A Conservation Story

What happens when you combine ranchers, hunters, scientists, and add in duck season, land conservation, and an endangered species?

You get a conservation success story.

This fall, we were able to participate in an incredible moment in Florida conservation when these people came together to protect what is special about this place: in this case, the Endangered Everglades Snail Kite.

Snail Kites are a very specialized bird of prey, foraging almost exclusively on the Apple Snail (both native and invasive).

While these birds are common in South America, they are a Federally endangered species in the United States.

Over the past several years, Matt Pearce, owner of Pearce Cattle Company, has worked with the crew from Duck Ranchin' to create waterfowl hunting access on several ranch properties.  Waterfowl hunting means water management in South Florida, and these conditions overlap with the optimal conditions for both snail production and snail kite nesting.

Our hope in highlighting this story is that a number of takeaways are illustrated:

• The importance of ranching in conservation - as discussed in the film, this goes well beyond the normal charismatic species we usually discuss, the panther or the bear, and carries into species many people don't see on a regular basis: the snail kite, the limpkin, roseatte spoonbills, cara cara, and more.  As current Florida Cattlemen's Association President Pat Durden says: "Cows Keep Florida Green"
• The intersection of Hunting as a conservation tool benefitting species beyond game animals.  Without waterfowl hunting, the impetus to hold this water isn't as great, and to manage it at these levels is non-existent.  Because of duck hunting in South Florida, an endangered species is getting a boost in population.  This is a central ideal to the idea behind the Florida Right to Fish and Hunt as a constitutional amendment - that this is a conservation movement, first and foremost.
• The concept of landscape level conservation.  This is a success story with layers, none of which happens without the others: hunting can't happen here without water and ranching, water isn't held without the Farm Bill and appropriate easements, the birds aren't thriving without hunting, ranching isn't happening without NRCS, research isn't happening without cooperation between the hunters and ranchers, banding isn't happening without volunteers . . . Far too often, we view one component of conservation as the "right" one, when in fact, it takes the collaboration of many to pull of a conservation story like this.

It's our hope that this story inspires others to care about what makes this place special, and to consider the whole of the team that's working to keep Florida incredible.

We're not all of Florida, but we are All Florida.