Conservation groups notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Tarpon Blue Silver King I, LLC, today of their intent to file suit in federal court to protect endangered Florida panthers from a massive new development within the panthers’ occupied breeding habitat in southwest Florida.
Today’s notice says the federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act when they authorized a 10,264-acre residential and commercial development project known as Rural Lands West in important “primary zone” habitat for panthers in Collier County.
“Relentless development is chipping away at the last remaining panther habitat in southwest Florida and making it harder for them to roam and recover,” said Jason Totoiu, Florida policy director and a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Fish and Wildlife Service never should have authorized this project without first analyzing its effects on the panthers’ ability to recover, especially with so much of their habitat already lost to development. We won’t sit idly by and watch the agency allow this iconic species of our great state to suffer death by a thousand cuts.”
The notice says the Service issued a scientifically flawed, unlawful biological opinion that failed to assess how the project could harm panthers’ ability to recover in the wild, whether panthers are already in jeopardy and whether this project could tip the animals past the point where their recovery is possible.
“It’s an over 10,000 acre footprint, and what’s really problematic about it is how the U.S. government went about reviewing this project and likely more to come in its impacts to the Florida Panther,” Totoiu said. “And what’s really problematic here is that they just simply ignored how this type of project would impact the ability for the species to recover.”
“This large-scale development is in primary panther habitat, just a stone’s throw from the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge,” said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of South Florida Wildlands Association. “At this point, the panther’s remaining habitat has been reduced to a sliver, and the rapid pace of development across southwest Florida threatens to push the species beyond its breaking point. We hope this legal action compels the agency to confront its obligations and finally draw a clear line on how much development is too much.”
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The refuge was established in 1989 and is managed by the Service. The agency’s biological opinion doesn’t say anything about the potential harm to panthers living in the refuge.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to properly analyze the impacts of habitat loss and degradation on the Florida panther has tragic consequences for the species, which appears to be once again in decline,” said Cris Costello, Florida state campaign director for Sierra Club. “The agency’s arbitrary decision-making is enabling the piecemeal destruction of panther habitat and undermining the Endangered Species Act’s goal of achieving recovery.”
The Service developed a plan to help recover Florida panthers nearly 20 years ago and since then the panthers have lost more than 30,000 acres of habitat. As many as one in five panthers are killed by vehicles in a single year.
There are likely fewer than 200 adult Florida panthers left in the wild and their numbers are declining. According to the Service’s recovery plan, there must be three viable, self-sustaining populations of at least 240 individuals and sufficient quality habitat to support these populations for the species to be considered recovered and removed from the endangered species list.
Totoiu said that despite helpful things like the state’s Wildlife Corridor, the deck is being stacked against the panthers.
“It’s a race against the clock. And what I what I like to, kind of just try to explain to people, is the Wildlife Corridor is critical, but it’s habitat that was always there,” he said. “It’s changing ownership. It’s being put in protection, but we’re not creating new habitat. There’s a finite amount of habitat left.”
Today’s notice from the Center, South Florida Wildlands Association and Sierra Club says they intend to sue the Service and the Corps under the Endangered Species Act if the agencies fail to reinitiate consultation within 60 days and prepare a new, legally adequate biological opinion.
“I have hope for the corridor and I hope for the Panther, but what I’m very concerned about right now is what this cursory type of review for projects like this is very troubling, because it kind of puts us on a path where, you know what we’ve seen, an agency, essentially, you know, burying its head in the sand and not wanting to make that tough call,” Totoiu said. “And that tough call is, is the Panther in jeopardy right now? If it’s not, then what is that tipping point? You know, how much is too much? And that’s what we’re we want. Those are the questions we asked and that they never answered in these reviews. And this is a practice that just can’t continue.”
The groups are represented by attorneys Lizzie Lewis and Bill Eubanks of Eubanks and Associates, based in Washington, D.C.
Parties must generally notify the federal government by filing a formal administrative claim with the responsible agency before actually filing a lawsuit.
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