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Help Save the Florida Panther!

Target: Mary Bomar, National Parks Services Director; Pedro Ramos, Acting Park Secretary
Sponsored by: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

There are fewer than 100 Florida panthers left in the wild, and many of them live in Big Cypress National Preserve. Yet the National Park Service is now considering opening up a part of Big Cypress to off-road vehicles (ORVs)!

Big Cypress is the most biologically diverse region of the terrestrial Everglades. Excessive ORV use has already destroyed large sections of Big Cypress's sensitive wetlands. Opening more of Big Cypress to ORV use would put undue stress on the Florida panthers and other endangered wildlife that already struggle for survival there.

You can help play an important role in ensuring that the National Park Service protects the home of some of the world's last remaining Florida panthers. Please sign our petition now and tell the National Park Service that Big Cypress National Preserve -- and the Florida panthers and other endangered wildlife that live there -- need to be protected from damaging off-road vehicle use.

The deadline for comments is this Friday, June 15th - please sign today!

deadline: 6-15-2007
goal: 10,000

9,732
signatures!

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Dear Director Bomar and Superintendent Ramos:

As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife who cares about Florida's wildlife and wild lands, I am writing to let you know that Big Cypress National Preserve -- and the Florida panthers and other endangered wildlife that live there -- need to be protected from the damaging impacts of swamp buggies and other off-road vehicle use.

I understand that the National Park Service is currently considering six management alternatives for Big Cypress, and I urge you to support the adoption of Management Plan Preliminary Alternative F. This is the only management plan that designates most of the 109,000 acres of "wilderness eligible" Addition Lands as Wilderness, preserving one of the few remaining wild areas in the state and protecting the highly endangered Florida panthers, Florida black bear and other wildlife that live there.

Off-road vehicles (ORVs) have already had a devastating impact on Big Cypress National Preserve's sensitive wetland terrain. ORVs are already allowed in several other areas of the preserve – there is no need to open the Addition Lands to the habitat degradation associated with unchecked ORV use.

I hope you will stand with the majority of Floridians and Americans who care about conserving our lands for imperiled wildlife and our own future generations to enjoy.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]

We signed the “Help Save the Florida Panther!” petition!

# 9,741:

7:59 pm PDT, Jun 17, Megan Hube, Maryland

# 9,740:

7:50 pm PDT, Jun 17, Nanette F. Thurber, Wisconsin

# 9,739:

7:48 pm PDT, Jun 17, Arthur Palamara, Florida
preservation of scarce remaining wilderness is a vitally important resource to be left for our children.

# 9,738:

7:44 pm PDT, Jun 17, Bryan Merritt, Oklahoma
Working in architecture and development I've seen first hand the impact that mankind can have on the environment.......it's NEVER worth it..NEVER. Stop this now...be active.

# 9,737:

7:42 pm PDT, Jun 17, Marivic Barriga, Philippines

# 9,736:

7:42 pm PDT, Jun 17, KENNETH GAKELER, Kansas

# 9,735:

7:29 pm PDT, Jun 17, Syd Tupaj, Arizona

# 9,734:

7:20 pm PDT, Jun 17, David C Strong, Utah
Becuase i love animals.. Anything to help them live is great!!!!

# 9,733:

7:19 pm PDT, Jun 17, Name not displayed, Arizona
It is important to preserve our wildlife!

# 9,732:

7:17 pm PDT, Jun 17, Name not displayed, Connecticut
All animals of the world deserve protection.

# 9,731:

7:09 pm PDT, Jun 17, Name not displayed, Florida
Because they only have so much space left. Its the right thing to do.

# 9,730:

7:08 pm PDT, Jun 17, Betty Shipley, Florida

# 9,729:

6:46 pm PDT, Jun 17, Christina Gifford, Florida
having lived in the country in fla and having a panther on our property LONG AGO and now nothing but houses and atv's and no panther it sucks

# 9,728:

6:33 pm PDT, Jun 17, Samantha Webber, Florida
Its outrageous that there are only 100 panthers left, somebody seriously needs to do something about this!!!

