Florida Wildlife Corridor

By 2070, much of the state’s farmland could be paved over and developed, including more than half of the unprotected Florida Wildlife Corridor.

The land will be called the Bellini Preserve, in honor of Tampa-based businessman and environmentalist Arnie Bellini.

The Florida panthers’ numbers dwindled so quickly over the the early 1900s that hunting them was banned in 1958. In 1967, panthers were the first animal to be put on the federal Endangered Species List, and in 1973 the puma, a big cat relative, was named a Florida protected species.

This week on The Florida Roundup, we discuss how districts are considering school closures due to shrinking enrollment, the impact of Florida’s anti-immigration laws one year later, a series of reports about Florida’s Wildlife Corridor and the 2021 Law to conserve millions of more acres.

When the wildlife corridor was envisioned, subdivisions with 10,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of feet of office space were not planned.

As agriculture gives way to planned developments, many worry the Florida panther is on a path to doom. Environmentalists say planned communities — Kingston in eastern Lee and Bellmar in eastern Collier and both the size of small cities — could hurtle the Florida panther from the Endangered Species List to extinction.

The Florida Wildlife Corridor’s vision for conservation land in Florida stops short of providing mechanisms to make it a reality.

The fate of the Florida panther could be decided by several proposed developments that are in the middle of the planned Florida Wildlife Corridor.

Will the corridor become a reality or will government authorities allow it to be paved over like so many other landscapes in fast-growing Florida?

A new report by scientists from four major Florida universities, says that the wildlife corridor — if completed — will not only allow wildlife to survive in the coming decades, it will make climate change less destructive to humans.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that could set aside about $750 million a year from Florida's gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe for conservation work. Critics are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to throw it out.

The more than 1,200 acres along Fisheating Creek in Highlands County is surrounded on all sides by previously preserved lands.