This past Thanksgiving, south Floridians reading their morning paper were greeted by a story in the Sun Sentinel.

The article reported a decision by the National Park Service (NPS) to permit motorized recreation on 146,000 acres of what is likely the most pristine wildlife habitat remaining in south Florida. The NPS plan will create a 130 mile network of primary off-road vehicle (ORV) trails in the Big Cypress National Preserve Addition Lands. Two parking lots, a still to be determined number of secondary trails, and a campground will also be constructed to accommodate the influx of new motorized visitors. ee this story from the Miami Herald for an idea of what a ‘swampwalk’ in the Addition Lands is like.

THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DECISION

In their own discussion of the ecological impacts expected from their decision, the NPS provides the following summary:

“The key impacts of implementing the preferred alternative would include moderate, long-term, adverse, and mostly localized impacts on surface water flow; long-term, moderate, adverse and potentially Addition-wide impacts on exotic/nonnative plants; long-term, moderate, adverse and mostly localized impacts on (likely to adversely affect) the Florida panther; long term, minor to moderate, adverse and mostly localized impacts on (likely to adversely affect) the red-cockaded woodpecker; long-term, minor to moderate, adverse and mostly localized impacts on major game species.”

See photo for a look at what ORV impacts in the Big Cypress look like on the ground.

This photo was taken just before NPS opened an area of the preserve (eastern Bear Island – adjacent to the Addition Lands) to public motorized recreation. After claiming this trail could sustain motor vehicle use, NPS was forced to close it after less than one season of use due to excessive damage to soils and vegetation.

To say the least, this is a strange decision on the part of folks who are supposed to be stewards of one of America’s most unique places. Every single piece of legislation, regulation and guidance dealing with the management of National Park Service units, from the Organic Act of 1916 to the 2006 NPS Management Policies, stresses the need to put natural resource protection before recreation. As summed up by former Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in 2006:

“When there is a conflict between conserving resources unimpaired for future generations and the use of those resources, conservation will be predominant,” Kempthorne said. “That is the heart of these policies and the lifeblood of our Nation’s commitment to care for these special places and provide for their enjoyment.”

What is also strange about this decision is the number of people it will actually benefit. Of the 65,000 registered off-road vehicles in south Florida (nearly 250,000 in the state according the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles) NPS intends to cap the number of off-road vehicle permits for the Addition at 650 (the vast majority of the original preserve is already open to motor vehicles and has an annual cap of 2000 permits). In other words, a still largely pristine resource owned by over 300 million Americans is about to be seriously degraded by the NPS for the recreation and enjoyment of far less than 1 percent of Florida’s off-road vehicle community. Millions of dollars will be spent on parking lots, trail construction, stabilization, signage, security, law enforcement, maintenance, and (eventually) restoration, for a fragile piece of land that is unsuitable in every way for what the NPS itself refers to as a ‘high impact recreational activity’.

A few words about the effects this decision is likely to have on the Florida panther. This year marks a new record in panther mortality with 23 deaths recorded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission – 16 by vehicle collision (four in December alone), 6 by ‘intraspecific aggression’ (fights to the death between panthers over dwindling territory and food supply), and one from unknown causes. Of the estimated 80 to 100 panthers which still manage to survive in south Florida, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified 29 radio collared panthers known to be using the Addition Lands and closely surrounding areas. A number of uncollared panthers are also known to be present.

In their plan for the Addition, NPS draws on established panther science and accurately describes the panther’s needs as follows:

“In general, panther population centers appear to indicate a preference toward large, remote tracts with adequate prey, cover, and reduced levels of human disturbance.” They add that the “survival and recovery of the Florida panther is dependent on.protection and enhancement of the extant population, associated habitats, and prey resources” and recommend the reduction of “hunting pressure on panther prey species, especially deer and hogs” and the regulation of “ORV use and other human activities more closely because of potential disturbance to panther habitat”.

Unfortunately, the plan being put forward by the NPS goes in a completely different direction from what their own science recommends. It fragments panther habitat, makes it less remote, removes large amounts of prey, reduces cover, and greatly increases levels of human disturbance. In short, it is the exact opposite of the type of management which should occur in one of the Florida panther’s last holdouts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the lead agency for protection of the panther, has also weighed in on this plan – and unfortunately have given it their qualified support. In their Biological Opinion, the FWS opinion discounts three previous scientific studies referenced in their own “Panther Recovery Plan” which found decreases in use of habitat by panthers during periods of heightened ORV activity.