Defenders of Wildlife Blog

©Pauline I. Stacey

Laurie Macdonald, Florida Program Director

Last month, we celebrated the First Annual Everglades Day, designated by the Florida legislature in recognition of America’s unique and intriguingly diverse Everglades ecoregion. The date, April 7th, was also the birthday of the late Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, an iconic heroine and newspaper reporter who spent many years writing about and advocating for Everglades protection.

The Everglades region is recognized as an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. The area encompasses three national parks, and a dozen national wildlife refuges and marine preserves, as well as a host of state, regional and local parks, forests and wildlife management areas. Extensive private land holdings in the region are also an integral component of valuable wildlife habitat ranging from 100,000-acre ranches to thousands of one-acre lots.

Biodiversity here is among the highest in the nation, with many species found nowhere else in the U.S. Many of Defenders’ key species are in the region, including Florida panthers, manatees, sea turtles, gopher tortoises and other listed species such as the Everglade kite, wood stork, Big Cypress fox squirrel, American crocodile and Key deer.

The Everglades are truly a national treasure and deserve the utmost protection and management. Without adequate funding, we’d be unable to acquire the habitat and linkages that species like panthers and bears need, protect water quality or work to protect natural systems from degradation and invasive species.

Throughout the month of April, we took action to protect south Florida’s Greater Everglades region. Defenders’ Florida Representative Elizabeth Fleming, our lobbyist Travis Moore and I, as well as other Everglades Coalition members, met with volunteers from around the state in Tallahassee to speak with our state senators and representatives who were in the midst of the Florida legislative session. Our message: The state budget needs to provide adequate funding for Everglades protection and restoration projects that protect our water and wildlife. One third of all Floridians rely on clean water from the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, and more than 120 federal and state endangered and threatened species depend on the region’s varied wetland, upland and marine habitats. The health of the Everglades brings economic health to the region. Quite simply, what’s good for the Everglades is good for southern Florida and beyond, because its visitors and migratory wildlife come from around the globe.

Staff and volunteers on the steps of the Florida Capitol.(©Pauline I. Stacey)

This was the first trip to the state capital for Will Johnson, a Defenders volunteer who made the nearly 7-hour drive to Tallahassee from Naples, who said, “Everglades Action Day is a great opportunity to engage with legislators and a wonderful group of activists to help preserve and protect the beauty and wildlife of Florida.”

Another volunteer, Magdalena Braker, took the long ride by joining others on a chartered bus that the Everglades Coalition reserved for the event, starting in Miami and picking up activists along way. Magdalena urged legislators to provide funding and support for the Everglades with this message: “La riqueza natural y servicios ambientales de los Everglades se están marchitando debajo presiones urbanas y venimos para emfátizar la importancia de los Everglades tanto para las especies silvestre como para los ciudadanos del sur de la Florida.” Which means:

“The natural resources and ecosystem services of the Everglades are withering under the pressures of urbanization, and we come here to emphasize the importance of the Everglades, not only for the native wildlife, but for South Floridians.”

The nearly 60 volunteers who made the trip from around the state to Tallahassee attended more than 30 meetings with their elected officials, asking them to make funding for the Everglades a priority. And it made an important contribution to Everglades protection! Just last week, as the 2013 legislative session concluded, the Florida Legislature designated $70M for Everglades restoration projects. Thanks for all who participated in our action day! If you’re in Florida, join us next year for lobby days at the state capital! And no matter where you live, get to know your state representative and senator back in your district. It always makes a big difference when elected officials hear directly from their constituents.

Fl. Representative Powell meets with volunteers and activists (©Pauline I. Stacey)

An oiled pelican on the Gulf Coast (©Krista Schyler/Defenders of Wildlife)

Laurie Macdonald, Florida Program Director

This Saturday, April 20th, will mark the third anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. By Earth Day 2010, we had learned the terrible news that 11 men had died in an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and we hoped an environmental crisis was not going to follow.

