ORLANDO, Fla. — Since the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act was passed in 2021, the state has saved millions of acres from development. But, the work to make people fall in love with animals and nature will never end.
That's why more than 700 people from across the state attended the 3rd annual Corridor Connect Summit. The myriad of voices are all fighting for one thing: to protect our wild spaces.
Watch full story from Michael Paluska
"We know that people that fall in love with nature want to protect nature," Meredith Budd, Deputy Director of the Live Wildly Foundation, said. "So in the long term, there's always going to be a need for balance, and if we can have people fall in love with wild places, they're going to want to protect it forever, and that's the goal here."
The legislation designated 18 million acres as the Florida Wildlife Corridor, Budd explained to Paluska. A total of 10 million acres are protected. However, 8 million remain in what are called opportunity areas. Those are at risk of conversion to development.
"I think there's always going to be work to be done. It's always a balance. There's always going to be a push and a pull, with the need for growth, the need for progress," Budd said. "We need to make sure that we're keeping our wild places wild; we need to make sure that places that need restoration are getting restored. We need to make sure people are continuing to go outside and connect with nature because that's going to instill a love for wild places in people."
Paluska interviewed Carlton Ward, Jr., a National Geographic Photographer and founder of the Path of the Panther Project.
Ward's work inspired the 2021 legislation to protect the wildlife corridor.
"What would you want the next step, the future of the corridor, to look like as you've continued this project?" Paluska asked.
"My dream is to have a statewide, connected corridor forever, and that's going to mean lots more land coming under conservation easement, some more land coming under public ownership so that we have the true balance of conservation land and development that we need for the future of Florida.
"What's your favorite animal?" Paluska asked.
"I love all the animals. I really like the ones that tell the story," Ward said. "All these animals, if we, if we look at what they're showing us, we'll know what to do to save nature for them and us."
Over the past decade, ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska has traveled across the state to tell the story of Florida's wild places, highlighting non-profits, National Geographic photographers, biologists, zookeepers, and more, turning Emmy-award-winning reports about invasive pythons in the Everglades and a record number of manatees starving to death.
In a 2024 report, Paluska highlighted the number one killer of Florida panthers: vehicle collisions.
"It's the number one cause of mortality for panthers," Dr. Jennifer Korn, a wildlife biologist who worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation from 2013 to 2017, told Paluska. Dr. Korn is now with Johnson Engineering.
"There are a lot of organizations and groups that are working to reduce those mortalities creating wildlife crossings," Dr. Korn said. "And the state of Florida has over 200, I believe, and they're constantly coming up with places to put more plans. I'd like to see that over time (panthers) continue to make their way north and recolonize the area that they used to live in."
Earlier this year, Paluska interviewed George McKenzie, Jr., a National Geographic Explorer who traded his life in Brooklyn for the wilds of Florida. McKenzie uses his lens to highlight wild Florida, inspire future generations, and ensure that panthers won't be something we read about in textbooks but something still living and thriving across our state.
"My hope for the future is something I think I touched on the last time we connected, which is I don't want this to be the only thing the next generation sees," McKenzie said.
"I want them to be able to experience, live it, see it, and not have a picture that I took 10 years ago show up in a book or on a slide and be like, 'Oh, this is what we once had.' To be able to give them that and save that and preserve that for them is really important to me."
Pasco County woman trying to rebuild mobile home after hurricanes
"I cried, of course, because I've worked very hard getting it nice, which has been difficult for me since I lost my husband and being alone,” Kelly Welty said.
Welty's mobile home lost its roof during Hurricane Milton. She said it was the only one in the Buena Vista community to get totaled by a tornado.
