Conservation advocates and Miccosukee tribal members Betty Osceola and Rev. Houston Cypress and others will hold a socially distanced hike and rally April 10 starting at 9 a.m. in Big Cypress National Preserve. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the event is to “save Big Cypress National Preserve from oil drilling.”

The hike will be held on the route of a proposed oil well pad access road at the Florida National Scenic Trail trailhead near I-75 mile-marker 63 south, an area just south of the Seminole Tribe’s Big Cypress Reservation.

A press conference will be held at 4 p.m. at the parking lot east of the Ochobee fire station at I-75 mile-marker 63 south. Osceola, Cypress and Jaclyn Lopez, Center for Biological Diversity Florida director, are among the scheduled speakers.

The event will be shown live here.

Texas-based Burnett Oil is seeking permission to construct roads and oil well pads in the preserve.