A fight over Florida panther habitat

December 30, 2009

ISTOCK PHOTO

Groups are preparing to sue, saying the federal government is allowing too much development on critical panther habitat.

By Kate Spinner

Published: Friday, December 25, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 9:43 p.m.

While the state's largest cats teeter on the edge of extinction, federal regulators are accused of hastening the Florida panther's demise over the last few years by allowing some of their best habitat to be bulldozed.

Between 2003 and 2008, federal regulators said they gave developers permission to build on nearly 25,000 acres — almost double the size of Oscar Scherer State Park — that many scientists consider essential for the panthers' survival.

Three national environmental groups recently asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to set tougher development restrictions on panther land, but they are not counting on cooperation.

Instead, leaders with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Council of Civic Associations are preparing to sue the government, likely next month. The groups meet next week to discuss legal strategies.

“They have acted as a regulatory car wash, squirting off and approving every project,” said Jeffrey Ruch, executive director of PEER. He said the agency's attitude appears to assume it can “buy the little panthers a suitcase so they can migrate north.”

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to allow developers to build on panther lands, it is slowly pursuing plans to reintroduce panthers north of the Caloosahatchee River.

Although male panthers occasionally travel north, sometimes through lands in Charlotte County and parts of Sarasota, piecing together enough habitat there for a viable population will take more time than one person's career, said Darrell Land, panther team leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Land said the best Florida panther habitats — and the only breeding areas — are within a 2-million-acre stretch of South Florida, about 75 to 80 percent of which is in some form of protection.

The bad news, he said, is that the loss of the other 20 to 25 percent of that land will likely mean an equivalent loss for the panther population. And with only about 100 Florida panthers remaining, that loss would be significant.

In South Florida, panthers already occupy all the suitable habitat available. They get run over by cars and kill each other in violent territorial battles.

“The biggest threat to the long-term persistence of the panther continues to be the loss of habitat,” Land said.

One of the most notable large new communities built in panther habitat is Ave Maria, which broke ground in eastern Collier County in 2005. When the community is finished, 11,000 homes will dot 5,000 acres formerly roamed by panthers.

Another developer, Collier Enterprises, wants to build a similar 9,000-home community called Big Cypress on 2,800 acres regularly used by panthers.

The proposal has triggered a controversial compromise between developers and several environmental groups, including Audubon of Florida, Defenders of Wildlife and the Florida Wildlife Federation.

The tentative agreement would cap development in Collier's panther territory at 45,000 acres or so, including Ave Maria and Big Cypress.

That proposal could leave more than 35,000 additional acres open for homes, asphalt and roads.

Before the wildlife service approves any other developments, the other environmental groups want to see the service identify the panthers' critical habitat, a formal designation required by the Endangered Species Act of 1974.

Panthers made the endangered list in 1967, before critical habitat designation was required.

Federal agencies are prohibited from allowing, funding or permitting any project that damages critical habitat, land deemed essential for an endangered animal's immediate and future survival.

For the panther, that amounts to about 3 million acres south of the Caloosahatchee River, conservationists say.

“The first priority is to protect the habitat for the existing population,” said Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, in New Mexico. “If we lose that population, that's it for the Florida panther.”

The wildlife service insists that it has not ruled out the possibility that it will set critical habitat, but a spokesman suggested that doing so would be redundant.

“We already have a very strong sense of where panthers are found and we continuously and rigorously review proposals that would possibly impact panther habitat,” said Ken Warren, spokesman for the wildlife service's office in Vero Beach.

The Naples-based Conservancy of Southwest Florida was the first to call on the Fish and Wildlife Service to set critical habitat boundaries for the panther in January.

“Most species that are anywhere near the numbers where the Florida panther is down to have that designation,” said Andrew McElwaine, director of the conservancy.

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