A backcountry access plan for Big Cypress National Preserve has been approved/NPS file

The decision by staff at Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida not to propose any wilderness-eligible lands for official wilderness designation has been approved by the regional director.

Mark Foust in the Park Service's Atlanta office on Monday signed the Record of Decision following the park's preparation of a Backcountry Access Plan/Wilderness Study environmental impact statement.

In announcing that decision, a release from Big Cypress said the finding:

• Increases access for both motorized and non-motorized users.
• Balances increased public access with resource preservation by identifying routes that can best withstand ORV use.
• Responds to concerns about wilderness designation received through public comments, submitted by stakeholders, and expressed by Tribes during Tribal consultation.

The nearly 400-page Backcountry Access Plan/Wilderness Study considered four alternatives for managing backcountry access and settled on one calling for slight increases in the number of off-road vehicle miles in the nearly 730,000-acre preserve that adjoins Everglades National Park in South Florida, and calls for a slight realignment of the Florida National Scenic Trail. Official wilderness was not proposed, though, because of opposition from the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes and the need for the Park Service to have access for management purposes.

According to the Record of Decision, "[T]he tribes’ largest concern was that a wilderness proposal would risk the exclusion of tribal members from accessing ceremonial grounds and sacred sites on wilderness lands by motorized means. Section 5 of the preserve’s enabling legislation stipulates that Miccosukee and Seminole Tribal members 'shall be permitted, subject to reasonable regulations…, to continue their usual and customary use and occupancy of Federal or federally acquired lands and waters within the preserve and the Addition, including hunting, fishing, and trapping on a subsistence basis and traditional tribal ceremonials' (16 United States Code [USC] § 698j). While the NPS interprets this language to include motorized access within the definition of “usual and customary use” and interprets this statutory right of access as an existing right exempt from the prohibitions in 16 USC § 1133(c), the Tribes’ concerns were not assuaged due to the seemingly conflicting language of the Wilderness Act in 16 USC § 1133(c).”

Preserve staff opposed wilderness designation because of "the need to routinely access and/or take management actions on wilderness eligible lands for resource management purposes, such as wildland and prescribed fire, invasive species management, and ecological restoration, including future manipulations to restore a more naturally functioning hydrologic regime, which were also concerns expressed by those opposed to wilderness designation."

The approved plan calls for the reopening of 15 miles of primary off-road-vehicle trails and of 39 miles of airboat trails, bringing to 331 miles the combined total mileage of primary ORV and airboat trails in Big Cypress. In addition, 53 miles of secondary ORV trails would be added. Secondary trails are out-and-back trails that veer off from a primary trail to reach a specific backcountry destination.

The 15 additional miles of primary trails would be distributed among the Bear Island Unit, the Corn Dance Unit and Northeast Addition, the Corn Dance Unit east of Raccoon Point, and the Turner River Unit. The 39 miles of reopened airboat trail would be in the Stairsteps Unit Zones 3 and 4.

According to the final document, the preferred approach "would expand the preserve's trail systems, and the consequent visitor use, while avoiding impacts on 99.9 percent of the preserve."