But follow it did. Over 200 million gallons of oil spewed from a failed drilling operation nearly a mile below the ocean surface: hot, highly pressurized petroleum hydrocarbons that had been stewing for millions of years. In the days that turned into months of frantic work to seal the well, the oil and attempts to contain it caused direct and long term damage to wildlife and their habitat, including an unknown number of deaths.

How can there be restitution for such an assault on the precious and extensive resources of the Gulf? How can the environmental losses be restored and the related economic losses be compensated? Sea turtles, whales and dolphins surfacing to breathe and sea birds resting or diving into the ocean were covered with oil. Seahorses and juvenile sea turtles living in the floating sargassum seaweed mats were killed when the mats were showered with dispersants and burned. Below the surface, deep sea coral colonies and shallow seagrass beds died due to the toxic combination of dispersants and oil. And on the beach, shorebird nests and chicks were trampled and scraped away by uninformed workers during cleanup operations, while heavy equipment and lights disturbed and harmed wildlife. Every part of the Gulf was affected by the spill, from its shores to the sea floor. People dependent upon marine resources, from shrimpers to hotel and restaurant owners, lost significant livelihood, and some of those living along the affected areas suffer ongoing illnesses.

Oil floats in the water off the coast of Louisiana. (©Krista Schyler/Defenders of Wildlife)

A complex combination of legislation and lawsuits is causing the responsible parties, British Petroleum (BP) and others, to pay significant costs and fines. Penalties under the RESTORE Act passed by Congress on June 29, 2012 will make $4 billion available for restoration and improvement of the Gulf and for the people that suffered losses due to the spill. The RESTORE Act ensures that 80 percent of Deepwater Horizon civil and administrative penalties under the Clean Water Act will go to Gulf Coast restoration, and sets up a framework that can ensure coordination between the Gulf States and the Federal government.

Defenders’ Florida Representative Elizabeth Fleming and I recently attended a public meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, which is evaluating which projects are most important to fund. The meeting was held to listen to information from the public about what actions we believed would be of the greatest benefit to the Gulf.

On behalf of Defenders, I presented a report that we produced with the National Wildlife Refuge Association that describes tracts of conservation land along the Gulf Coast and connections inland that should be acquired and added to the refuge system. This will protect wildlife habitat and help wildlife adapt to the impacts we are experiencing as a result of climate change and sea level rise. Examples include expanding the Gulf Islands National Seashore to protect sea turtle nesting beaches as well as people’s access to the coastline, and adding to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to complete the ocean-to-inland connection that wildlife will need to rely on as they adapt to climate change.

Shorebirds like this rely on the beaches affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill (©Krista Schyler/Defenders of Wildlife)

I pointed out three principles that I think should guide the decisions on how to spend the restoration funds. First, all projects, including those not focused on the environment (boat ramps and the like) must result in ecosystem benefits. Second, all projects should also take climate change and sea level rise into consideration. And lastly, the most important action we can take is to acquire valuable conservation areas that add to our system of natural resource lands and wildlife habitat.

Author Carl Safina in his book “A Sea in Flames,” closes with an observation on northern gannets — large, shining white seabirds that migrate from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico for the winter. Gannets dive for their prey and so they are directly affected by oil adhering to their bodies and by eating contaminated fish. Safina remarks that the first oiled bird whose image was in the news during the Gulf oil disaster was a gannet, and that seabird biologists speculated that up to a third of the population would be affected. The gannet already faces a host of threats near its breeding grounds, and is now suffering the impacts of the oil spill even 2,000 miles away, where it spends the off-season.

It is clear that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will continue to affect wildlife and habitat for years to come. Our job now is to help our damaged Gulf regain its health with carefully planned, enduring restoration work.

Lisa Östberg, Southwest Florida Coexistence Coordinator

Last week, I had one of the best days of my life: after many years of working as a volunteer and now for Defenders as its Florida coexistence coordinator, I had the opportunity to witness a Florida panther being released into the wild!

