Government Sued for Choosing Parking Lots Over Panthers

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued by a consortium of conservation organizations over its treatment of the endangered Florida Panther. From the looks of it, those groups have got a pretty good case.

The FWS seems to have massively failed in its duty to protect this very at-risk species, though it seems to have done just fine at protecting developers who need access to land.

Before we get into the details of the lawsuit itself, let's talk a little bit about the Florida Panther. First of all, it's kind of a founding father of the Endangered Species Act; it's part of the so-called "Class of '67," the first group of animals listed under the act. Since that time, populations of the Florida Panther have declined. Right now, it's estimated that less than 100 of them are still around. It seems that the greatest threat to this apex predator is, well, convenience stores and strip malls. Today, your only chance to see one of these elusive animals would be in 3,500 square miles of remaining habitat in south Florida.

It seems like a pretty big area, 3,500 square miles, but when you consider that the average male Florida Panther needs about 250 square miles of territory to thrive, you can see that the few panthers left are feeling pretty boxed in. Thanks to some depressingly pro-development decisions by the Fish and Wildlife Service (which hasn't denied a development request in panther territory since 1993), there's nowhere else for them to go.

That brings us to the current lawsuit (here's the press release in .pdf format), brought by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Sierra Club, and a handful of other organizations. You see, despite having the Florida Panther on the Endangered Species list for over forty years, the FWS has consistently failed to protect the land it lives on. Given that the biggest threat to the Florida panther is encroaching development, you can see the problem.

The ESA provides a mechanism for protecting the Florida Panther's home. It's called "critical habitat," and studies have shown that species with critical habitat protections are twice as likely to show signs of recovery over time.

Unfortunately, we'll never be able to designate enough land to bring the Florida Panther anywhere close to pre-development boom populations; the panther used to range over an area stretching from Florida to Tennessee and west to Arkansas. But, we can do a better job of protecting the little habitat that the Florida Panther has left.

Despite spending over forty years on the Endangered Species List, the Florida Panther population has continued to decline, in large part because the agency commissioned to protect it hasn't done its job. Irresponsible development has painted the Florida Panther into a corner. The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to step up and protect what little space these panthers have left.

Photo credit: leftrightworld