Florida is quietly letting their endangered Panthers go extinct
- Staci-lee Sherwood
- 11 hours ago
- 7 min read
By Staci-lee Sherwood
The Endangered Species Act was designed with a simple idea in mind. Animals nearing extinction would get legal protection which prohibits their being hunted, captured, killed or abused. Over the years hunters, developers and conservatives have spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying off state and federal government staff and politicians to weaken those protections for their own agenda. Hunters and developers also install those friendly to their agenda, often they too are hunters.
All those groups have one thing in common, they’re all anti-wildlife and conservation. The proof is in their votes, their policies and their speeches to those who give them money. Most of these shenanigans are hidden from public view. The public spin and campaign promises have never been truth, only words to get votes. That has never been more true than now.
The promise of the Endangered Species Act of 1973
The question is no longer how to save a species but if we can save them at all. For any species to thrive they need a healthy ecosystem, not just some land to roam. Plenty of food and water and places to nest or den are paramount for survival. To allocate a small parcel of land, often the type of land people wouldn’t want to live and claim we’ve save a species is not only disingenuous but fraud. Look around at the habitat we leave to most wildlife and much of the time its void of its natural vegetation or hasn’t enough clean water sources. For carnivores its not enough to save land, that land must also provide a constant food source which means a variety of other wildlife. They too will need food and water sources if the natural world’s food chain is to continue unbroken.
In Florida the Panthers habitat has been so fragmented as to not be recognizable. The animals don’t know what subdivisions and roads are. They just know where there was once open land and plenty of deer and other food for them is now gone.
A Florida Panther out on a hunt for food at night.
Who is behind the push for development
Florida is exploding with development, literally. The largest area of Panther habitat, and Black Bear habitat, is the south western part of the state. Collier County is the epicenter of this crisis. The county commissioners seem to salivate at the thought of paving over every blade of grass as soon as they can grab the money. Former FWC Commissioner Liesa Priddy (her name literally spells out lies) is running for Florida House District 82 which encompasses parts of Collier County and Hendry County. She had once proposed having a Panther hunt. These are the people running the state CONservation agency. The whole state seems under attack by developers for Ai data centers, massive subdivisions and warehouses.
The promise of money to the commissioners, judges and staff at the agencies who approve these projects is all those in decision making jobs see.
The Kingston Project – despite public backlash against it and lawsuits it’s going through. It will be a mega development straining an already fragile electric grid, water system and ecosystem. Developers don’t care. The site will host 10,000 homes, a hotel, and a school and will no doubt look hideous and will be just north of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Joe Cameratta, owner of the development company wants an evacuation road right through the sanctuary, effectively destroying it. Federal Judge Kyle C. Dudek, a Trump appointee, cleared the way for an evacuation road through the preserve, internationally famed for its ancient bald cypress trees, Florida Panthers, Ghost Orchids and Wood Storks.
Public outrage surged and for a moment this was reported "We are not going to pursue it," Joe Cameratta told The News-Press/Naples Daily News of a proposed hurricane evacuation route that would have crossed the sanctuary. Two potential routes through the sanctuary would require filling more than 60 acres of wetlands, presuming a 100-foot right-of-way. In 1968 Audubon granted neighboring ranchers an easement to move cows, NOT cars. That agreement no longer exists but sly land use attorneys Chenè Thompson and Charles Mann from Paverse Law, the mouthpiece for Cameratta, falsely claimed the project would be good for the environment and the easement was always intended for a road. Now he’s changed his mind and wants those roads built there. As of mid August a lawsuit by Audubon won the case against the evacuation road through Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, but with developers nothing is ever completely over.
Click here to read more https://www.marconews.com/story/news/local/2026/07/28/after-saying-road-was-dead-issue-swfls-kingston-developer-changes-course/91076368007/
Living wild is the only way to live but he doesn’t know his home will be on the chopping block some day.
Hyper Club luxury performance car community - the project is planned in rural Collier County surrounded by the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Picayune Strand State Forest, and Collier County's Dr. Robert H. Gore III Preserve. The claim of keep ‘70% preserved’ sounds better than it really is. This further fragments an already small fragmented area making nearly impossible for Panthers and other wildlife to navigate the area without running into humans. Just as Babcock Ranch community caused the same fragmentation when it was built in 2018. If that happens rest assured FWC will be there in a jiffy eliminating the feline problem.
