The Puritan Tiger Beetle Vs. Calvert County Land Owners

January 4th, 2011 // filed under: Calvert County, Lusby, MD, Southern Maryland

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What’s the life of a beetle worth?  Is it worth more than saving your home from tipping over a cliff in Calvert County?  Apparently the answer is yes if that beetle is a Puritan Tiger Beetle.

When I think of beetles a few things pop into mind, such as uncomfortably small cars, mop-haired rock stars, and those ugly bags I put out each year to stop beetles from destroying my foliage.  Never had it occurred to me that a nearly extinct beetle in Lusby, MD could create such a fuss or enjoy such treasured status.

Let’s talk numbers.  There are estimated to be 5,000 of these beetles left in the wild.  4,500 of them are living in the cliffs of Calvert County, MD, and specifically in the Chesapeake Ranch Estates Subdivision.  These little guys can only live in the soil of eroding cliffs, and they survive by eating other insect pests.  Okay, the bug is mildly useful, but at this stage in the evolutionary game, what are the odds of species survival?

Because the beetle lives in the eroding cliff face, owners who have homes on the cliff are faced with homes teetering on the brink of collapse, and a government who refuses to allow them to shore up their disappearing property.  The community has already been forced to close off one road due to it’s proximity to the disappearing cliff, and it’s only a matter of time before houses begin to fall.

So what’s the solution?  It seems to me that if preserving the beetle is so important to the government that it would only be fair to compensate the folks who are about to lose their homes by offering to buy the properties out at fair market value.  Will it happen?  Doubtful.  Critics say that erosion is a risk you take by purchasing waterfront.  While that may be true, being forbidden to protect your land because of an endangered beetle is government obstinence

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posted by Jonathan Benya // 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Calvert County, Lusby, MD, Southern Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. Alison Armocida said at January 4th, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    The Puritan tiger beetle is listed as endangered by the IUCN and threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. The Federal ESA prohibits “taking” of an endangered or threatened animal. This means that you cannot “harm harass, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect any threatened or endangered species.” “Taking” can also mean habitat alternation resulting in harm to the species.

    The county, state, and federal governments are aware of the issue and working to help residents within the confines of federal law. Of 56 landowners in immediate danger, only 11 have followed through with the state’s shore erosion control assistance and permits. Calvert county ordinance states that if structures on a property are damaged due to cliff failure or shoreline erosion, property owners are financially liable for all cleanup costs.

    The county has already begun the process to acquire FEMA grants to mitigate property loss. FWS and MD DNR have been working on a population analysis of the tiger beetle to determine how much habitat loss they can sustain and the impacts of the various shore stabilization controls, and are considering easement acquisitions, in order to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

    http://www.co.cal.md.us/assets/SteeringCommitteeDraftReport.pdf

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