Rep. Clawson Sets Environmental Goals





Rep. Curt Clawson at the Everglades Coalition Annual Conference.

Rep. Curt Clawson at the Everglades Coalition Annual Conference.

Key Largo Members of the Everglades Coalition recently heard loud and clear what many in Bonita Springs have known for some time. Rep. Curt Clawson is passionately committed to the conservation of Florida’s environment.

“I am going to do everything I can to help the cause,” Clawson, a Bonita resident, said in a lunchtime address at the Coalition’s recent three-day 30th Annual Conference at the Hilton Key Largo Resort. The Coalition is an alliance of 56 conservation organizations dedicated to Everglades restoration.

Clawson underscored the importance of a bill, introduced by Representative Patrick Murphy (D-FL), which calls for additional funding of Everglades restoration activities. “I am a co-sponsor,” he said, “It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Water-related issues have been a top priority of his congressional office, Clawson said. “We have studied no issue more than this.” He also revealed that he has turned away political contributions from special interests. “I don’t think I can help my constituents best or help doing what you are trying to accomplish if I take money from people who have skin in the game,” he said.

But vilifying business interests is counterproductive, said Clawson, who served as chief executive of the world’s largest maker of tire rims. Rather, he told the group, the path to progress was through emphasizing the fact that environmental stewardship underpins the quality of life and the economy of Florida. “For every dollar we put in, there is a $4 return on investment,” he said.

Clawson recounted for the group the event that led to his decision to get involved locally in Bonita Springs, a path that resulted in his successful bid for the congressional seat vacated by Trey Radel.

In the summer of 2013, Clawson was walking on Bonita beach with his father, Jack. When they looked down, they saw the water was black, the result of Lake Okeechobee releases that wet summer.

“There had to be an answer beyond dumping all that in the Gulf,” he said. “It also seemed to me that to keep building, going from west to east and encroaching even more on the Everglades was not a good idea either.”

Clawson took a leadership role in local issues, fighting proposals to develop the “DR/ GR,” which are environmentally zoned lands on the east side of Bonita Springs.

Given the sound bite stereotyping of today’s politics, this was not a side of Clawson, a conservative Republican, that some in the audience expected.

He, and they, had good-natured fun with it when he introduced Jack Tymann as an important advisor on environmental initiatives… and as a founder of the Southwest Florida Tea Party.

“I bet that’s the first time you all clapped for the Tea Party,” said Clawson, bringing chuckles and laughter to the crowd.


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