Chesapeake Ranch Estates is a bayside community of about
4,000 homes located in southern Maryland overlooking the mouth of
the Chesapeake Bay. It
is filled with spectacular views and abundant wildlife. Residents
believe they enjoy the best of both worlds. It is about a 90-minute
commute to Washington, D.C. and yet, the region is distinctly
rural.
Unfortunately, about 100 Chesapeake Ranch
homeowners are currently living a nightmare. Their homes are
located along
Golden West Way, a small two-lane road that snakes along cliffs
that rise about one hundred feet above the Chesapeake Bay. Today,
about one-quarter mile of Golden West is closed as it is deemed no
longer to be safe for vehicle travel as the cliff edge is now too
close to the road; in some places, a mere 25 feet. Concrete
barriers block vehicles from accessing the stretch of
road.
It is not just the inconvenience of having to
circumnavigate much of the community in order to travel a mere
half-mile down the road that irks local residents. Homeowners along
Golden West have watched helplessly as their properties have
collapsed into the bay. In 1996, 12-year Wendy Miller who was
walking along the beach with her family
perished when she was crushed under falling earth. Her death
caused the beach to be closed.
The problem with the eroding cliffs could be solved with a
relatively straightforward undertaking. The homeowners could shore
up the cliffs with riprap or revetments in order to stabilize their
properties. Unfortunately, they are prohibited from doing so by
enforcement of the Endangered
Species Act because the cliffs are the natural
habitat of the
Puritan tiger beetle.
The Puritan tiger beetle (Cicindela puritana) is
one of the 1,967 species worldwide that is on the endangered
species list. It was
added to the list as a “threatened” species in 1990. According
to entomologists, the beetle’s preferred habitat is sandy beaches
with adjoining cliff faces that are devoid of vegetation. The
continuous erosion of the cliffs precludes vegetation from growing
and thereby provides the very soil in which the female beetles
burrow and lay the eggs. At least 6,500 and as many as 10,000 tiger
beetles are estimated to live in the cliffs along the Chesapeake
Bay.
For two decades, homeowners in Chesapeake Ranch and
elsewhere along 26 miles of the western shore of the Chesapeake
have been prevented from taking any reasonable action to shore up
the cliffs and slow the erosion as it could result in vegetation
growing along the cliff face. There is no resale market for their
homes as it is only a matter of time before the properties collapse
into the bay.
A detailed study
completed in late 2010 found 234 homes are located within 100 feet
of the cliff, 43 are within 20 feet, 20 are within 10 feet and 19
homes are within five feet. One home is overhanging a cliff. The
homeowners’ predicament could not be more dire in spite of the fact
the Puritan tiger beetle is present in only half of the endangered
properties.
Federal and state officials have allowed few efforts to
stop the erosion. A $200,000 plan undertaken by four families to
deploy nearly 600 two-ton hollow concrete domes off-shore as a
man-made reef to slow the waves crashing on the beach yielded few
results. Another family’s proposal to build a breakwater about a
hundred feet into the bay to slow the cliff erosion was disapproved
because it might harm the local crab habitat. The Maryland blue
crab — while pricey to the
consumer — is neither endangered nor threatened.
In recent weeks, a combined federal-state mitigation plan
has been in the works. Homeowners may apply for an “incidental
take permit” that allows “private parties undertaking otherwise
lawful projects that might result in the take of an endangered or
threatened species.” In concert with the application, homeowners
would be assessed a fee that paid into a fund that would finance an
existing tiger beetle habitat elsewhere or would finance a
relocation effort.
Complicating matters is that a comprehensive,
community-wide plan — which would be the most sensible approach —
has been discouraged. Instead, federal and state officials are
encouraging a piecemeal approach by requesting homeowners to submit
individual plans.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
issued a $2.4 million grant to purchase about 225 acres of
shorefront property as an easement (and 230 acres for a similar
easement on the Sassafras River on Maryland’s eastern shore) for a
protected tiger beetle habitat. There are not any known efforts
underway to reintroduce captive-reared or relocated tiger beetles
into the preserve.
No permits have yet been issued to any homeowners under
the mitigation plan. The large number of federal and state agencies
involved in the approval process (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and three Maryland agencies: Natural
Resources, Environment, and Emergency) virtually ensure approval
will be a long and drawn-out affair. Further, a source involved
with current permit discussions has reported that an unofficial
limit has been set at 15 percent of the affected properties. If
true, then five out of six property owners will eventually lose
their homes. To a beetle.