©Tim Donovan/FWC

The panther was one of a pair of siblings orphaned back in 2011 when their mother was killed. They were taken to a special rehabilitation facility where they were allowed to grow to young adulthood with very little exposure to humans, and were taught to hunt and fend for themselves. The female of the pair was successfully released into the Picayune Strand State Forest a few weeks ago, and today the male was released into a very remote part of southwest Palm Beach County within the Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area.

I have never definitively seen a panther in the wild, although I’ve been the first on site at one roadkill and witnessed the “cleanup” at another. Today’s experience was a world away – away from that sadness, away from roads, away from people. The young panther was released on public preserve lands rife with prey like deer and hogs, which should provide this young male with lots of food as he learns to make his way in the wild.

The release itself was over in almost a heartbeat: his crate was opened and for a few seconds we all waited in crazy suspense while he stayed tucked inside. But then, in an instant, he peeked out, looked to one side and then ran like crazy into the wind, and within a few seconds turned off the dirt road and into the woods.

Quite simply, the experience was magical: seeing the hope on everyone’s face as this young male headed out to make his future in the wild was really special, and I know we all hope that he, and Florida panthers in general, can continue to survive and thrive in the wild.

After just a moment’s hesitation, the panther takes off into the wild. (©Lisa Östberg)

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative

©David Hinkel, USFWS

2013 is shaping up to be a particularly deadly year for the endangered Florida manatee, whose population is estimated at around 5,000 animals.  More than 460 dead manatees have been documented in the first three months of this year – an alarmingly high number.  It has already topped the number of manatees that died all of last year. What’s going on here?

Well, among other threats, these aquatic mammals are experiencing injury and death in record numbers from exposure to a toxic algal bloom known as red tide in southwest Florida. Lee County has been particularly hard hit, followed by Charlotte County, Sarasota County and Collier County.  Red tide is a naturally occurring event, but this outbreak has persisted since September 2012 and has killed as many as 240 manatees, a new record for red tide deaths in southwest Florida.  Manatees are affected by red tide neurotoxins when they breathe, and even more so when they eat seagrass coated by the algae. The toxins cause seizures that can result in drowning when the animals cannot lift their snouts above the water to breathe.

Some manatees have been found alive but very ill, and have been transported to facilities where they receive around-the-clock care. This is the worst red tide outbreak since 1996, when 151 animals were killed by the algal bloom in the southwest part of the state. Even though the bloom is subsiding, manatees will continue to be affected for some time because toxins from the red tide have settled onto seagrass beds.

On the east coast of Florida, yet another threat is claiming manatee lives in the Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County. Nearly 100 manatees have died of an unknown cause, possibly from a different toxin, since July 2012. With most of Brevard’s seagrass eliminated due to a combination of factors (such as cold and drought that resulted in higher salinity) algal blooms known as “brown tide” have developed in the lagoon and impacted water clarity and seagrass growth. In some areas 99 percent of the seagrass has been lost. Without their staple food supply, manatees may be consuming macroalgae or other food sources that are making them ill and killing them.

Red tide algal bloom, ©NOAA

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering a proposal to downlist the manatee from “endangered” to “threatened.” Considering that the existing risks to manatees have not been alleviated and that little is known about emerging new threats, Defenders urges the Service to carefully incorporate these significant losses into their review and assessment of the status of the manatee population.

These large manatee die-offs are the latest struggle in a long history of challenges for the Florida manatee, which was one of the first species protected by the Endangered Species Act when it was enacted in 1973. The leading human-caused threat to manatees is collisions with watercraft. So far this year, 15 manatees have been killed by boats. We expect this number to rise substantially before the year is over, and especially during the summer months. Scientists believe that unless this cause of death is controlled, the manatee population will not recover.

To address this threat, Defenders has been instrumental in the creation of new manatee protection speed zones, sanctuaries and refuge areas. We supported the establishment of manatee speed zones in Tampa Bay and Flagler County, and the creation of the Kings Bay Manatee Refuge that made all but a small portion of the bay a slow-speed area. We advocate for improved enforcement of speed zones and comment on management plans for federal and state parks and refuges to ensure that they adequately address manatee protections.

