RECOMMENDATIONS: A sense of urgency should surround activities associated with Florida panther conservation. Efforts by several government agencies have resulted in an increase in acreage set aside in public trust for panther conservation. Specifically, additions to Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve and acquisition of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge have increased areas that are being managed for panthers. In order to protect panthers outside of public ownership, intensification of agriculture conversions on private lands must be re-assessed; especially, since little effort has been done to maintain panther habitat on private land. After all private lands in southwest Florida are estimated to contain more than 50 percent of the occupied range (12,960 square kilometers) of Florida panthers and habitat quality on private lands is higher than habitat quality on public lands, due to soil productivity and drainage characteristics. As a result, conservation programs that maintain suitable habitat conditions on both public and private properties are most crucial to the survival of the Florida panther.

The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission has identified proposed Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas for the Florida panther that, in combination with existing conservation areas, encompasses most of the radio telemetry locations and includes most of the areas field surveyed within the occupied range. Conservation of habitat within the Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas will require new initiatives along several broad fronts as well as renewed efforts in more traditional types of land acquisition and land management. Alternative protective measures include tax incentives for private landowners; purchase of conservation easements and development rights; land leasing; land-use regulations; and other techniques that secure valuable natural resources but also allow private uses of the land. The effectiveness of these different techniques can vary greatly. Land-use regulations and tax incentives, for example, are potentially short lived since both mechanisms may be undercut quickly in a changing political climate. The frequent debates surrounding wetland regulations and endangered species laws help to demonstrate the shifting nature of these protective measures. Therefore, it is recommended that the primary method applied to some of the Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas should be acquisition of conservation easements and land-use agreements.

Conservation of panther habitat within the Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas is not only critical to maintaining the south Florida panther population it will also help to protect many

other rare species, such as Florida black bear, Florida sandhill crane and Big Cypress fox squirrel, which lack adequate habitat bases in current conservation areas.