# 9,727:

6:30 pm PDT, Jun 17, Ascension Poler, Wisconsin

# 9,726:

6:26 pm PDT, Jun 17, Charles Roche, Pennsylvania
it's not to fool mother nature

# 9,725:

6:25 pm PDT, Jun 17, Pat Nestle, Missouri
Let us do all we can to save what precious few we have. Love and Light

# 9,724:

6:24 pm PDT, Jun 17, Kristine Harnish, Indiana

# 9,723:

6:23 pm PDT, Jun 17, Lisye Liem, Indonesia

# 9,722:

6:10 pm PDT, Jun 17, Patricia Roch, Florida
Please remember that Teddy Roosevelt intended that both the flora and FAUNA be protected in national parks for following generations. Let us honor and perpetuate this great plan.

# 9,721:

6:08 pm PDT, Jun 17, David Ratliff, Texas
Just keep screwing up God's creations because YOU WILL PAY FOR IT.

# 9,720:

5:56 pm PDT, Jun 17, Emily Smith, Texas

# 9,719:

5:53 pm PDT, Jun 17, Nikki Schmitt, Pennsylvania

# 9,718:

5:51 pm PDT, Jun 17, Sibyl Lamb, Washington

# 9,717:

5:47 pm PDT, Jun 17, Madeleine Carrillo, Florida
Save the panthers keep the vehicles off habitat!

# 9,716:

5:46 pm PDT, Jun 17, MARIO CHIOZZA, Tennessee

# 9,715:

5:38 pm PDT, Jun 17, Manuel Magalde, Florida

# 9,714:

5:37 pm PDT, Jun 17, LACI BRANCH, Alabama

# 9,713:

5:33 pm PDT, Jun 17, Kevin Steele Sr, Kentucky

# 9,712:

5:29 pm PDT, Jun 17, Blythe S., North Carolina

# 9,711:

5:27 pm PDT, Jun 17, Fred MacIsaac, Georgia

# 9,710:

5:14 pm PDT, Jun 17, Michael Cline, Ohio
please do what ever you can for these poor animals

# 9,709:

5:09 pm PDT, Jun 17, Lucie J levine, California
At this point in human history we must be giving BACK to the natural systems, more that they give us, or naturally we will eventually HAVE NO NATURAL SYSTEMS LEFT, including our grandchildren, etc.

# 9,708:

4:51 pm PDT, Jun 17, Sarah Aldrich, Canada
This is insane! We should be doing everything we can to save an endangered species, not speed up its extinction!

# 9,707:

4:41 pm PDT, Jun 17, Dorothy Carswell, Georgia

# 9,706:

4:40 pm PDT, Jun 17, Saphrone Seidel, North Carolina

# 9,705:

4:33 pm PDT, Jun 17, Koral Camp, Tennessee
I love animals!

# 9,704:

4:27 pm PDT, Jun 17, Carmen Blakely, Florida
Panthers belong in Florida, the crush of 1,000 people PER DAY that moves to Florida do NOT belong. There is no infrastructure to support the people. There is not enough mass transit, schools, hospitals, freeways etc.; just avaricious developers bribing greedy County Commissioners, with eager realtors lying to ignorant outsiders who think they can find the American dream in an over-populated, sprawling concrete jungle that has pushed the panther nearly to extinction.

# 9,703:

4:17 pm PDT, Jun 17, Dan Bienvenu, Florida
If action is not taken now, it will be too late after there gone.

# 9,702:

4:10 pm PDT, Jun 17, Bari Dilworth, Michigan

# 9,701:

3:51 pm PDT, Jun 17, Charity Blakely, Florida
the panther was here first, it has a right to some part of Florida to live in and the developers are squeezing the animal out.

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Help Save the Florida Panther!

This petition has been closed.