Our efforts to protect the minerals beneath Big Cypress National Preserve’s surface are picking up steam, and we're doing our best to get the word about preventing oil exploration operations.
"The new operations would mark the first expansion of oil drilling since the preserve was created a half century ago in the midst of the 1970s oil crisis," wrote Jenny Staletovich in her article for South Florida’s WLRN. “The proposed expansion has also reignited talks to end drilling once and for all by having the federal government finally buy the mineral rights.”
Great Egrets wading through one of BCNP’s wet prairies.
When BCNP and neighboring Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge (FPNWR) were established in the 1970s, the mineral rights below the surface of the land weren’t included in the acquisition, leaving the properties only partially protected. This split-estate system isn’t unheard of (over 40 of the National Park Service’s park units have some privately held mineral rights on the property), but the size of a proposed oil exploration and drilling project within BCNP is far and away the largest and most damaging energy development project within any park unit in the country.
Currently, Burnett Oil Co. leases a portion of the mineral rights beneath the preserve’s surface and has been exploring for oil since 2017, devastating the ecosystem with the full legal authority to do so. Controversies have surrounded fossil fuel exploration and drilling in the Big Cypress area since the late 1990s – when the DOI attempted to purchase the mineral rights but ultimately failed to agree upon a fair value with the landowner – but that was before a fossil fuel project of this scope and size had ever been proposed in the area.
Damage to BCNP’s cypress forests left by seismic testing vehicles during oil exploration. Credit: Quest Ecology.
BCNP’s importance can’t be understated. The land that the preserve occupies has significant cultural importance to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, who sought refuge in the dense cypress domes to evade the U.S. Army during the second Seminole War, forever making it sacred land. Today, the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes both have Reservations within the Greater Everglades Ecosystem.
Furthermore, the preserve acts as the primary conduit for the massive amount of freshwater that flows through the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, which provides water for a third of all Floridians and much of the state’s agriculture, and creates habitat for a range of threatened and endangered species, like the American alligator, eastern indigo snake, Big Cypress fox squirrel, wood storks, over 30 orchid species, and the critically endangered Florida Panther.
“The best way to solve this issue is for the refuge system and the park system… to control their destiny. And to do so, they have to own all their rights.”
To give the refuge and park systems the ability to control their own destinies, we’ve facilitated an agreement with the landowners that would allow the DOI to acquire the mineral rights beneath Big Cypress’ surface. With an option-to-purchase agreement already in place, taking the final steps to permanently protect Big Cypress should be as easy as the swish of a pen, but the DOI has shown little interest. We’re hoping to change that in the future.
“We're talking about closing the circle and finishing what we started so long ago,” Curtis Osceola, Chief of Staff of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida told Staletovich. "We've identified a single step that needs to be taken, which is to draft that letter of intent and to have it signed by the appropriate official in Interior. And with that, WildLandscapes, all the wheels start turning for them.”
You can access the full article here.
Big Cypress National Preserve at sunset.
Check out our projects page to learn more about our ongoing efforts to protect Big Cypress National Preserve, and follow us on social media for more updates to come.
Samuel Bowlin is the Communications Director with WildLandscapes International, based in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at sbowlin@wildlandscapes.org.