There were admitted violations of two (2) federal environmental laws by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS). Feds turned over 67 acres of federal land to be developed pursuant to federal law. No National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review. No Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation. Six (6) endangered species' habitats threatened by federal lawbreaking. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Patricia A. Seitz's order states: "These species include the Miami tiger beetle, the Florida bonneted bat, Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak, the Florida leafwing, Carter’s small-flowered flax, and the Florida brickell-bush."
Lousy louche lawbreaking by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish & Wildlife Service, whose Director is the spouse of Richard Grosso is a South Florida environmental law professsor. Shame on the USF&WS.
I agree with the Miami Herald editorial board (below), and with Senior District Judge Patricia A. Seitz in Miami, whose father was a Lieutenant General over the 82nd ABN DIVN., which my dad served as a proud corporal in WWII.
Footnote: an angry USDOI lawyer, Patricia M. Husted, was defending DOI over the abolition of the Chief Administrative Law Judge's job, in an MSPB case in which I represented seven (7) USDOL Administrative Law Judges. Upon entering the deposition room, Ms. Husted yammered at me "I object to your presence!" Substantially unencumbered by civility or class or charisma (now called "fizz" in 2023, Ms. Husted typified the genre of soulless sibilant defense lawyers for government and corporations in whistleblower cases. My article on their case was in the American Bar Association's Judges' Journal. as Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights of the Government Accountability Project, I was retained to represent seven U.S. Department of the Interior ALJs -- a majority of DOI ALJs -- who were challenging Reagan-Bush era assaults on judicial independence. I wrote about their case in a peer-reviewed American Bar Association journal written for and about judges. See Edward A. Slavin, Jr., "ALJ Independence Undermined; What the Interior. Department Is Doing and Why," 31 Judge's Journal 26 (Spring 1992); "The Pecking Order," 31 Judge's Journal 31 (Spring 1992). The American Bar Association Journal dedicated a November 1991 cover story to their cause.
From Miami Herald:
No more delays, Miami-Dade Commission: Kill Miami Wilds deal once and for all | Opinion
There’s a recurring tug of war between urban growth and the environment in Miami-Dade, particularly in south county areas where the remaining vestiges of South Florida’s natural habitat resist our thirst for development.
On Tuesday, the County Commission will discuss a controversial plan to build a water park called Miami Wilds on a parking lot outside Zoo Miami. County voters agreed to convert the land into an entertainment complex in a 2006 referendum as long as there was no impact on “environmentally sensitive” land, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the county on Monday there would be. That parking lot isn’t merely pavement. It is a habitat for the Florida bonneted bat and other species.
Endangered bats
Bats don’t normally attract the same sympathy as the Florida Panther, killer whales or manatees, but the bonneted bats are an endangered species with a disappearing natural home, the pine rocklands abutting the zoo. More than 98% of that habitat has vanished, the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in a letter to the county.
The parking lot had the highest density of bats among the areas included in an analysis by Bat Conservation International and the zoo — even though an analysis conducted by a firm hired by developers disagreed with that conclusion. At night, the bats emerge from the rocklands to feed and roost over the open space that is mostly unlit after sunset. Despite being a parking lot, the partially paved area has become “an atypical ‘dwarf forest’ ” that supports hundreds of native plants and insects that the bats prey upon, according to that letter.
“I know it’s unrealistic to think things are never going to be developed,” Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill told the Herald Editorial Board. He’s been leading the charge against Miami Wilds.
“Things are not going to be kept forever. But, gosh, we need to raise awareness; we need to say, ‘There’s another way to do this.’ ”
We sympathize with the developers, who got the OK from the County Commission in 2020 to build a project voters approved 17 years ago. But preserving the habitat of an endangered species outweighs the benefits of a water park. There are more appropriate projects to bring jobs to the area. County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in September there are other lands available for the project.
The Miami Wilds saga has had many twist and turns. The project has been slowed down by a lawsuit filed by conservation groups — among them Bat Conservation — that forced the National Park Service to admit it didn’t follow proper environmental review procedures when it lifted development restrictions on the former federal property. Based on that, Levine Cava’s administration, which inherited the project from previous administrations, told the courts the county should have never entered acontract for the water park.
Judge’s rule
On Monday, a federal judge issued an order finding that the National Park Service violated federal law when it released the site for development, writing that the agency failed to meet “its responsibilities to preserve endangered species and their habitat.”
“In short, NPS put the cart before the horse,” U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz wrote.
The commission will vote on Tuesday on whether to give Miami Wilds more time to meet its lease deadlines. Developers Bernard Zyscovich and Paul Lambert told the Editorial Board they are willing to let the National Park Service review process happen before they move forward with the project.
“We’re saying, ‘Yes, let’s put the project on hold; let’s give the county the time it needs to do the requirements that are necessary to do the environmental study,’” Zyscovich said.
Even if that were to happen, Commissioner Raquel Regalado told the Editorial Board the federal government sets the “floor, not the ceiling” for environmental standards. Miami-Dade County has “the right to say we have our own standards” — and, indeed, it does. On Tuesday, she said she will propose that the county rescind the Miami Wilds lease based on the latest court ruling.
In the past 17 years, Miami-Dade has learned the rush to build, build, build is not sustainable if we are to preserve what natural environment is left and, more than before, we recognize that giving it away isn’t always worth it.
The county should work with developers to identify another suitable location for their venture. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Zoo Miami parking lot is wholly inappropriate.
Click here to send the letter.
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