The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering expanded human access to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge/NPS file
Hunting, off-road vehicle use, mountain bike use, and some commercial uses are being considered for the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, a nearly 27,000-acre refuge near Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida that was established in 1989 to protect habitat for the endangered cat while allowing for "limited visitor use."
If the plan is approved, a spiderweb of motorized trails would be laid down across the refuge, turkey hunting would be allowed across 25,560 acres of the refuge, and greater public access would be permitted.
"The new plan will open the refuge to 14 new activities - including things like drone use, off-road vehicles, hunting, commercial tours, commercial film crews, camping, and others," said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. "Some of these can be high-impact in terms of damage to habitat and the potential for human disturbance to the panther and the other endangered and threatened animals present in the refuge.
"The proposed move is also coming at the same time that Collier County's government has been approving massive new developments in Eastern Collier County - some right next door to the Refuge (e.g. the three new villages in the Town of Big Cypress)," he added. "That means panthers in the area will get a double whammy - loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat on private, rural lands plus major disturbances on protected, public lands.
"Not a great time to be a Florida panther hanging on in a tiny corner of rapidly growing southwest Florida."
The panther refuge is just northwest of Big Cypress. Both tracts, along with Everglades National Park, are considered vital to survival of the panther.
Public comments on the plan are being accepted through midnight July 6. You can mail comments to “Florida Panther Visitor Services Plan” to the refuge by mail at Florida Panther NWR, 12085 SR 29 Immokalee, FL 34142 or email to Floridapanther@fws.gov.
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Comments
Sounds like a bad idea. Drones and off road vehicles, etc in a wildlife preserve? What is the Fish and Wildlife Service thinking?
The Florida Panther Refuge exists for that purpose ; to protect our wildlife. No such Visitor Plan should be allowed in the vital refuge, which is critical to our Panthers survival. With the overcrowding of people coming in to the state of Florida, our nAtional PArks, Wildlife REfuges and protected shorelines and waters MUST BE KEPT AND PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS. The Fish & Wildlife Agency is proving once more it's incompetence in defending the purpose for which it was created. STOP AND CANCEL THIS UNNEEDED VISITOR PLAN.