport in the Big Cypress portion of the Everglades. Douglas, who had authored the landmark 1947 book The Everglades: River of Grass, was president of the organization until her death in 1998 at the age of 108. The organization received federal tax-exempt recognition in September 1971. ^{4 5 6 7}

The organization describes its goals as compelling government agencies to comply with existing environmental laws, opposing the weakening of those laws, and increasing public awareness of the Everglades ecosystem. It operates primarily through advocacy, public communications, scientific research, youth education, and coordination with allied environmental organizations and legal teams. ^{1 8}

Activities

In the first half of the 2020s, Friends of the Everglades focused its advocacy on several areas, including opposition to phosphorus pollution from the sugarcane industry, support for the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir project under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, resistance to proposed rock mines in the EAA, and opposition to expanding the Urban Development Boundary into Everglades-adjacent land. As of 2024, the organization was tracking proposed legislation in the state capital of Tallahassee through its legislative accountability program, rating Florida lawmakers on their votes on environmental bills alongside Sierra Club Florida and other allied groups. ^{9 10}

In 2025, Friends of the Everglades launched its “Rescue the River of Grass” campaign, calling on Florida policymakers to use voter-approved land acquisition funds to purchase at least 100,000 acres in the EAA for Everglades restoration. By November 2025, the campaign drew more than 30,000 petition signatories. That year, Friends of the Everglades also partnered with allied groups to oppose the proposed Southland Water Resources Project, an 8,600-acre limestone rock mine on land owned by United States Sugar Corporation and Okeelanta Corporation/Florida Crystals in the EAA. After the Palm Beach County Commission approved a permit for the mine in May 2025, the organization continued challenging the project before the South Florida Water Management District. ^{11 12 13 14}

The organization also supported the passage of the State Park Preservation Act, signed into law on July 1, 2025, in response to opposition to a 2024 proposal to open Florida state parks to private development. Friends of the Everglades reported playing a role in drafting the legislation. ¹¹

Alligator Alcatraz Litigation

In June 2025, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by attorneys from Earthjustice and Coffey Burlington, filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County. The suit alleged that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration and the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act by constructing an immigration-detention facility (sited at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Big Cypress National Preserve and colloquially referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz”) without any environmental review. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida subsequently joined the lawsuit. ^{15 16 17}

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued an 82-page preliminary injunction in August 2025 ordering the facility to wind down operations within 60 days, citing evidence of habitat destruction and threats to the endangered Florida panther, which had been documented at the detention site. The Eleventh Circuit stayed that injunction in September 2025. In April 2026, a three-judge panel ruled that the Florida-run facility was not under federal control and therefore not subject to federal environmental-review requirements. A dissenting judge found that state action had been “sufficiently federalized to trigger” those requirements. In May 2026, Friends of the Everglades stated it would continue litigating the case on the merits before a new panel. ^{18 19 20}

Funding

In 2025, the organization established the Everglades Defense Fund to fundraise for its ongoing litigation over the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility, as well as for its other conservation projects. ²¹

Leadership

As of 2026, Eve Samples was the executive director of Friends of the Everglades, a position she took on in early 2020 after approximately two decades as a journalist. Samples had previously served as an opinion editor for USA TODAY Network—Florida and as a columnist and editor at TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers, as well as a reporter for the Palm Beach Post and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is a native of Miami and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ²²

As of 2026, Philip Kushlan was board chair of Friends of the Everglades. A marine scientist who, at that time, was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Miami, Kushlan also sat on the boards of VoteWater, the Zoo Miami Foundation, and Miami Waterkeeper. ^{23 24}

As of 2026, Alan Farago was conservation chair of Friends of the Everglades. Farago contributed environmental commentary to Florida newspapers and publications for approximately three decades. ²³

As of 2026, Connie Washburn was secretary of the board. Washburn was a former Miami-Dade County public school teacher who co-founded the Young Friends of the Everglades educational program, which is part of Friends of the Everglades. Washburn has sat on the Friends of the Everglades board since 1994. ²³

As of 2026, Richard Trotta was the treasurer of Friends of the Everglades. He had previously worked as the president of the Herman Lucerne Memorial Foundation, which made Everglades National Park its sole beneficiary. ²³