South Florida Wildlands Association

10/10/2026

Hurricane Isaias made landfall last night near Destin, FL as a Cat 2 hurricane and quickly weakened to Cat 1 as it moved inland. Not nearly as bad as it could've been. Condolences to those who died, were injured, or have been displaced.

One thing this storm underscored for us. The administration is still actively considering opening up portions of the eastern Gulf of Mexico south and west of Florida to oil and gas leases. Given the threat from persistent major hurricanes in this area and the fragility of Florida's Gulf Coast ecosystems, that should absolutely never happen.

Isaias came ashore Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane and is now a post-tropical storm. Heavy rain and flash flooding remain a threat across the Southeast through the weekend.

10/09/2026

Isaias update - the hurricane has now grown to Cat 3 status (a major hurricane) with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. Apparently, Isaias was able to organize and grow stronger in the Gulf by drawing on the record warm waters (2.7°F above normal). This allowed it to more than overcome the wind shear caused by this year's El Niño and described below.

This graphic was shared from a recent post by meteorologist Matt Devitt. But whatever the name, Isaias is setting a record as the "latest first hurricane" in Atlantic hurricane history. Unfortunately, it's also going to make landfall today and likely somewhere between the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and the western Florida Panhandle. Early this morning is a good time to make final preparations if you're in the path or the vicinity. Conditions are expected to get wet and rough.

We also want to give credit to the scientists who predicted that the Atlantic hurricane season in 2026 would be unusually quiet while tropical activity in the Pacific would crank up. One of the reasons for that is the strong, also record setting, El Niño heating up the Pacific. Strong, upper level westerly winds flowing across the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic create "vertical wind shear" - a difference in wind speed and/or direction which changes with height. That can blow the tops off of storms and prevent a hurricane from organizing.

Nevertheless, this one did manage to get organized and is now knocking on the door. More information in the story below.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/08/hurricane-isaias-gulf-coast

10/07/2026

"The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is an endangered, wide-ranging predator whose habitat needs conflict with a rapidly growing human population."

How much is enough? Landscape-scale conservation for the Florida panther (Kautz et al., 2005).

This is the opening line of the seminal scientific study written by eleven panther scientists and researchers in 2005. It described, categorized, and demarcated the Primary, Secondary, and Dispersal zones for the Florida panther that we use today. You'll often hear SFWA and others referencing these zones during our public comments to county commissions and other government agencies as we plead for greater habitat protection for Florida's State Animal. The paper went on to conclude the following:

"The Primary, Dispersal and Secondary zones comprise essential components of a landscape-scale conservation plan for the protection of a viable Florida panther population in south Florida. Assessments of potential impacts of developments should strive to achieve no net loss of landscape function or carrying capacity for panthers within the Primary Zone or throughout the present range of the Florida panther."

Photo of Florida panthers crossing a section of Tamiami Trail in the Big Cypress National Preserve by Peter Matthews.

10/06/2026

Still time to protect Florida's national forest roadless habitat! Many thanks for all the support on this issue - on Facebook, on Instagram, and on our email list. We've received many questions on the roadless, protected areas in Florida's national forests - especially on the acreage covered and their boundaries. While the comment period is still open (until 11:59 PM tonight Easten Time), we wanted to take a moment to answer those questions here. And if you haven't yet submitted your comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking the agency to REJECT the elimination of the Roadless Rule that has been in place for 25 years, you still have an opportunity. The link that will allow you to send comments effortlessly is below:

https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FS-2025-0001-223869

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was enacted in January 2001. It restricted new road construction, road reconstruction, and most timber harvesting in designated inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System. The maps of Florida's national forests we've included in this post date from September 2000 - so they show the situation just before the Roadless Rule was put in place. If the Roadless Rule gets rescinded by the USDA, things go back to what is shown on these maps. That means over 50,000 acres of roadless areas that are also off-limits to logging lose the biggest part of their underlying protection.

There are three categories of inventoried roadless areas shown in these maps; 25,000 acres of forest that is currently ONLY protected by the Roadless Rule; 20,000 acres where an underlying forest management plan has removed logging and roadbuilding; and 6,000 acres of recommended federal wilderness. Obviously, the most immediate risk is to the 25,000 acres. But the 20,000 acres of forest land protected by local planning would also be at risk from a simple plan change. And even the 6,000 acres of recommended wilderness (meaning this land has almost no discernable human impacts) can be changed by executive action.

