MIAMI, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Allowing the Seminole Tribe to expand a rock mine in Broward County would further threaten the endangered Florida panther, an environmental group said.
The tribe has asked for federal permission to destroy nearly 200 acres of wetlands to mine limestone on the Big Cypress Reservation, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday.
The rock is needed to rebuild a bridge and make safety improvements on the reservation's dangerous Snake Road, the tribe told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its application to mine the land.
The mine expansion would further shrink the threatened panther's habitat, said Matthew Schwartz, who oversees Everglades' issues for the Sierra Club.
"The panther is getting squeezed," Schwartz told The Herald. "It's not just the rock mine, it's the residential development on the western side of Big Cypress."
The Seminole Tribe, in its application, said it would mitigate the loss of wetlands by improving 736 acres of wildlife habitation on the west side of the reservation.
