A lizard, two snakes, and eight plants facing extinction-level threats in South Florida have a better chance of survival now that a pair of heavyweight nonprofits teamed up to sue the Trump Administration on behalf of the flora and fauna.

“These rare creatures called Florida home eons before Trump and his administration were born, and they need strong endangered species protections now if they’re going to survive,” Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “We can’t allow the Trump administration to further delay lifesaving protections by cutting off conservation funding and firing the public servants committed to ensuring a future for our wildlife and wild places.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, represented by the Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University College of Law, sued the Trump administration today for delaying Endangered Species Act protection for the 11 imperiled species, which now face habitat-destroying development and sea-level rise closing in on the few remaining places they can still call home.

The species include the Florida Keys mole skink, the key ring-necked snake, the rim rock crowned snake, theBig Pine partridge pea, Blodgett’s silverbush, and the Everglades bully.

Since President Donald J. Trump began massive lay-offs and firings at federal agencies soon after his term began in January, lawsuits fighting his moves have been piling up in courts through the country. Labor boards and environmental groups are arguably two of the most active groups of plaintiffs opposing Trump’s move and looking for legal recourse.

President Trump contends his re-election last November is tantamount to a voter “mandate” for him to make the broad-brush cuts to federal agencies, both in terms of their workforces and scope.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed granting the needed protections for the animals and plants but missed the mandatory deadlines to finalize them.

The two nonprofits said their impetus to file the suit came when the Trump administration implemented a sweeping regulatory freeze on January 20 on all rulemakings across the government.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also directed all agencies within the department to identify and eliminate existing regulations before any new regulations could be issued, including those needed by threatened and endangered species.

On Feb. 14, more than 400 people were fired from Fish & Wildlife, including the staff working to protect and list threatened and endangered species.

The lawsuit was filed this week in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

“South Florida is home to some truly remarkable plants and animals — quirky, captivating and irreplaceable, but time is running out,” Jaclyn Lopez, director of the Jacobs Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University College of Law, said. “This is an ‘all hands on deck’ moment where we must act quickly to save what is left of wild Florida.”

In September 2022, the Fish & Wildlife Service proposed protecting the mole skink, a smooth, shiny lizard with a bright pink tail, as threatened. Also proposed was to designate 7,068 acres of protected critical habitat.

The next month, the service proposed the same for the two snakes, as well as protection for nearly 9,000 acres of their critical habitat.

Fish & Wildlife projects little-to-no habitat for either species will remain in the lower Florida Keys by 2080.

All eight plants can be found in the few remaining pockets of pine rockland habitat, which have been reduced by at least 98% over recent decades.

The Endangered Species Act prohibits federal agencies from allowing activities that will destroy or harm a protected species’ critical habitat. Species with federally protected space are more than twice as likely to recover than at-risk species without it.

The firing of the only two park rangers from the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge qualified to watch over the manatees in the only federal wildlife refuge created specifically to protect the sea cow, angered one of the co-founders of the Center for Biological Diversity so much he sued more than a half-dozen people in the Trump administration to ascertain what damage is being done to protections for Florida’s official marine mammals.

The firing of the endangered species staff as well as the park rangers was spearheaded by Elon Musk, who heads an unofficial agency trying to find wasteful spending in the ranks of the federal government. Musk’s directives have led to at least 200,000 workers being fired, laid off, accepting early buyouts, or retiring.

St. Petersburg-based attorney Elise Bennett oversees the center’s significant presence in Florida, which is comprised of staff attorneys working throughout the state.

Last year, Bennett was part of a lawsuit that claimed the State of Florida’s assumption from the federal government of the ability to allow for building permits on protected wetlands in Florida panther habitat violated the Endangered Species Act.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. agreed, which stalled plans for several massive subdivisions in the Western Everglades, including the Town of Big Cypress and Kingston.

The 11 species:

• Florida Keys mole skink: These pink-tailed reptiles live along the shoreline, burrow in dry sand and hunt insects under leaves, debris and washed-up vegetation on beaches. Accelerating sea-level rise and storms of increasing intensity threaten to inundate the skink’s remaining coastal habitat. One major storm could wipe out the whole subspecies because not only are the remaining skins already gathered in nearby groups, shoreline development is squeezing them even closer together.

• Key ring-necked snake: Small and nonvenomous, the Key ring-necked snake grows to be approximately 6 inches long. They have a slate gray back with a surprisingly bright yellow to red belly and a muted or entirely missing orange neck ring. The Key ring-necked lives only in the Florida Keys.

• Rim Rock crowned snake: Named after the Miami Rim Rock geological formation, the small, nonvenomous Rim Rock crowned snake grows up to 10 inches long. These snakes live in critically endangered pine rockland and tropical hardwood forests around Miami and the Florida Keys, where they can be found hiding in holes and depressions in limestone rock.

• Big Pine partridge pea: The Big Pine partridge pea is a small shrub with five-petal, yellow flowers and pea-shaped fruit. They’re found only in the pine rocklands of the lower Florida Keys. The peas used to live in Big Pine Key, No Name Key, Ramrod Key, Cudjoe Key, and Sugarloaf Key, but are now only found on Big Pine Key and Cudjoe Key.

• Blodgett’s silverbush: The Blodgett’s silverbush is a woody shrub with small, green flowers. These shrubs grow in the pine rocklands of Monroe and Miami-Dade counties but have become increasingly rare.

• Everglades bully: The Everglades bully is a shrub with spiny branches, oval leaves with fuzzy undersides and clusters of small, white flowers. It has been a candidate for protection since 2004. The shrub is native to Miami-Dade County and is only found in pine rocklands.

• Florida pineland crabgrass: The Florida pineland crabgrass is also known as Everglades grass or twospike crabgrass. The crabgrass species occurs in the Everglades in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. The crabgrass was first identified as needing endangered species protection in 1975. The Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned the Fish & Wildlife Service to protect them in 2004.

• Florida prairie clover: The Florida prairie clover had been waiting on the Service’s candidate list for federal protection since 1999. The clover is a member of the pea family and grows up to 6 feet tall in pine rocklands and coastal uplands.

• Pineland sandmat: The pineland sandmat had been a candidate for protection since 1999. Also known as the pineland deltoid spurge, rockland spurge and wedge sandmat, the sandmat is a beautiful perennial herb with a red stem and delicate, yellow flowers.

Sand flax: The sand flax is a small, perennial herb with yellow, buttercup-looking flowers. The sand flax is found in pine rocklands in Monroe and Miami-Dade counties, and the populations are declining.Wedge spurge: The wedge spurge is a small, perennial herb with slender stems and a silvery appearance. The wedge spurge occurs in pine rocklands and roadsides on Big Pine Key, where the population is declining.

Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.

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