Manatees at Crystal River NWR, ©Joyce Kleen

An even greater, long-term threat is the loss of warm water habitat that manatees need to survive in winter. The deadliest year on record, 2010, saw 766 manatees killed, nearly 300 of them by an extended period of very cold weather. Because residential development has greatly reduced the natural warm water springs manatees need to stay warm, many of the animals aggregate in the warm-water outfalls at electric power plants on cold winter days. A large percentage of the manatee population could be lost in the future if aging plants are shut down.

Defenders is hard at work to protect manatee habitat. We petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise critical habitat for the Florida manatee, supported the acquisition of Three Sisters Spring for Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, increased protections for manatees overwintering in Kings Bay and strengthened seagrass protections in Everglades National Park. We advocate for increased protection for natural springs, agency efforts to increase manatee access to springs and adoption by agencies and power companies of a warm-water contingency plan to help manatees transition from artificial to natural sites.

If you’re in Florida and you see a manatee in distress that may be suffering from red tide exposure or any other injury, please call 1-888-404-3922 IMMEDIATELY. Be sure that your actions are not putting manatees at risk: refrain from pursuing, touching, or feeding or watering manatees, and please practice safe boating for the manatees’ sake and yours.

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative 

One of the greatest obstacles to helping the Florida panther recover is that even the people who live with these animals in their backyard don’t always realize the steps they can take to protect them. Though already critically endangered, these panthers are constantly in danger thanks to collisions with vehicles, shrinking habitat, and people’s intolerance for living with a large predator. So as part of our campaign to Give Panthers a Brake, Defenders has been very busy with panther outreach in the lead up to Save the Florida Panther Day on March 16, 2013 and beyond.

Holding exhibits at festivals and other local events allows us to talk directly to people who live in panther country about how to coexist with panthers. (c) Lisa Östberg

In 1990, the state legislature established the third Saturday in March as Save the Florida Panther Day and governors have issued official proclamations promoting the day ever since. This year, Defenders has participated in several events across the state to educate Florida residents about panthers and what they can do to help them:

• On February 23rd and 24th, Defenders’ Southwest Florida Coexistence Coordinator and members of Defenders’ Panther Citizen Action Taskforce (PCAT) participated in the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle, Florida in rural Hendry County, which draws between 30,000 and 50,000 people each year. We joined efforts with other members of the Florida Panther Outreach Team to raise awareness about our official endangered state animal, and how to live and recreate responsibly in panther country. As part of our exhibit, we set up a demonstration of a predator-resistant enclosure and taught visitors how to protect their pets and livestock from local predators such as panthers, coyotes, bobcats, feral dogs and raccoons. We also handed out information on Defenders’ programs that help people to afford and construct these enclosures on their property.
• Defenders also handed out information about living in panther country at the Florida Panther Day event at the Naples Zoo. Several thousand people stopped by to meet panther field biologists, engage in activities for children and learn about opportunities to get involved in panther conservation.
• We staffed a table at a festival in the town of Ave Maria to provide information to hundreds of visitors about living responsibly with Florida panthers and other wildlife. This fairly new town, just 10 miles north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, has a small but growing residential population that is in need of constant education about living with panthers, bears and other local wildlife.
• 

  We were able to run ads on the scoreboard, in the lobby, and on the LED ring around the stadium.

  Throughout the month of March, Defenders and Panther Citizen Assistance Taskforce volunteers have been holding a table display at the Florida Panthers NHL hockey team games at the BB&T arena in Sunrise (a suburb of Fort Lauderdale), so that we can provide information on panthers to fans attending games and other events. Thanks to our supporters, we were able to fund a huge advertising blitz in the stadium to remind drivers to slow down on Florida’s roads. Our message is displayed on the scoreboard, the giant video screen at the entrance, even on the radio during home games, all to get the word out to visitors and residents that the real panthers – the four-legged ones – need a BRAKE!

