Protecting the Florida Panther from urban expansion

Author: Paul Dolan Writer: Paul Dolan, Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

No matter which way you look in southwest Florida, you see homes, businesses and communities going up.

While the development lets all of us share our Southwest Florida community with each other, It also takes away land from our wildlife. 

Inside the Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge, you see the natural side of Florida.

The endangered Florida Panther is the king of the Everglades but new developments could rip apart their core territory.

“Impact over 8,000 acres of the most important Florida panther habitat, the core of the core,” said Amber Crooks, senior environmental policy advisor at Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

These development and mining projects are more than worrisome to the conservancy.

But for these developments to happen they have to overcome a vital extinction safeguard.

“The Army Corps also has to make sure that it complies with the Endangered Species Act, which is our bedrock law to prevent extinction,” said Elise Bennett, Attorney and Florida and Caribbean Director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“It’s the strongest law in the world for preventing extinction,” said Bennett.

Just two of those developments would have a big impact on Panther territory.

“In total, the Rural Lands West project and the Belmar project would impact about 400 acres of wetlands, it would add about 14,000 new homes and equating to about 133,000 new daily trips,” said Crooks.

“Endangered species like the panther, it’s in the emergency room, and we need to make sure that we’re not dealing at any more blows that can drive it closer to extinction,” said Bennett. “And that’s precisely what these developments are doing by moving farther and farther into the panther habitat.”

Where will the Panthers have to go if the developments are built?

Well, one answer is a bit closer to your home.

“All of these new communities within less than a mile of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, they’re also going to be looking at the risk of human and panther interactions. We know that sometimes panthers come into human areas, particularly as our development encroaches on their habitat, and that can cause conflict.”

When panthers have a home they stay away from ours.

In 2024, FWC reported 36 panther deaths.

You have to go back to 2016 for the last time we had more panther deaths in the state in one year.

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