Officials reach controversial decision in effort to save vanishing Everglades bird: 'This ... investment [could] protect billions'

A tiny sparrow is causing big problems in Florida for local authorities that have struggled to agree on effective conservation tactics. 

The Cape Sable seaside sparrow is only 5 inches long and endemic to the Everglades region in South Florida. It has been on the endangered species list since 1967, and its population hit an all-time low in 2023. 

The South Florida Water Management District board recently voted unanimously to approve a captive breeding program for the sparrow to try to boost its population and rethink the area's water infrastructure. 

For years, the state has closed floodgates near the sparrows' most critical nesting area during breeding season in an effort to protect their nests from being destroyed. But this has caused higher water levels outside the gates that have drowned tree islands. 

The new captive breeding program will run for at least five years and cost $584,000, and the floodgate closures near the sparrow's habitat will end. 

" We can't wait and build all of this infrastructure associated with [the Central Everglades] and then be in a place where we can't move water south because we haven't figured out how to conserve the bird," said Jennifer Reynolds, director of ecosystem restoration for the South Florida Water Management District. "This is a half a million-dollar investment to protect billions of dollars of infrastructure investment."

"A captive breeding program or a conservation breeding program, whichever we want to call it, definitely gives us more flexibility in what can be done there," said Larry Williams, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Florida supervisor for ecological services.

Not everyone thinks the breeding program is a positive move, however. An opinion piece published in the Florida Phoenix said it's a glaring indication that local authorities are failing to manage and fix the Everglades. 

In the piece, reporter Craig Pittman wrote that "captive breeding is not a cause for celebration. It's a biological Hail Mary pass. It's what you do when you can't do anything else to stop a species from disappearing forever."

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He spoke with local environmental leaders and experts, who warned that captive breeding may not save the rare sparrows.

The state's decision to stop closing the floodgates could destroy the sparrow's habitat, which would leave officials with nowhere to release the bred birds back into the wild, Pittman said.

"Over and over, I heard something similar from other people concerned about captive breeding of Cape Sable sparrows," he said. "Let's say these secretive little birds do procreate in captivity. Then what?"

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