Big Cypress National Preserve; Off-Road Motor Vehicles
Key claim: The National Park Service would replace an outdated Big Cypress off-road vehicle map with one covering the preserve’s current boundary, so motorized vehicles could be allowed on the roughly 147,000 acres added in 1988 unless the superintendent closes those areas.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Interior Department, National Park Service) The National Park Service proposes to amend special regulations for Big Cypress National Preserve that regulate the use of motorized vehicles off roads. The current regulations refer to a map that identifies areas within the National Preserve where motorized vehicles can be used unless closed by the Superintendent. This map is outdated and does not depict the current boundary of the National Preserve, which was expanded in 1988 by approximately 147,000 acres. This rule would replace references to the outdated map with references to a map showing the current boundary of the National Preserve, with the effect of expanding the areas within the National Preserve where motorized vehicle use could occur, subject to the discretion of the Superintendent.
Why this matters
Big Cypress is one of the few National Park System units where off-road vehicle use is explicitly authorized by its enabling legislation, and the 1988 Addition Act expanded the preserve without updating the governing ORV map. Replacing the map opens roughly 147,000 acres to potential motorized recreation subject to superintendent closures, a change with practical consequences for hunter and swamp-buggy access as well as for wetlands, panther habitat, and soundscape protection in a hydrologically sensitive South Florida landscape.