To Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Petition for Rule-making: Reintroduction of the Endangered Florida Panther Center for Biological Diversity Cougar Rewilding Foundation One More Generation The Florida Panther Society, Inc. 2 Before the Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240 In Re: Florida panther recovery, Florida, ) Georgia. Petition for rule-making to ) ensure recovery of the endangered Florida) panther, through reintroduction, in ) accordance with Florida Panther ) Recovery Plan and scientific findings. ) TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR AND THE ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Petition for Rule-making Michael J. Robinson Center for Biological Diversity P.O. Box 53166 Pinos Altos, NM 88053 February 10, 2011 3 The purposes of this Act are to provide a means whereby the ecosystems on which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved [and] to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species . Endangered Species Act (1973) -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- -- - --- To reintroduce the panther is to reintroduce a giant fear of the wild, and also a giant wonder. It is not our duty to ask which is greater. To have the animal is always greater. But the landscape the panther first knew is not the present landscape, so unless its ranging acreage is large enough, we have condemned the animal to the fate of living in a zoo. With Pinhook, we are not trying to create a zoological park, where we can gaze at rare animals up close. We are trying to create a place that mimics as closely as possible a natural order. This Pinhook Swamp is a piece of the world we have not stepped too hard on. It holds black bears yet, and sandhill cranes and bobcats. Getting panthers back wouldn’t be impossible. Somewhere in its bosom the land aches for its creatures to be returned. Janisse Ray, Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land (2005) 4 Petition for Rule-making The Center for Biological Diversity, Cougar Rewildling Foundation, One More Generation, and The Florida Panther Society Inc., pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act and Endangered Species Act1 petition the Secretary of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the Florida panther to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and nearby suitable lands in south Georgia and north Florida as an experimental population under authority of section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Section 10(j) provides for “the release (and the related transportation) of any population (including eggs, propagules, or individuals) of an endangered species or a threatened species outside the current range of such species if the Secretary determines that such release will further the conservation of such species.”2 Additionally, the Administrative Procedure Act directs that “[e]ach agency (of the Federal Government) shall give an interested person the right to petition for the issuance…of a rule.”3 Reintroduction necessarily entails rule-making, since section 10(j)(2)(b) of the ESA states: “Before authorizing the release of any population under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall by regulation identify the population and determine, on the basis of the best available information, whether or not such population is essential to the continued existence of an 4 endangered species or a threatened species.” 1 16 U.S.C. §§ 1533(h) and 1539(j). 2 16 U.S.C. § 1539(j)(2)(A). 3 5 U.S.C. § 553(e). 4 16 U.S.C. § 1539(j)(2)(B). 5 BEFORE THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE PETITION TO REINTRODUCE THE ENDANGERED FLORIDA PANTHER CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY COUGAR REWILDING FOUNDATION ONE MORE GENERATION THE FLORIDA PANTHER SOCIETY, INC. Petitioners Submitted by: Michael J. Robinson Center for Biological Diversity P.O. Box 53166 Pinos Altos, NM 88053 6 PETITION TO REINTRODUCE THE ENDANGERED FLORIDA PANTHER EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Cougar Rewilding Foundation, One More Generation, and The Florida Panther Society Inc. requests that the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service promulgate regulations for reintroduction of the endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and/or nearby lands in south Georgia and north Florida as an experimental population under authority of section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act. The Administrative Procedure Act provides a vehicle to petition for federal government action to ensure compliance with other statutes. The Endangered Species Act requires conservation of species that are listed as threatened or endangered, and is also intended to conserve the ecosystems on which endangered and threatened species depend. Conservation is defined as use of all methods and procedures which are necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to the act are no longer necessary; in other words, conservation is equivalent to recovery of the species so that it can be taken off the threatened and endangered list. The ESA provides several methods, procedures and measures to accomplish conservation, including propagation, live trapping, transplantation, release and the related transportation of individuals or a population of an endangered species, outside its current range. The sole extant breeding population of the Florida panther subsists on less than five percent of its original range, with just 100 to 120 animals surviving in South Florida – as a result of historic persecution coupled with loss of most of its habitat. Despite increasing numbers of Florida panthers in recent decades, that population is not yet viable and is increasingly limited by its own density within a shrinking island of habitat. As described in our petition submitted on September 17, 2009, designation of critical habitat is an urgent imperative. The population is also imperiled by loss of genetic diversity which can only be slowed through rapid growth in the 7 number of surviving panthers – requiring in addition to habitat protection, the translocation of female panthers to areas of currently unoccupied habitat in south-central Florida. Separate from the need to save the sole existing Florida panther population through protection of habitat and through active management to increase survivorship and distribution, conservation of the panther depends on establishing two additional populations eventually totaling 240 animals apiece, through reintroduction. Successful reintroduction, according to scientists “would help reduce the risk of extinction for the subspecies.”5 The ESA directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop and implement recovery plans for endangered species. The 2008 revision of the Florida Panther Recovery Plan is the latest of several iterations of the plan to prescribe reintroduction to establish new panther populations in historic habitat – a longstanding agency intention that has yet to be initiated. The 2008 recovery plan refers to the top three ranking sites from a 2006 GIS assessment of nine potential reintroduction sites (Thatcher et al) as the priority areas for reintroduction planning. This petition requests reintroduction into the top ranking of those sites, the Greater Okefenokee Ecosystem in southern Georgia and northern Florida. In addition to GIS analysis, two live experiments whose results were incorporated into the goals and management actions prescribed in the Florida Panther Recovery Plan, identified the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in south Georgia and the nearby Osceola National Forest in northern Florida, linked by habitats in the Pinhook Swamp, as suitable for reintroduction. The more comprehensive of these two studies, an experimental 1993 release of 19 western mountain lions to this ecosystem, where they were monitored until recaptured in 1995, evaluated a means of establishing a puma population in northern Florida, and documented that 15 of the animals established home ranges. This study found that panther reintroduction to the region is biologically feasible and suggested measures to increase the likelihood of success.6 Reintroduction would also aid an ongoing Okefenokee refuge effort to restore and conserve longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests, rich with now-rare wildlife and reduced to just three percent of their original multi-state range. Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) and to a lesser extent white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) consume and destroy longleaf pine saplings and the mature trees’ seed cones, hindering efforts to restore this vital ecosystem as well as nearby 5 Belden, R. C., and J. W. McCown. 1996. Florida panther reintroduction feasibility study. Final Report 7507. Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Tallahassee, Florida, pp. 1-2 6 Id at 1. 8 aquatic ecosystems that rely on fires that longleaf pine forests foster. Both species also feed on and can damage the diverse understory of shrubs, grasses and forbs that is part of the longleaf pine forest. A population of panthers would curb and reduce the herbivory of these two species and enhance the regeneration of a functional longleaf forest ecosystem.