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Defenders in Action: Unique Partnerships Give the Florida Panther a Fighting Chance
The endangered Florida panther may gain a stronger foothold in its home state thanks to a breakthrough initiative developed by Defenders and a coalition of conservation groups and landowners that aims to connect 2.5 million acres of public and private land in southwestern Florida.
The new Florida Panther Protection Program's main objectives are to protect a significant, contiguous range for the wide-roaming panther and to create a fund that can help acquire, restore or enhance panther habitat. Such funding would also help install panther crossings and fencing to help the cats safely cross roads.
The Florida panther population, reduced to only 5 percent of its historic range throughout the southeastern United States, numbers approximately 100 individuals. Loss and fragmentation of habitat is the species' most significant threat, while human intolerance is the biggest impediment to its reestablishment and recovery.
"Our state animal, representing rare and vulnerable wild lands and species, is veering toward extinction in large part because its habitat and surrounding rural lands are disappearing for roads, housing subdivisions, strip malls, mining and other development," says Laurie Macdonald, Defenders' director of Florida programs. "This cooperative concept is a major step toward protecting that essential habitat."
The program includes recreating a lost corridor for the panther and preserving existing ones through a 200,000-acre area in eastern Collier County. The proposal envisions connecting and protecting the cat's habitat from the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and the Big Cypress National Preserve in the south to the Caloosahatchee River in the north, the Corkscrew Marsh and beyond Camp Keasis Strand in the west and beyond the Okaloacoochee Slough in the east.
Funding for the protective measures will come from participating landowners and is expected to total more than $150 million over the next 40 years.
