COVER UPDATE: Claw at development

About 100 panthers in South Florida may hold the key to whether large-scale development will be allowed on more than 1.1 million acres in Collier, Lee and Hendry counties.

That's because environmental groups led by the Naples-based Conservancy of Southwest Florida have petitioned the federal government to designate the land as panther habitat. These nearly extinct animals need millions of acres to roam.

“The issue is how much urban sprawl is going to happen in the far interior of Collier County,” says Andrew McElwaine, president of the Conservancy. “The panther is the issue around which it revolves.”