By Amber Crooks, Senior Environmental Policy Advisor, Conservancy of Southwest Florida
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida was proud to be a sponsor and attendee at the Corridor Connect 2025 Summit.
The summit celebrated the beauty and fragility of the Florida Wildlife Corridor from the northern waters of the Okefenokee Swamp to wetlands of the Greater Western Everglades closer to home.
Over 700 people attended, including nonprofit organizations, agency representatives, ranchers, and landowners. The event was held between June 2 and 5 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The Corridor Summit features a sneak peek of a new expedition film that followed local southwest Florida trekkers visiting gaps in the corridor between large proposed developments in our region. Chairman Talbert Cypress of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida spoke about the Tribe’s work within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and “solutions labs” were held to discuss areas of focus within the corridor (e.g. pressures of growth and transportation challenges).
The Florida Wildlife Corridor is a longstanding, science-based concept to connect green spaces across the state for the benefit of Floridians and our flora and fauna. But what people may not know is that not all of the 18 million acres within the corridor are protected – in fact about 8 million acres are not yet permanently protected.
Unfortunately, largescale developments, mines, and roadways are proposed within these vulnerable areas. A new large development can destroy thousands of acres of corridor in just one permitting decision. A new road in the wrong alignment can create permanent fragmentation of the corridor and species movement, increasing wildlife mortality due to vehicle strikes.
It takes all of us to achieve the goals of corridor protection. We appreciate our partners who focus more closely on public land acquisition efforts and conservation easement purchases. The Conservancy’s area of expertise is largely in what we call ‘corridor defense.’
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida tracks and comments on developments, mines, roadways, and other activities that may threaten our natural resources such as adjacent public lands, wetlands, flowways, corridors, and wildlife habitat. Although the Conservancy is not opposed to ‘growth’ in the right locations, we do work tirelessly to limit premature conversion of environmentally-sensitive lands and inappropriate destruction of irreplaceable natural resources.
Science guides the way on our advocacy. We bring scientific, technical, and even legal information to the consideration of agencies and decision-makers, and may even work with experts (like panther habitat modelers or transportation academics) to provide additional input before a permit is granted.
When the threats to the environment or our quality of life are substantial, we may advocate for denial of proposed projects, allowing the opportunity for these lands to remain in less-intensive uses, be restored, or perhaps even be made available for conservation sale to be secured as protected in perpetuity. Corridor defense is a compliment to the other side of the coin which focuses on bringing willing sellers to advance their lands for conservation sale. Without both approaches, we may lose critical linkages necessary to sustain the Florida Wildlife Corridor.