Big Cypress Preserve threatened by ATVs – part 1 listen

Tags: Big Cypress National Preserve, off-road vehicles

Last week, a coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit to protect Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida from off-road vehicle use. Parts of the preserve that had previously been closed to all-terrain vehicles, swamp buggies, and other off-road vehicles was recently re-opened. This afternoon, WMNF spoke with Matthew Schwartz, the political chair of the Florida Sierra Club’s Broward Group.

In a correction to information relayed by Schwartz during the interview, meetings regarding re-opening parts of Big Cypress to off-road vehicles occured in August 2006. Sections of the National Preserve were reopened to off-road vehicles in February 2007.

We will air the second half of this interview on tomorrow night’s newscast. It examines in more detail the potential effects of off-road vehicles in Big Cypress on endangered Florida Panthers.