Victory Obtaining Critical Habitat for the Miami Tiger Beetle

Press Release May 22, 2023

Following a legal victory for the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated 1,869 acres of lifesaving ­­critical habitat for the endangered Miami tiger beetle in Miami-Dade County. The beetle currently survives in only two isolated populations, separated by urban development, and its proposed critical habitat largely overlaps with designated critical habitat for the Florida bonneted bat, Carter’s small-flowered flax, Florida brickell-bush, Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak and Florida leafwing.

 

Although the final rule protects remnant pine rockland habitat, the beetle and its habitat are threatened by imminent development in Miami-Dade County, namely the proposed Miami Wilds waterpark and retail development, which will irrevocably harm the beetle and the other endangered species.

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