• We worked to get an official proclamation signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott declaring March 16, 2013 as Save the Florida Panther Day. As part of the celebration, we staffed a booth at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge’s annual open house, which took place the same day. The refuge is usually closed to the public, so the open house gave visitors the opportunity to explore panther habitat through swamp buggy tours and guided walks. Visitors also attended presentations by panther biologists and visited with Defenders and other educational organizations and agencies.
• We’re working with other members of the Florida Panther Outreach Team to provide information about living with Florida panthers at the Collier County Fair. The predator-resistant livestock enclosure is on display to show people how to protect their livestock and pets at night. Thousands of rural residents and landowners have visited our display and talked to our outreach team members.

After we launched our campaign last month, our supporters across the U.S. have answered the call to help us Give Panthers a Brake. More than 59,000 of you have written to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking them to make it a priority to protect additional panther habitat and travel corridors to give these beautiful big cats more room to roam!

The last couple of months have been a busy time here at the Defenders Florida Office, but we’re glad that there are so many great opportunities to spread the word about the plight of these beautiful wild felines, and to help Floridians and panthers coexist. Taking this time to focus on the Florida panther reminds all of us that they need our assistance year-round.

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative

With an estimated 100 to 160 animals left in the wild, the Florida panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the United States, and the last surviving puma subspecies in the eastern U.S. Once ranging throughout much of the southeastern part of the country, the panther has been restricted to a fraction of its historic range by past persecution and today’s unchecked development. Highway expansions continue to sever panther habitat, and collisions with vehicles take a terrible toll on these wide-ranging cats each year – a record 19 Florida panthers were killed while trying to cross roads in 2012.  And since urban and suburban areas now border panther habitat in many locations, human-panther interactions are on the rise.

The economic downturn provided a respite from the rapid development that had been gobbling up panther habitat. But now that the economy is picking up, plans are underway to build several new highways across rural parts of Florida that would fragment panther habitat and lead to more development and additional deaths on roads. New subdivisions are under construction, large scale developments and towns are being planned and lands important to panthers are currently offered for sale.

We have a limited window of time to protect and restore undeveloped tracts of land and connected habitat before they are lost forever. Right now is the time to act. That is why Defenders is launching the “Give Panthers a Brake” campaign — to raise awareness about the plight of the critically endangered Florida panther. We want to highlight the major threats to these beautiful felines: loss of habitat, collisions with vehicles and lack of tolerance for living with a large predator. The more Floridians know about these threats to their State Animal, the better chance we have to ensure a future for these majestic big cats.

To help raise awareness about Florida panthers, we’re kicking off this campaign at the home of Florida’s aptly-named pro hockey team: the Florida Panthers! We’re trying to raise enough money for a huge advertising blitz in the stadium throughout the month of March. We’ll be able to place our message on the scoreboard, the giant video screen at the entrance, even on the radio during home games, all to get the word out that the real panthers – the four-legged ones – need a BRAKE!

© Robert Repenning

Another big part of this campaign is to reduce the number of panthers killed on roads each year. Defenders is working to make existing roads safer for panthers to cross, and to prevent new roads that would sever important conservation lands and wildlife travel corridors. And we are encouraging Florida residents and visitors to remain alert, obey speed limits and watch out for wildlife while driving at all times, but especially at night when panthers are most active and visibility is low.

We also recognize that helping people coexist with the Florida panther is vital to building the acceptance and support needed to save this subspecies. Through partnerships, education, research, outreach and advocacy, we work to increase understanding of these wild predators to help people and panthers share the landscape.

The last piece of the puzzle is giving Florida panthers more room to roam! We are asking federal agencies to make it a priority to secure habitat and travel corridors for panthers by creating and expanding new national wildlife refuges and offering incentives to private landowners to ensure that the lands panthers need the most will never be developed.

There are plenty of ways for you to get involved in the Give Panthers a Brake campaign, too — click here to learn more! Together we can make sure the Florida panther can continue to be an icon of the Florida landscape for generations to come.