In the time left - let's work together to send the strongest possible message to the administration that Floridians want what remains of our intact national forests protected in perpetuity. We have a long action alert on the topic at the link below. But no need to write anything long or technical - just tell the USDA how important these roadless areas are to wildlife, watersheds, and your own enjoyment. This is President Trump's home state - and at the end of the day, executive decisions like this made by his administration are 100 percent his choice.

https://secure.campaigner.com/CSB/Public/archive.aspx?args=ODM5Nzc2NjM%3d&acc=NjQ2NjI1

10/05/2026

Facebook Friends - this is an action alert we sent out this morning on defending the Roadless Rule in Florida's national forests. See link below. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA - parent agency of the U.S. Forest Servce) is taking comments for two more days on its plan to pull the plug on keeping "inventoried roadless areas" off limits to road building and logging nationwide. For Florida's three national forests - Apalachicola, Ocala, and Osceola - about 50,000 acres are currently on the protected roadless list. That can change quickly if this initiative goes through!

https://secure.campaigner.com/CSB/Public/archive.aspx?args=ODM5Nzc2NjM%3d&acc=NjQ2NjI1

Please use our action alert to send a quick message to the USDA opposing the change. Keep all currently protected areas free from new roads and logging! With all the development on private land Florida's wildlife are currently coping with, they should at least be allowed the protected habitat they currently have on publicly owned national forest land.

Photos in this post feature some of the many endangered, threatened, and vulnerable species that live in Florida's national forests. With the exception of the white-topped pitcher plant courtesy of Florida State Parks, all other photos are courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

10/04/2026

For those who saw our post yesterday on the "Florida soaker," here's what skies looked like this morning over the Florida Panhandle and much of the South.

Massive amounts of moist tropical air are being drawn into the Gulf and then north where it's colliding with a stalled cold front - the thick band seen in this NOAA satellite image. Rain is expected to continue throughout the week with flash flooding a real possibility. The tropical air moving across a Gulf of Mexico that is already at record high temperatures helps.

The cold front is expected to move south during the coming week and that should bring heavy rains to the rest of the Florida Peninsula. Those still waiting for drought relief are likely to get it soon.

10/03/2026

Just popped up and saw this. Not a tropical depression, storm, or hurricane that we usually worry about at this time of the year. Just wet stuff - and lots of it. And it's being pulled into Florida from all directions. Places like Key West and Boca Raton in South Florida were recently bombed by heavy rain and flooding - and that pattern is expected in South Florida over the coming week. Heat and humidity for early October in Florida are also far above normal and it's being compared to being in a tropical rainforest.

Summary explanation - a big low pressure area just east of the Yucatán is pulling lots of warm moist air from the Western Caribbean into the Gulf and then onto the Florida Gulf Coast. The Panhandle is likely to get clobbered this weekend. Plus - winds coming in from the east and southeast are bringing lots of added moisture from the Atlantic over the Florida peninsula from a different direction.

The latest weekly US Drought Monitor map of Florida from this past Thursday shows about 89% of the state either abnormally dry or in some kind of drought. That map is likely to look a lot different by next Thursday.

FLORIDA SUPER SOAKER! ☔ New rainfall numbers are in showing a wet weather pattern ahead for most of the state today, this weekend and over the next 10 days because of extra tropical moisture and a stalled out front.

Top image is for the next 3 days and the bottom image are potential rainfall totals over the next 10 days. Greatest amounts will be in the Panhandle and Northern Florida. Not everyone gets the biggest totals, but some isolated, hardest hit spots, could see 10"+ after it's all said and done.

This will help the 52% of Florida still in a drought, but we just don't want it all at once to bring flooding. Keep the umbrella handy ahead!

- Matt Devitt Weather

10/01/2026

Congratulations to Ross Merrigan for his first-prize win in the native plant category of the Lou Kellenberger Photo Contest, sponsored by the Florida Wildlife Federation.

Ross’s photos have appeared on this page many times. His work always shows careful attention to the subtle details of his subjects, along with lighting and context. Just like his well-known captures of bobcats and other wildlife, if a plant can be said to have a personality, Ross will find it.

This winning photo features the ghost orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii. The plant has almost become a symbol of the Western Everglades and the Big Cypress region. It is a rare perennial epiphyte found only in South Florida and western Cuba. Only an estimated 1,500 plants remain, and about half of those are mature enough to reproduce. It's a candidate for listing under the US Endangered Species Act  and is listed as critically endangered by NatureServe.

Unfortunately, the damp freshwater sloughs and other wetlands where the ghost orchid thrives have been decimated by habitat loss. The plant is also heavily sought after by poachers, who sell the orchids to collectors despite the fact that few attempts to grow them outside their native habitat succeed.

09/30/2026

Looks like Momma bobcat has taken her kittens out on a night hunt so they can learn something - but they're just not ready for school yet.

Bobcats have the largest range of any wild cat in North America - extending from southern Canada, the entire contiguous United States, and south through Mexico as far as Oaxaca.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C7oQmmD7w/?mibextid=wwXIfr