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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Protecting the Panther In Big Cypress
Defenders and other conservation groups are calling for the closure of off-road vehicle routes recently reopened by the National Park Service in southern Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The trails are in the most sensitive habitat of Big Cypress, an area frequented by the critically endangered Florida panther.
The reopening of these trails flies in the face of a 10-year effort to curb massive, damaging off-road vehicle abuse in the national preserve, says Laurie Macdonald, Defenders’ Florida director. The routes were closed in 2000—following legal action in 1995—to protect the fragile ecosystems from excessive swamp buggy and all-terrain vehicle damage.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service required the preserve to study the impacts of off-road vehicles but preserve management did not conduct this study prior to reopening the trials, which are mostly used by hunters.
“Swamp buggies and all-terrain vehicles are still allowed on 400 miles of routes throughout the preserve,” says Macdonald. “We believe that authorizing more motorized vehicle routes in this particular area is inappropriate and not in keeping with the preserve’s management plan and the much-needed protection of the panther.”
The Florida panther population, reduced to only 5 percent of its historic range, numbers fewer than 100 individuals. Loss and fragmentation of habitat is one of the species’ most significant threats. By August, 14 panthers had been killed by cars—already exceeding last year’s record 11 deaths—further proof of how much panther habitat has been degraded, fragmented or destroyed by development. “We’ve taken away almost all of the panther’s habitat already,” says Macdonald. “Do they really need to damage more areas?”
