Rep. Donalds scathes Biden administration for Big Cypress National Preserve ‘wilderness’ designation effort
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds criticized the Biden administration for vying to designate the Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida as a wilderness area.
“The Biden administration wants to permanently alter southwest Florida by designating Big Cypress National Preserve as ‘wilderness.’ The decision would be devastating for our tribes, small businesses, Gladesmen, hunting/fishing and mitigation of wildlife and invasive species,” Donalds said.
Donalds also referred to the decision as “federal overreach” by the Biden administration.
A federally designated wilderness area is an area where people cannot enter or intervene. The decree is part of the the Wilderness Act of 1964 by the National Wilderness Preservation System.
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain,” the Wilderness Act states.
Big Cypress National Preserve is one of 800 designated wilderness areas managed by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. The National Wildlife System also manages 75 wilderness areas on 63 national wildlife refuges in 26 states.
“An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions, ” the act continues.
Established on Oct. 11, 1974, Big Cypress is America’s first national preserve. At 729,000 acres, the area is larger than the state of Rhode Island, which is around 660,000 acres, or approximately 1,045 square miles.
A freshwater swamp ecosystem, the preserve provides the largest habitat for panthers in South Florida. Donalds also mentioned the act would put limits on its ability to manage invasive species, including on the growing Burmese python population in Southwest Florida.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Burmese python sightings have increased in western Charlotte County, Lee County, and southern Sarasota County from 2015-2024, all counties that extend from Big Cypress National Preserve.
The snake has been specifically documented within the townships of Rotonda, Placida, Englewood, Gasparilla Island, and Port Charlotte.
Donalds added the act would also put a restriction on wildlife management.
Across the year, over 60,000 acres are burned on the preserve by the National Park System. The process is designed to improve and maintain habitat in the area.
Overall, the preserve is visited by approximately one million people each year. Donalds was joined by a group joined by a group of 17 bipartisan lawmakers against the measure.
A Biden “wilderness designation” of Big Cypress would “restrict access to ceremonial grounds & areas where the [Miccosukee & Seminole tribes] have lived for generations,” Donalds said.
