Groups ready to sue over panther
Want 3 million acres set aside as habitat
by kevin lollar • klollar@news-press.com • December 24, 2009
Learn about the Florida Panther
December 24, 2009 — Three environmental groups have filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not responding to a petition demanding that 3 million acres be set aside as critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Council of Civic Associations and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in September that said 4,860 square miles in Lee, Collier, Hendry, Glades, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties must be spared from development or the panther will probably become extinct.
Saving that land from development is about more than the panther, said Bonita Springs resident Ann Hauck, president of the Council of Civic Associations.
‘Symbolic’
“The land in Collier and Lee counties has an incredible number of endangered and threatened species,” she said. “When you take in one of the most endangered species in the world, the Florida panther, it’s symbolic of everything out there.”
A press release from the environmental groups said that the wildlife service is “presiding over the slow-motion extinction of the Florida panther.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior listed the Florida panther as endangered in 1967, and the animal was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1973.
Today, about 100 Florida panthers exist in the wild, most in South Florida.
A spokesman for the wildlife service would not comment on the groups’ notice of intent but did discuss the service’s efforts to protect the panther.
“The Florida panther is, indeed, a highly endangered species, so it’s very important for us at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take prudent measures to ensure the survival of that species,” said Ken Warren of the service’s South Florida Office. “We believe we are pursuing strategies that will do that.”
Among those strategies, Warren said, are developing wildlife crossings in panther habitat, working with landowners on the Florida Panther Protection Program, which will protect vital panther habitat, and being involved in the Picayune Strand restoration project, which entails restoring the natural hydrology to 55,000 acres drained in the early 1960s as part of the failed Golden Gate Estates housing development.
“That’s a vital piece of habitat for Florida panthers,” Warren said.
Restrictions sought
Three zones of panther habitat are defined under the wildlife service’s Florida Panther Recovery Plan.
- The primary zone, 3,548 square miles, where the existing breeding population lives.
- The secondary zone, 1,269 square miles, which offers potential for the breeding population to expand.
- The dispersal zone, 44 square miles, the last migration corridor for panthers to migrate north – this is an area in northern Hendry and southern Glades counties that straddles the Caloosahatchee River.
According to the petition, the Florida panther will probably become extinct unless the entirety of all three zones “are protected from residential and commercial development and road construction, and receive special management.”
The petition also says that 22 percent of the primary zone, 60 percent of the secondary zone and all of the dispersal zone are privately owned.
“Critical habitat would mean no additional development,” said Paula Dinerstein of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “It’s pretty common for critical habitat to include land in private ownership. It might put some restrictions on some actions in those areas.”
To protect the panther, Dinerstein said, the wildlife service must take the petition into consideration.
“We’ve put out what we believe to be scientific support for critical habitat designation,” she said. “The agency needs to consider that and use their own scientists to determine what’s really needed to not only preserve the existing population but also to allow it to expand to a point where it’s no longer endangered.”