Records of the Florida Defenders of the Environment

This collection is comprised of correspondence, news clippings, journal articles, court testimony, speeches, government reports, financial records, proposed legislation, and other records created or collected by FDE over several decades. Although FDE was established in 1969, some of the documents predate the group and the collection spans 1943 to 1994. The bulk of the materials, however, date from 1969 to 1994. The collection is divided into two groups: Accession I and Accession II.

Accession I is comprised of two series of records: Newspaper Clipping files and Correspondence and General files. The majority of these materials, which date from 1962 to 1992, pertain to the Cross Florida Barge Canal, the Ocklawaha River, FDE meetings, and various environmental issues in Florida. Marjorie Carr is the primary correspondent.

Accession II is arranged into several series including: Cross Florida Barge Canal (CFBC) Files, Non-CFBC Correspondence and Issue Files, Reading Files, News Clippings, Committee Files, Meetings, Administrative Files, Conferences, Photographs, and Publications and Reports. Although the Cross Florida Barge Canal is the primary topic covered by the materials, other related topics include the Rodman Reservoir, the Everglades, conservation of natural resources, the Florida Panther and wildlife conservation, water management, planned development, and the Ocklawaha, Withlacoochee and other central Florida rivers.

Marjorie Carr is the primary correspondent, but other individuals include Nathaniel Reed, Bill Partington, Archie Carr, Claude Pepper, Lawton Chiles, Bob Graham, and Buddy MacKay, among others. A number of organizations and government agencies are represented, including the Canal Authority, the Environmental Service Center, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Defense Fund. In addition to documents created by other environmental and conservation groups, there is a large amount of letters, reports and testimony by expert scientists and economists. The records of the Alachua Audubon Society, found in the Cross Florida Barge Canal (CFBC) series, are of particular interest because they document the issues and discussions that led to the establishment of FDE.

Most of the records series are arranged alphabetically by folder title. The Correspondence and General Files series in Accession I, and the News Clippings series in both Accessions I and II are primarily arranged chronologically.