Craig Evans

Career Highlights:

Evans developed the concept for a joint project with Fresh Water Fish Commission in 1993 to improve cooperation between private landowners and government agencies in protecting essential habitat of the Florida panther on private lands. He organized and chaired a nine-member Landowner Working Group and 44-member Review Committee to develop a landowners’ "conceptual plan," and ran a series of workshops which was the basis for the "Farmland Stewardship Program," that was developed over a five-year period through a series of workshops between private landowners and representatives of agencies at all levels of government, environmental interests, agricultural groups, Indian tribes and the University of Florida.

This project formed the basis for conservation legislation that was approved by the Legislatures in two states (Florida and Oregon) in June 2001, and for federal legislation that was introduced in the U.S. Congress in July 2001 and is now part of the Farm Bill (Sec. 275, Subtitle H, H.R. 2646). More information is available on the project website at www.privatelands.org

Evans assisted Florida Rep. Dean Saunders in 1994 in developing the Green Swamp Land Authority Act, the first program in Florida with approved funding to compensate private landowners for selling development rights to their land.

Evans helped develop the agricultural economic development programs that have been launched in Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties.

Throughout 1993 he worked in cooperation with Kentucky Governor Brereton C. Jones and a statewide Agricultural Policy Task Force to assist in developing a comprehensive set of recommendations to promote the economic development of agriculture and encourage farming practices that lead to a healthy environment. These recommendations were incorporated into a bill that was approved by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Jones in April, 1994.

Evans authored "A New Look at Agriculture" in 1999, a concept paper that describes the obstacles faced by Florida’s agricultural operators, suggests more than 250 ways to overcome these obstacles and proposes 20 priority actions for immediate attention. The concept paper was adopted by the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Working Group in March 2001 as the "agricultural element" of its 20-year Strategic Plan that will guide all ecosystem restoration activities in South Florida for the next two decades.

This project is now being used by Hillsborough County to develop a "local action" plan to improve the profitability of agriculture, enhance compatibility with the environment and deal with land use conflicts. More information is available on the project website at www.us-farm.com

Evans has been the project manager/director of five economic impact studies describing the contributions of agriculture to local economies in Collier, Hillsborough, Lake, Palm Beach and Polk counties. The studies also compare the economics of different types of land use, showing which land uses generate the most revenues and which require the largest expenditures for necessary services.

Recommendations from these studies formed the basis of the "True Cost Accounting" recommendations contained in the Final Report of the Governor’s Growth Management Study Commission, issued in February 2001. In response to these recommendations, the Florida Legislature approved $500,000 in the 2001 Legislative Session to develop a "fiscal impact analysis tool" to help local governments gather better information about the costs and revenues of each land use to assist in making better decisions

Evans now serves on the Governor’s Fiscal Impact Analysis Working Group which is charged with designing a Request for Proposals to hire a consultant to create and test a fiscal impact analysis tool to provide economic and fiscal information on the consequences of land use decisions at the local government level. This Working Group will issue its final report in January 2002.

Evans also was involved in the development of the recommendations issued by the Rural Lands Subcommittee of the Governor’s Growth Management Study Commission’s and contained in the Final Report, "A Liveable Florida for Today and Tomorrow" (February 2001). These recommendations were approved by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush in June 2001.

Evans now serves on the committees that have been appointed to assist with rule making for the "Rural and Family Lands Protection Act" and "Rural Lands Stewardship Act," both of which will be administered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

In addition, Evans:

Authored a report for American Farmland Trust in 1991 entitled Florida's Growth Management Plans: Will Agriculture Survive?

Wrote, organized grassroots support and guided through the U.S. Congress "The National Trails System Act Amendments" which became Public Law 98 11, and allows for abandoned railroad rights-of-way to be converted to trails;

Conducted an educational exchange (funded by the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.) for 12 U.S. decision makers to study land use planning measures in five European countries;

Wrote seven travel guides to the natural areas and trails of Europe (published under the series title On Foot Through Europe, William Morrow & Company, New York, 1982);

Served as the editor of Backpacker Magazine in the mid-1970s, where he developed procedures to conduct extensive field tests and reviews on backpacking stoves, tents, winter wear, raingear and lightweight binoculars; and

Served for four years as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury-News, where he documented farm land conversion in California's Santa Clara Valley and the cost of its displacement to marginal lands in the state's more arid regions.

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