For Florida’s leaders, a few controversies stand as bright-line tests: There is a wrong side and a right side, with little gray in between. The fate of the Ocklawaha River, strangled for six decades by an ill-conceived dam just north of the Ocala National Forest, is one of those issues. And once again, Gov. Ron DeSantis and a misguided minority of Florida lawmakers are on the wrong side.

DeSantis’ recent veto of $6.25 million to begin the restoration of the river constitutes a dangerous gamble. The George Kirkpatrick Dam, named after the late state senator who was its fiercest defender, is in perilously poor repair — to the point of endangering lives if it fails…