Defenders' Experts
ORV Management in Big Cypress National Preserve
Defenders v. Kempthorne
Species Background:
The Florida panther once occupied a range across the southeastern United States including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and parts of Tennessee and South Carolina. Today, the remaining population is confined to the southern tip of Florida, in an area smaller than five percent of its historic range. There are an estimated 100 adults and sub-adults, and the species has been federally listed as endangered since 1967. Main threats to panthers include habitat loss and fragmentation due to human development, collision with vehicles, disease, and inbreeding resulting from isolated populations.
Many panthers currently reside in the Bear Island Unit of Big Cypress National Preserve, located at the center of the largest contiguous tract of panther habitat in its range. For over three decades, the National Park Service has permitted thousands of off-road vehicles (ORVs) virtually unrestricted access into the Preserve that adversely impact the highly sensitive habitats of the endangered panthers.
Case Background:
Pursuant to a 1995 Settlement Agreement, in 2000 the National Park Service (NPS) adopted an ORV Management Plan for the Big Cypress National Preserve. The ORV Management Plan directed the NPS to reduce approximately 23,300 miles of dispersed ORV use to 400 miles of designated trails throughout the Preserve. In the particularly sensitive Bear Island unit of the Preserve, the Plan calls for reducing primary trails from 55 miles to approximately 30 miles. Immediately following adoption of the Plan, approximately thirty miles of trails in the Bear Island Unit were closed. The closures were based on best available science, suitability evaluations of the terrain, and concerns about disturbances to Florida panther in that unit.
In February 2007, the NPS made the decision to re-open nearly 21 miles of additional primary and secondary trails in the Bear Island unit without conducting the required environmental impact analysis. The re-opened primary trails interfere with panther habitat and traverse sensitive prairies that were specifically closed by the ORV Plan to avoid unacceptable damage to the Preserve’s soils and hydrology. On December 12, 2007, Defenders and a coalition of environmental organizations filed suit, challenging the NPS’s decision to re-open approximately 20 miles of primary and secondary trails in the Big Cypress National Preserve’s Bear Island unit on the grounds that this decision violates the Endangered Species Act, the ORV Management Plan, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Park Service Organic Act and violations of Executive Orders.
Related Documents
Status:
Active
Co-filers:
Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Wildlands CPR, the Humane Society of the United States, National Parks Conservation Association, the Florida Biodiversity Project and the National Parks Conservation Association
