The next FWC Commission meeting will be held Aug 13-14 in Havana, FL. 

Items of interest:

Consent Agenda
Proposed Final Rule – Federal Consistency for 3 species. Staff seek approval to update Florida Endangered and Threatened Species List to maintain consistency with federal listing determinations for 3 species. Two species, the Barbour’s map turtle (currently State-designated Threatened) and Escambia map turtle (currently not listed) will be updated to Federally-designated Threatened due to Similarity of Appearance. The Suwannee alligator snapping turtle (currently State-designated Threatened) will be updated to Federally-designated Threatened. 
NO PUBLIC COMMENT ON CONSENT AGENDA

Awards and Recognition
Florida Python Challenge

Items Requiring Action
Final Rules–Florida Black Bear Hunt. Staff will present the final amendments to hunting rules that establish bear hunt structure.

Listing Evaluation for Holbrook’s Southern Dusky Salamander and Alligator Gar. Staff will recommend listing the alligator gar and southern dusky salamander as State Threatened, and present proposed rule to add these species to the list of candidate species in 68A-27.0021 F.A.C. 

NOTE: Dusky salamanders are kept as pets and occur in trade. FWC has not sought input from keepers on this species. If approved as a candidate species, take will be immediately banned with no further public input. FWC has set a precedent for excercising extreme power on candidate species, which could easily be used in the future to ban more commonly-kept native species. No additional habitat protections are inherent to state listing. 

FWC has cancelled public comment on "Items Not on the Agenda," which is typically held at the end of the meeting. This continues a pattern of stifling public discourse, like their policy of deleting negative comments on social media.

See meeting agenda:
https://myfwc.com/about/commission/commission-meetings/august-2025/