The Nature Conservancy, an advocacy group, commissioned the report, which was authored by former Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wildlife ecologist Randy Kautz.
Click here to view the full report.
It says the development of a proposed toll road to connect Southwest and Central Florida would fragment and create barriers for panther movement and potentially increase road kill mortality rates.
The findings will be presented to the Southwest-Central Florida Connector Task Force meeting Wednesday at 9 am.
Click here to view the task force agenda.
“We continue to provide science-based input to the toll road task force, in an effort to identify the potential catastrophic impacts to nature that this road could have,” said Temperince Morgan, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Florida.
“After careful review, we cannot recommend proceeding with the planning for a Southwest-Central Florida Connector.”
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