One of the rarest forests in the world, found only in South Florida and the Caribbean and home to a host of endangered plants and animals, is getting a boost from an anonymous patron.
The unnamed donor gave $925,000 to a coalition of environmental groups to preserve and manage pine rockland, which the groups turned over to Miami-Dade County's Environmentally Endangered Lands program. Only 2% of the county's pineland remains, and despite years of efforts to buy and preserve land, some plots have languished on an acquisition list for decades.
"They are the most endangered ecosystem on earth. So we're really excited," said Lauren Jonaitis, executive director the Tropical Audubon Society, which received the donation along with the Center for Biological Diversity, the Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition and South Florida Wildlands Association.
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The donation comes as the federal government scales back environmental laws, shrinks national preserves and weakens protections for imperiled lands, which could take an especially hard toll on Florida.
Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would no longer consider damage to habitat when it assesses harm to vanishing species. That longheld interpretation helped protect pineland because some species, including the Miami tiger beetle, two species of butterflies and a host of rare plants, are found no place else.
"They evolved here and exist nowhere else on Earth," Jonaitis said. "So if we lose pine rocklands, we lose many of the species that could disappear with them."
Other rare species, including Florida bonneted bats, indigo snakes, Key deer, gopher tortoises and rim rock crowned snakes, also live amid the forest's airy pines and rocky forest floor.
Acquiring tracts of forests has been thwarted by high demand for the coastal high ground where it grows. In 2019, environmentalists lost their fight to save the last largest tract of pineland near Zoo Miami, after a developer paved over it to build a Walmart.
More pineland was nearly lost when the county moved forward on plans to build a water park, that it later abandoned over protests.
To purchase endangered land, the county needs a willing seller. About 1,800 acres of pineland have been purchased, with about 415 acres of pineland on a list to be acquired, Jonaitis said.
In 2023, the county purchased just under five acres for $700,000 from the Nature Conservancy. At the time, the county trust fund to purchase land contained just over $4 million.
"There's always a chance that these important habitats could be potentially developed," Jonaitis said. "It's a race against the clock.
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