“It was a very honest appraisal,” Schwartz said. The association’s executive director, Matthew Schwartz, said Wrublik’s email was proof of the seriousness of the threat to one of Florida’s most iconic animals. Wrublik’s emails were obtained by the environmental nonprofit South Florida Wildlands Association through a Freedom of Information Act request. RELATED: DeSantis approved these toll roads. “Eventually you guys will get to see us reviewing and evaluating those plans,” Wrublik’s boss, Mark Cantrell, told the road’s task force members on Monday.īut if the agency determines the road poses an existential threat to the panther, it would create a potential legal fight that could doom the entire project, or at the least, dramatically change it, experts said. The agency is expected to do a formal assessment of the project when more details about the proposed roads are known. Wrublik’s email was not necessarily the official position of the federal agency, which has a mission to preserve and protect endangered wildlife. The stunning admission is the first publicly-known statement by a state or federal agency warning of the roads’ impact on endangered wildlife, a fear that has rallied environmental groups to oppose the roads. In environmental speak, “jeopardy” is a legal term that means one thing: extinction. Wrublik also wrote that the road, which would run from Collier to Polk counties, would “potentially jeopardize the species.”

“This project would have very serious impacts on the Florida panther (basically a disaster for the panther).” Fish and Wildlife Service 'has serious, serious concerns about the heartland expressway and likely the two other corridors should this legislative proposal go forward,” wrote John Wrublik, a biologist and transportation specialist in the agency’s Vero Beach office, in March.

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