As reported in Gulfshore Business paper the plans call for two interconnected performance circuits designed by Apex Circuit Design, same firm behind the Miami Formula 1 circuit, and keeps the existing 2.1-mile straightaway. The development calls for: vehicle condominiums for storage, private clubhouse with dining and wellness amenities, pickleball courts, swimming pool and “limited residential opportunities” available exclusively to club members (which could add up to 100 new houses), including 10 lodging casitas designed to accommodate manufacturer testing activities. "Developers are also proposing a 35,000-square-foot public safety facility on about four acres that could include K-9 training areas, an indoor shooting range and other public safety resources." The property will be sprayed with toxic pesticides as all development and waterways in Florida are. In 2024 it was bought by Naples Racing Resort LLC. for $10 million so they’ll want to profit from their purchase regardless of the damage they do.
Babcock Ranch Community was built in 2018. In 2005 negotiations between the Babcock family and the state of Florida broke down and somehow a football player bought the 91,000 acres and developed ¾ of it. This was a major screw up by the state, similar to when their failed plan to purchase land south of Lake Okeechobee fell through. Once again the Panthers and other wildlife lost a big chunk of prime habitat because it’s right in the heart of it, surround by the Babcock Ranch Preserve and the Babcock/Webb wildlife management area.
What started as just homes has mushroomed into a town of stores, plazas, Florida Gulf Coast University and probably more buildings on the way. New proposals include more homes and stores and Midtown Market, Curry Commerce Center being a ‘flex/light industrial facility (meaning more toxic contamination) just opened.
B Street shopping plaza which spans 111,000 square feet includes:• 10 retail buildings (two-story options) totaling 68,900 square feet.• A 42,000-square-foot office building with 21,000 square feet of ground-level retail space.• Approximately 1,000 parking spaces.• Two residential buildings offering 140 apartments with private amenities.
The most deadly road for near weekly Panther deaths is SR 27, not heavily developed…yet. How many more Panthers will die when all of these projects are finished?
As of August 19, 2026 Lee County Commissioners voted to remove any obstacle to development effectively killing off Panthers. I wonder who might be rewarded with cash and prizes for selling out? Their lack of concern defines both Collier and Lee Counties in Florida.
Map showing Panther habitat which has shrunk to almost nonexistent when you realize there are roads, highways, bridges and buildings blocks most of their natural route for navigating this area. Their historical habitat has become a deadly maze of human caused problems. The pink is what's left but under threat.
Death map of Panthers killed by cars. This is from FWC who does nothing to stop this accept approve MORE killing development. What type of twisted person would see this and say ‘I don’t see a problem with more development’ Lee County Commissioners just approved more development and removing a cap so whatever is left will be gone for more sub standard housing.
I personally believe there is something seriously mentally wrong with the Commissioners of FWC and all those county Commissioners and state legislators that support them.
Both Desantis and Trump are heavily pro-developer and anti conservation. If you don’t know that just look at all the deregulation from D.C. down to the states. Logging, mining, drilling and building are now allowed on once public, preserved and farming land. Voting for people like this means more pollution, development and deregulation, it always has. The proof is in their actions not fake news or campaign spin.
How to help them
Email the FWC commissioners and tell them NO more approving development
Pay attention to any mention of development: look for public hearings to speak at, contact county commissioners to voice your concern, sign and share petitions
Follow this nonprofit fighting to save them and their habitat
https://www.southfloridawild.org/
On Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/southfloridawild
If you see a Panther do NOT tell anyone or post photos online. The FWC only wants to record sightings to justify future plans for a hunt (which had been proposed by former commissioner Liesa Priddy) and to locate Panthers in the way of development. Yes this does happen.
Save a Panther and SAY NOTHING ABOUT WHERE THEY ARE
Don’t move into a development that had been their habitat because this keeps the development going.
If you don’t speak up there won’t be any Florida Panthers left except as memories stored online.
So much evil greed, driven by money and political influence while wildlife is pushed toward the edge of survival. We are a nation without shame, a circus full of sociopathic bleedership. A form of leadership that seeks to destroy everything in its path and whose appetite never ends until all the beauty from our planet is sucked dry. They bellow and laugh with criminal high fives and not know they destroy themselves and their own children. I hope they all rot.
So sorry which means little these days. I visited Florida once decades ago - to see my cousins. Honestly, once was enough. Too hot too muggy and the sight and thought of all that awful development and what it has done to the species that live there, the wetlands, mangroves. Sure does show what greedy, ignorant people can do - turned loose, pretty much.