Gov. Rick Scott has appointed another St. Joe Co. executive to a top position in the his administration.
Gov. Rick Scoot and the Florida Cabinet, acting as the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, confirmed Tuesday the appointment of Clay Smallwood as Director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of State Lands. DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. had announced the appointment on Sept. 13.
According to a DEP statement, Smallwood began his career as a forester in 1978 with the St. Joe Company, working his way to president of St. Joe Timberland in 2000. He retired from the St. Joe Company in 2010. During his 30 years at the St. Joe Company, Smallwood managed more than 1.1 million acres of land and planted more than 18 million trees.
“I have dedicated my career to the efficient conservation and management of Florida’s lands, and am excited to continue this work at DEP,†said Clay Smallwood.
The former St. Joe Co. executive will oversee the DEP division responsible for buying and managing state land. He joins in the Scott administration fellow St. Joe alumnus Billy Buzzett, who heads the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the state’s major land-planning agency.
Although Scott and the Legislature have begun to dismantle DCA, the combination Smallwood and Buzzett could St. Joe Co. –the largest private-sector land owner in the panhandle–significant influence over land use issues.