Four conservation groups are seeking to help block an effort to remove federal Endangered Species Act protections for the Florida scrub jay, the Earthjustice legal organization announced Tuesday.
The Florida Wildlife Federation, American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida filed a request to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the protections.
The lawsuit was filed last year in the federal Middle District of Florida by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of a Charlotte County property owner who disputes a development fee required as part of a county habitat conservation plan. Earthjustice represents the four conservation groups.
Scrub jays are popular with birdwatchers across the globe because of their blue plumage and inquisitive nature. These imperiled birds only live in Florida. Scrub jays live in family groups consisting of a breeding pair and young helpers that raise new chicks.
Because scrub jays feed, breed and nest on the same high and dry lands that agricultural operations and developers prize, they are under increasing threat as Florida’s population grows. Florida scrub jays were listed as a federally threatened species in 1987 because their population had dropped by an estimated 90% since the 1800s.
Charlotte County developed its scrub jay habitat conservation plan in 2014 to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act. The county’s habitat conservation plan doesn’t prevent people from building in scrub jay habitat, but it does require that people who choose to build there pay a fee. This money goes to buy protected lands for the rare birds.
One Charlotte County landowner, Michael Colosi, is refusing to pay the fee. Instead, after he bought five acres in scrub jay habitat, he sued Charlotte County and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with Pacific Legal Foundation representing him.
The suit claims that the Endangered Species Act can’t be used to protect any species that exist solely in a single state because it is beyond Congress’s power under the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause.
“The majority of imperiled species in the United States exist in only a single state,” said Aaron Bloom, Earthjustice senior attorney. “If, as this lawsuit claims, those species can’t be protected under the Endangered Species Act, then many will be lost forever.”
“Florida’s diverse ecosystem is home to many plants and animals found nowhere else in the world,” said Sarah Gledhill, CEO and president of the Florida Wildlife Federation. “Targeting Charlotte County’s proactive effort to protect the Florida scrub jay’s habitat from uncontrolled growth is a threat to all of Florida’s unique species from the Key deer, only found in the Florida Keys, to the Florida torreya, a critically endangered tree found in the Apalachicola region. We stand with Charlotte County and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their long-term commitment to protect this cherished species.”
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