What they rolled back, in plain English
This year, federal rule changes gutted the Endangered Species Act's core protections.
Each one is being challenged in court, and each one is in effect right now.
Critical habitats are no longer protected:
This leaves them vulnerable to development, exploitation, mining, and energy projects, as well as impacting local county lighting ordinances, beach management, and nest monitoring.
Habitat destruction no longer counts:
Destroying habitat by itself is no longer prohibited, and killing endangered animals in the process no longer has the consequences it once did.
"I didn't mean to" is now a defense:
A federal memo narrowed illegal "take" to intentional conduct only.
Newly protected species get less protections:
The blanket rule is gone. New listings don't automatically receive full protections that secure their survival.
How Amendment 3 Impacts Conservation
While Amendment 3 is structured as a property tax and homestead exemption measure rather than a direct wildlife law, major environmental groups like the Sierra Club Florida and the Sea Turtle Conservancy are actively opposing it.
The amendment drastically cuts local government property tax revenues and rigidly restricts how counties and municipalities can spend those funds. Because local environmental initiatives, regional conservation projects, storm-water management, and local parks rely heavily on county-level funding and discretionary budgets, gutting these revenues means fewer resources to protect local ecosystems, manage vulnerable coastlines, and backstop habitat preservation.
For Broward County, where local actions and municipal funding play a massive role in defending natural habitats and wildlife corridors, a severe squeeze on local budgets trickles down directly to environmental protection. That is why clean-government and conservation advocates are treating a tax amendment as an environmental ballot fight.
Sign up, and we'll send candidate positions, a turtle-friendly voter guide, and deadline reminders.
Key dates (Broward County):
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Register to vote: by Monday, October 5
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Early voting: October 19 – November 1
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Election Day: Tuesday, November 3
Add your name. We'll keep you posted on every way to fight back.
Action alerts and voter info when it matters. No spam, no pressure.
It has taken almost 50 years to get here.
Don't let them undo it in one.
Green turtles are the comeback story, but they're not the whole beach. Here in Broward County, FWC counted 2,652 loggerhead nests and 645 green nests in 2025, and our volunteers documented around 1,000 nests just this year on the beaches we patrol.
Statewide, the scale is even bigger: more than 100,000 loggerhead nests, a record 2,012 leatherback nests, and 66,476 green nests, their second-highest season ever. And Kemp's ridleys, the world's most endangered sea turtle, are still hanging on with only a dozen confirmed nests.
One law protects all of them.
The fix costs less than the band-aid.
Every nesting season, Broward County deploys around 90 protective cages over sea turtle nests — in the program's own words, "because not everybody is playing by the rules" on lighting. Each cage is monitored through the night, opened at dawn, closed at dusk, by field staff, all season long.
Florida's own wildlife agency says cages are a last resort — and that they should not be used for lighting problems. Lighting problems, the state says, must be fixed at the source. And the source fix is cheap:
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Turtle-friendly amber LED bulb: ~$27
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Certified turtle-friendly fixture: ~$75
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Cheapest compliance of all: $0 — just turn the lights off
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Fort Lauderdale already turns off the A1A roadway lights from March through October. The playbook exists. It just needs teeth.
What bad lighting costs us: S.T.O.P.'s 2026 Nesting Tracker shows a 27% average disorientation rate this season, with 6,492 rescued and released by our volunteers. Every one of those rescues starts with a light that should have been off.
Partner spotlight: KastLite. Florida-owned KastLite makes a Turtle-Safe Amber LED Wall Sconce with Dark Sky-approved technology that protects nesting turtles and hatchlings. Shop turtle-safe lighting from KastLite and support our mission.
Beyond the ballot
See a violation? Report it to the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline: 888-404-FWCC. Every rollback is under legal challenge — subscribers will get updates on rulings.