Darkness is crucial to Everglades habitat. Could Alligator Alcatraz threaten it?
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Darkness is crucial to Everglades habitat. Could Alligator Alcatraz threaten it?
Environmental groups say Alligator Alcatraz lights threaten night-time wildlife. Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve was designated a “dark sky’ park in 2016. The National Park Service considers light pollution a form of habitat loss. Critics of the detention facility have argued that not only is it cruel to house detainees in the heat of the swamp, but the state and federal government have also brushed aside environmental laws protecting the park, they say. It’s not clear whether the facility will be removed from the national park”s dark sky designation, an official says. The park service has not responded to questions about the state’S consideration of the facility’“ dark sky” designation. The U.S. Park Service had to retrofit hundreds of light fixtures and create guidelines for where they could be turned on and where they wouldn’t be used, according to Jessica Namath, founder of Floridians for Public Lands, an advocacy group for the Everglades.
The conservation photographer was more than 15 miles from the state’s newly built immigrant detention center, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. But just before 10 p.m. on July 1, he could see the site’s glow with his naked eye.
Sleiman, whose night-sky Everglades images were featured last year in the national park’s visitor center, is concerned that the industrial lights emitting from the facility could harm the protected wildlife in a preserve globally recognized for its dark skies.
He’s not alone: The leading international authority that certifies “dark sky” parks says the artificial light from Alligator Alcatraz “directly threatens” the preserve’s renowned natural darkness and disrupts endangered nocturnal wildlife.
It’s one of the latest environmental and human rights concerns stemming from the quickly built detention center in Collier County.
After a rigorous process with the U.S. National Park Service, DarkSky International in 2016 designated Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve as the nation’s first preserve to achieve “dark sky” status, meaning it’s home to one of the last remaining reservoirs of darkness unimpeded by the glow of human development.
But the state’s detention center, built for immigrant detainees, runs counter to the preserve’s commitment to protecting the darkness many species rely on, the group said.
“The development represents a significant step backward for dark sky conservation efforts in a region where considerable resources have been invested in Everglades restoration,” the group said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Protecting the natural night environment is an integral part of broader ecosystem health and resilience.”
Recent night-sky images from photographers like Sleiman and environmental advocates, taken over the past week, appear to depict the facility’s glow more than a dozen miles from the site. Satellite imagery from NASA also shows the facility standing out amid dark wilderness on all sides.
Whether Big Cypress could keep its designation as a “dark sky” preserve depends on an annual review of light pollution data, according to Ruskin Hartley, executive director of DarkSky International.
Big Cypress is revered by astronomers, photographers and parkgoers as a nighttime sanctuary from the light pollution emitting from Miami to the east and Naples to the west. The park service boasts its views with phrases like “Half the park is after dark!”
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Detainees of Alligator Alcatraz, who have told reporters they are enduring inhumane conditions at the site, said the lights are on at the facility at all times. Critics of the detention facility have argued that not only is it cruel to house detainees in the heat of the swamp, but the state and federal government have also brushed aside environmental laws protecting the park.
In a court filing Thursday, environmental groups suing local, state and federal officials to stop activity at the detention center underscored what they called violations of environmental law and argued the night sky over Big Cypress “now glows like Yankee Stadium, visible from 15-miles away.”
The two advocacy groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, say the artificial lighting is defiling the night sky, harming public enjoyment and disrupting the habitat of species that thrive at night.
For one, the Florida bonneted bat, an exceedingly rare species living in habitat around the detention center, relies on the cover of night to hunt and can be deterred by artificial lights. Florida panthers, too, are more active at night, and Florida’s wildlife agency considers light pollution a form of habitat loss.
Officials have not responded to questions from the Times about the state’s lighting at the facility, including whether there’s any consideration for adhering to the preserve’s dark sky designation.
Videos from June 26 show industrial flatbed trucks shuttling what appear to be Sunbelt temporary lighting structures into the entrance of the detention center, according to footage taken by Jessica Namath, founder of the advocacy group Floridians for Public Lands.
It wasn’t easy for Big Cypress National Preserve to become the nation’s first “dark sky” park in 2016: Staff had to retrofit hundreds of light fixtures and create guidelines for when and where lights could be turned on at night.
In its application for Big Cypress to be considered, the park service noted the presence of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport within the preserve’s boundaries — the site where the detention center now stands.
The only night use for the airport, staff wrote, would be emergency landings, and there hadn’t been one in 25 years.
“There are no plans to expand or change the layout or usage of the (airport),” staff wrote at the time.
John Barentine, who oversaw the dark sky program when Big Cypress was being considered, said the airport’s current use, with lighting surrounding the detention facility, would have likely disqualified the preserve from being named a dark sky park.
“It would’ve been a problem,” Barentine said.
He compared the situation to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. When that park applied to be named a dark sky park, lighting from a Job Corps center drew out the process for years.
DarkSky International said in its statement that the construction of the detention facility “demands the most rigorous application of dark-sky friendly lighting principles.” Since 1988, the group has designated about 200 places across the world that work to fend off light pollution.
“A lot of people think the Everglades goes to sleep at sunset, but that’s not true. That’s when it’s waking up,” Sleiman said.
But now, dusk also awakens the lights of what looks like a baseball stadium from afar.
“I want people to know the Everglades is one of the last places in Florida where we have these night skies,” Sleiman said.
The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida‘s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here.