There are approximately one to two hundred wild Florida panthers left on earth. Last year alone, 24 of the endangered animals were killed—not by hunters, but in collisions with Florida automobiles. This year's tally will likely exceed that.
In the midst of such daunting conservation efforts, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is considering a bold new tactic: giving up.
"Panther populations are straining and currently exceed the tolerance of landowners, residents and recreationists in the region," the memo reads. It suggests reconsidering the panther's "endangered" status under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Under the law, there need to be at least three healthy panther populations of 240 individuals each for the government to reconsider the panther's conservation status. With only one current population of 100 to 180 cats, the state is a long way from achieving this goal. The difficulty of setting up two additional panther populations appears to be the primary reason why the Conservation Commission wants to throw in the towel.
"The current recovery criteria are aspirational rather than practical in nature," the Commission writes. "Under this federal recovery plan, Florida will never be able to accomplish the goals necessary to recover panther populations to a point where the subspecies can be delisted." The proposal calls for the state of Florida to stop dedicating staff and funding to the federal conservation plan.
One of the primary drafters of the
new proposed policy is Liesa Priddy, a cattle rancher appointed to the commission in 2012 by Gov. Rick Scott
who says she has lost ten calves to panthers in the last several years.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2006—Why The Sudden Conservative Venom? The Now-Public Failure of Iraq:
The Iraq War is now extraordinarily unpopular. Large majorities of Americans now believe it is time to withdraw. Iraq itself is in a state of utter chaos—a civil war, during which in the last two months alone, more Iraqi civilians died than Americans died in 9/11. Think about that—we've been dishing out a prolonged catastrophe on the order of 9/11 every few months, in Iraq, and for some odd reason they hate us for it.
So the GOP, which has locked lips with the Iraq War, is now facing a situation where the large majority of American voters feel that the whole thing was a botched job—a failure. Ditto with the pundits who supported the war: they're now facing a public that has gotten increasingly angry with their now-failed punditry and spin.
Ned Lamont is, like every other Democrat, entirely serious about fighting terrorism. (In fact, one of the primary complaints Democrats have is that the actual fight against actual terrorism has been handled incompetently.) But Ned Lamont -- like the majority of America, at this point—is not a supporter of the Iraq War. And that dynamic—the separation of "terrorism" from "Iraq"—holds a world of hurt for anyone who was a strong supporter of the Iraq invasion.
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show:
David Waldman, World Record Holder for keeping Donald Trump out of a conversation—13 minutes 40 seconds.
Greg Dworkin discusses new polls: Donald Trump wins! (But not against the option of not voting for any Republican.) Hillary Clinton wins! Scott Walker loses! How the Trump problem is just the usual GOP problem. Republican’s big risk on abortion, and what Dems can do about it. Ferguson, one year later. The Oath Keepers roll into town, and NBC buys what they're selling.
Armando joins to discuss the "dirty" work of building a Bernie coalition, and the impact and role of Black Lives Matter.
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