Boy, I do.  When I was growing up in Palm Beach County, I used to hunt ducks on the cypress ponds west of Lake Park.  Friends and I would park along the unpaved limerock road that preceded today’s Northlake Blvd. and walk in to the ponds with our shotguns.  We would try to keep vegetation between the ponds and us until we were within range of any ducks frightened off the ponds.  We got the occasional mottled duck and pintail, but most of what rose off those ponds were fast flying blue-winged teal and green-winged teal.  Scads of American coots foraged among the aquatic vegetation, but we never pursued them unless one of our group wanted their large gizzards for a stew.  We also had a lot of fun scaring up snipe in the damp sand pine flatwoods between the ponds.  Boy, those were the good ole days, but they are long gone.  In the intervening 50 years the ponds were drained and the pine flatwoods transformed into paved roads, housing developments and urban sprawl. 
I also used to hunt white-tailed deer and wild hog in the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and other agencies strive to maintain the habitats in Florida’s WMA’s.  The Corbett WMA is still there, though Florida’s constant influx of new residents is turning it into an island of wildlife habitats in a sea of development.  Addition of the John G. and Susan H. Dupuis Wildlife & Environmental Area on the west side of Corbett effectively increased the available habitat there.  The Pratt Whitney Complex property isolates Corbett on the north and much of the land to the south and east has been ditched and developed connecting the WMA to the populous Gold Coast.  It appears Mecca Farms north of Corbett will be converted into a campus for the Scripps Research Institute in Palm Beach County, further isolating Corbett. 
Because of development and liability, private lands open to public hunting is mostly a thing of the past.  Much hunting now occurs on hunt club lands and on Florida’s 140 WMA’s.  Loss of suitable habitat on surrounding lands is continuing to squeeze many of these areas. 
Every animal needs its habitat; even humans.  When man travels into space, he takes his habitat with him in the form of space shuttles and pressurized space suits.  When diving underwater man takes his habitat with him in the form of SCUBA gear and undersea vehicles.  Similarly woodpeckers need trees.  Gopher frogs and striped newts need breeding ponds free of predaceous fish.  Manatees need shallow waterways with eelgrass beds and other aquatic plants on which to graze.  Whitetail deer need leafy habitat to browse such as that found in open hardwood forests and mixed pine flatwoods and hardwood forests.  Wild hogs thrive in flatwoods with scattered freshwater marshes, ponds, sloughs, and cabbage palm hammocks.  Florida turkey and bobwhite quail do well in open grass and shrubs where they can move freely and feed on seeds, insects, and succulent vegetation. 
The loss of wildlife habitats to agricultural and urban development is not going to stop.  In 2003, Florida’s population stood at 17,019,068, making it the fourth most populous state in the union, surpassed only by California, Texas and New York.  Growth adds more than 6,000 new residents to Florida’s population each week.  That’s residents, not tourists.  To meet the need for more housing, roads, electricity, potable water, sewage treatment, garbage disposal, shopping areas, and urban services, a lot of wildlife habitat is being buried under asphalt and concrete.  Things are changing so fast in Florida you do not have to be very old to “Remember the good ole days.”
If you enjoy wild places, if watching wild critters turns you on, if you love hunting, you need to help defend Florida’s remaining wild areas.  When you hear some patch of habitat is about to be lost, you need to tell the federal, state or local agency that administers such property that you want it protected.  Let your state and federal legislators know that the area you hunt, hike, camp, or explore is worth saving.  If the government does not help, look elsewhere.  Organizations as diverse as Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy are actively involved in habitat acquisition and protection. 
There are more than 9 million acres of conservation lands in Florida, including state and federal parks, refuges, forests, WMA’s, and environmental sites.  However, publicly held wild lands are vulnerable when the state or county is exploring routes for a new highway, the regional electrical utility is siting a new high-tension line, or some other agency is seeking a path for a major pipeline or other service.  Expensive private land must be purchased, but governments often are willing to contribute public lands for such use at little or no cost.  The state recently approved construction of an electrical substation for the Scripps campus in Corbett WMA.  No matter what you do, some wild lands will be lost, but if you do not speak in their defense many more will disappear. 
You may remember the “Good ole days,” but memories of wild places are one generation deep.  People cannot experience what no longer exists.  Today is your childrens’ “Good ole days.”  Try to make them worth remembering. 

Prof. F. Wayne King is Curator Emeritus of Herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.