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This Friday, the National Park Service will decide the fate of one of southern Florida’s last stretches of untouched wild lands -- Big Cypress National Preserve -- home to many of the world’s last remaining wild Florida panthers.

This is our last chance. Take action today to save Big Cypress Preserve and the Florida panthers that live there!

The Park Service is considering opening a special patchwork of swamp, prairie and cypress forest called the Addition Lands to offroad vehicles (ORVs). Acquired by the Park Service in 1988, this swath of land is currently protected from the habitat degradation caused by ORVs. 

Big Cypress officials are working to create a management plan for the 146,000- acre ecosystem that makes up the Addition Lands.  Nearly 75% of this area has been determined “wilderness eligible.”  Despite this determination, the National Park is considering opening up this fragile area to ORVs.  

The fact that the Park Service is even considering opening up the Addition Lands to ORV use is outrageous. Excessive ORV use has already destroyed large sections of Big Cypress’s sensitive wetlands.

Opening the Addition Lands to unchecked ORV use would put even more undue stress on the Florida panthers, Florida black bears and other endangered wildlife that already struggle for survival there. 

Fortunately, there is a solution…and you can be a part of it.

The Park Service is considering six management alternatives for the area right now.  Only one plan -- Management Alternative F -- would designate most of the Addition Lands as Wilderness Area, protecting this crucial habitat from damage by offroad vehicles and safeguarding the highly endangered Florida panthers that need it to survive.  

Urge the National Park Service to designate 109,000 acres in the Addition Lands as a Wilderness Area to protect and preserve this key panther habitat.

Personalized messages will have a much greater impact. You can use the points below to start your message -- but tell officials why it is important to you that these lands be protected. Please find additional points beneath my signature.

• The Addition Lands of the Big Cypress National Preserve are home to many of the fewer than 100 Florida panthers in the wild today.  They are critically endangered under the Endangered Species Act and cannot withstand any more threats to their survival.  
• Allowing unchecked off-road vehicle (ORV) use in the Addition Lands will degrade one of the remaining natural wilderness areas Florida has left.
• Of the management plans being considered by the Park Service, only Management Alternative F -- designating 109,000 of “wilderness eligible” acreage as Wilderness Area -- would provide adequate protection for Florida panthers and other wildlife that depend on this habitat.

Our National Parks were created to preserve the natural quiet and serenity of our country and to provide reliable habitat for our wildlife in an ever-changing world.  It’s up to us to take a stand now or risk losing this Florida treasure forever. 

Time is running out, so please, make your voice heard.  The Park Service is only accepting comments until this Friday, June 15th -- take a few moments right now to tell the National Park Service how you feel about this important issue.

Thank you for all you do for our wildlife and wild places.

Sincerely,

Laurie MacDonald Florida Program Director Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. Here are some other points to consider including in your comments to the National Park Service:

• Under the Park Service Organic Act, park managers may promote public enjoyment of natural resources, but only when those activities leave our National Parks “unimpaired” for future generations.  The other management plans proposed by the Park Service violate the basic principle behind the agency’s laws.
• ORVs are allowed in several other areas of the preserve, making additional access unnecessary.