Florida deserves credit for bringing the panther back from near extinction. But the work is hardly completed.
Panthers are still threatened by record roadway deaths, illegal hunting and continued loss of natural habitat. For those reasons, the panther still needs strong state and federal protections to survive long-term.
That’s why those who care about protecting panthers were concerned when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the agency leading the Florida effort, announced months ago it was revising its panther population restoration policies.
What the commissioners came up with last month sounds good on paper, but there are still plenty of reasons to be worried that panther protections could be weakened.
The new FWC position paper rightly calls for directing limited resources and staff toward keeping the core population thriving, and pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission to step up efforts to establish new populations in other areas and states. There also is a greater emphasis on minimizing human-panther conflicts; restoring degraded panther habitat on public lands, such as the Everglades; and working with the Florida Department of Transportation to try to reduce panther deaths on roads.
But by the time the commission approved the new policy, it had heard testimony on everything from spreading panther populations throughout the state, to better protecting livestock and pets from panthers, to asking the federal commission to lower the population numbers needed to remove the panther from federal protection.
The commission now says it never seriously considered acting to remove panthers from the endangered species list. But the process got ugly.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that FWC Executive Director Nick Wiley penned an early draft of the new policy almost exclusively with the help of an Immokalee ranch owner who has lost cattle and cash to panthers. Liesa Priddy, also a commission member, pushed for protecting humans and livestock in the heart of panther country south of the Caloosahatchee River and Lake Okeechobee, which may not be a bad idea. What was a bad idea was allowing Priddy to take such a huge role in writing the policy without input from commission biologists.
The facts are:
The panther once roamed eight states in the southeastern U.S. and now is contained to several counties in southwest Florida. When the panther was placed on the federal endangered species list nearly five decades ago, there were about 30 remaining in the state. Florida estimates there may be as many as 180 today.
So far, 21 panthers have been killed by autos this year, which means a more than 10 percent reduction in the population in about 10 months, not including other types of death. In 2014, two dozen panthers were killed by cars, also a record year.
Panther country totals about 177,000 acres in Collier County. It’s also the site where major landowners, ranchers and developers have long proposed constructing a town, built around mining, oil exploration and agriculture industries.
While it is illegal to kill panthers, it’s not rare to find a panther injured or killed by a crossbow or gun.
Florida has in no way given up on protecting the panther. Ron Bergeron, a South Florida developer and businessman who also sits on the FWC, was smart to call for the commission to revisit and report back on the progress of its new policies a year from now.
Those are steps in the right direction.
But if Florida is serious about restoring panther populations to healthy and sustainable levels, it will stay clear of diminishing protections before the job is complete.
