Cleared land and construction sites are common in Southwest Florida.
Based on US Census data, Lee County is the second fastest growing county in the state. The increase in population leads to the need for further development, which raises the question of how to preserve the wildlife that makes this area so unique.
“The development and the roads that come along with the development just remove the animals if they were in that area and force them to move elsewhere,” said Meredith Budd, regional policy director for the Florida Wildlife Federation.
Budd said the entire process, from land clearing to construction, when there are hardened structures where a habitat once existed, causes a change in how wildlife uses the area.
He added that while there are no people living in an area, there is potential for wildlife to use some of the edges and areas around the building. But the clearing of the land will certainly affect whether animals and birds choose that area.
“Once the construction takes place and there are roofs and there are people and businesses, it is no longer viable in any way, shape or form,” Budd said.
Some believe that the increase in population and the impact of development on wildlife may eventually deter people from moving to Southwest Florida.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be more detrimental to society and residents the less wildlife we have,” said new resident Nicole Phillips. “Because then the diversity of the ecosystem in which we live decreases.”
Phillips moved to Southwest Florida from Tennessee a year ago. He said that as someone who moved out of state, the wildlife and nature make this region attractive.
Long-term resident John Troutman agrees. Troutman has lived in Southwest Florida for the past 25 years and spends his free time in nature and appreciating wildlife.
“Look at the publicity they do for Florida,” Troutman said. “You have arrived in paradise. It’s down and see the dolphins. It’s down and see the alligators. It’s down and you might see a wild Florida panther. This is our heritage here in Florida and we have always been blessed with lots of wildlife.”
Animals and birds were here long before large-scale development. Now, the increase in human population is removing habitat and threatening wildlife in other ways.
“You can’t talk about development without talking about roads and bits of habitat,” said Budd of the wildlife federation. “Vehicle crashes are actually one of the leading causes of wildlife mortality worldwide.”
Budd said we need to make sure that we’re not just connecting preserve areas to other preserve areas, but we also need to have wildlife crossings and underpasses for animals to cross roads safely.
With increased development, more wildlife will continue to be pushed out of their habitats or eventually be forced into interactions with people.
“We’re going into areas that have historically been wilderness areas and when that happens, you start to have conflicts between humans and animals,” Troutman said.
He said education about wildlife coexistence is important when moving to and living in a region that has such diverse flora and fauna.
Florida’s wildlife and human populations are meeting more than ever before, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Especially with expansive residential development encroaching on wildlife habitat in this region, education is an important tool to help reduce human-wildlife conflict, according to the Florida Wildlife Federation. Their website describes a project called ‘Share the Landscape,’ a wildlife coexistence initiative to educate Floridians about the importance of protecting wildlife and their habitat.
“If we’re going to live here, we have to learn to share our space and that means respecting wildlife and being smart about how we do our business,” Budd said.
Budd said people here should remember wildlife when going about their daily chores. That would mean walking the dogs on a leash and making sure the dogs don’t interact with wildlife. He also said that people should secure trash cans and clean and store grills.
“The first part is planning accordingly and making sure the connections and buffers are in place to have a significant buffer between human residences and development and wildlife habitat,” Budd said. “But then, when we are living on the edge of the wilderness, beware; understand your surroundings, understand what wildlife may be around, and take the necessary precautions to avoid conflict.”
Development will always be a factor when it comes to growing cities like those in Lee County and other parts of this region. But there are ways to help preserve wildlife even as development occurs.
“As with so many development-related issues, it’s about location, location, location,” said Nicole Johnson, director of environmental policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
The Nature Conservancy has advocated direct development in the least environmentally sensitive areas and away from critical natural resources.
Johnson said incompatibility arises when a development project is inappropriately located in key habitat areas, when it fragments wildlife movement corridors, when it jumps beyond urban areas into rural and agricultural land, and when roads are needed. new and expanded to serve this new growth. habitat connectivity.
Meredith Budd of the Florida Wildlife Federation said that when you look at undeveloped landscapes, you need to understand that there are many factors related to land use and ownership.
“When you talk about what land to protect, it may not necessarily be land owned by the government or by the people or rather by us, so we need to understand the range of stakeholders involved in protecting our landscapes,” Budd said. . “Working together with those stakeholders to ensure that when development happens, it happens in a coordinated way.”
There are several methods to balance population growth and preserve wildlife, according to April Olson, senior environmental planning specialist for The Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
“One way is to have a development plan that groups homes into areas that are appropriate for development, while preserving on-site those areas that are important for wildlife,” Olson said. “Other ways to protect wildlife are by moving development away from wildlife travel corridors, maintaining landscape buffers that separate homes from important habitat areas, and providing wildlife crossings so animals can travel. safely under the roads.”
Olson added that coordination between wildlife advocates and developers is necessary to ensure wildlife preservation.
“Another simple way to protect wildlife is to ensure that developers are held accountable to the goals, policies and objectives within the local growth management plan and land development code,” Olson said. “Many local governments, including Lee and Collier counties, have policies to protect natural resources and wildlife, but projects are sometimes approved that do not meet the goals and objectives of the plan.”
The loss of wildlife and habitat seems to be an afterthought to some when a new development is announced.
New resident Nicole Phillips said she rarely thinks of the wildlife that was forced to relocate when she sees development or construction sites. However, she says that not considering the impact development has on wildlife poses a problem.
“It kind of comes out of a little bit of selfishness where it’s like, ‘Oh, but we can have this new apartment building or this new restaurant that we didn’t have before,’ and we’re just worried about ourselves. and not about the wildlife that was already present before we were here,” Phillips said.
Living in Southwest Florida, the ability to coexist peacefully with wildlife and nature allows residents to continue to enjoy the quality of life they now have.
“The rich abundance of wildlife that we enjoy in Southwest Florida is a huge quality-of-life benefit,” Johnson said. “We have an inherent responsibility to co-exist with the wildlife that was here before us. We need to be good neighbors.”
The preservation of wildlife not only benefits those who live here year-round, but also makes the area attractive to tourists.
“Wildlife can only be pushed so far,” said resident John Troutman. “Eventually, they’ll just run out of space and then what are we going to have? We’re basically ruining paradise.”
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