U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Sued Over Plight Of Florida Panthers

A proposed housing development in the heart of Florida panther habitat poses a great threat to the survival of the endangered cats, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which claimed the development wouldn't harm the panthers.

The development proposed by Tarpon Blue Silver King I would include thousands of residential and commercial buildings on half of a 10,000-acre property, with the other half placed into conservation.

The lawsuit (attached below) argues that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined in the biological opinion it wrote on the development proposal that the "project's destruction of nearly 5,000 acres of panther habitat would not jeopardize the continued existence of the panther."

“The Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by approving this massive project smack dab in prime panther habitat and just a few miles from the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge,” said Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney and Florida policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our state’s struggling panthers depend on a thriving southwest Florida population and the ability to expand northward, which are both threatened by this development. We’re suing to stop these cats from sliding closer to extinction.”

The panther is one of the most endangered mammals in North America, with only about 200 prowling the semi-tropical South Florida wilderness, including in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Big Cypress National Preserve, and Everglades National Park.

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The groups seeking to stop the development — the Center for Biological Diversity, the South Florida Wildlands Association, and the Sierra Club — maintain that FWS "failed to acknowledge that the panther almost certainly faces jeopardy even without the Project, and failed meaningfully to analyze the additive impacts of the action to the panther’s survival and recovery prospects in that context, as the ESA requires."

The Army Corps of Engineers relied on the FWS biological opinion in approving a permit for the project, according to the lawsuit.

“The decision to file this lawsuit has been a long time coming,” said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of South Florida Wildlands Association. “For years, we have watched development after development encroach on the Florida panther's dwindling habitat. We’ve submitted comments on numerous projects at the county, state, and federal levels, urging agencies to prioritize science and protect Florida's endangered state animal. Our hope is that this lawsuit will finally determine how much development is too much for the Florida panther. We are also acutely aware that many more projects in the habitat beyond [this proposal] are on the horizon, and this lawsuit may well be the panther's last stand.”

While the Endangered Species Act requires the FWS to designate “critical habitat” for listed species to help with recovery plans, that requirement came after the panther was listed and later was never done for the panthers as the agency thought collaboration with private landowners would be more effective. That can be a huge challenge when you realize that an adult male panther has a home range of about 200 square miles.

Compounding the lack of that designation, FWS has repeatedly approved development projects in Florida panther habitat.

According to the FWS's recovery plan, there must be three viable, self-sustaining populations of at least 240 individuals and enough quality habitat to support these populations for the species to be considered recovered and removed from the endangered species list," the plaintiffs stressed. "To achieve a sustained population goal of 240 panthers in southwest Florida, quality habitat must be protected. Only when these recovery criteria are met and the panthers no longer need to be protected can their conservation be considered a success story."