Michael Colosi is a young technology entrepreneur who, like many other millionairesmoved to southwest Florida attracted by the good weather and the low taxes of the state. In March 2024, Colosi bought two hectares of land in Punta Gorda with the intention of building a house and settling there permanently.
What he did not imagine is that, before building a single wall of his future mansion, the county was going to present him with a bill for $118,527. The reason: the possibility that a protected bluebird could nest in their plot.
The squatter of a bird. That bird is the Florida scrub-jay, the only bird whose species exists exclusively in that state. For this reason, it has been classified as a threatened species since 1987 under the Endangered Species Act and its fate has been caught at the center of a legal battle that, according to expertscould have consequences for hundreds of other species throughout the US.
One of the consequences of this protected species status is that Charlotte County can apply a fee in sections to landowners who want to build in areas considered potential habitat for the bird. In the case of Colosi, taking into account the surface area of its land and the fact that it is located in one of the nesting areas of this bird, the fee amounts to $118,527.
Lawsuit for an unfair rate. This rate is applied to the entire plot, regardless of whether it is going to be built on the entire property or only part of it. In fact, his own claim document presented by the millionaire indicates that, if his property had only about 280 square meters less, the applicable rate would be $52,696. That is, less than half for going down to a lower section.
Colosi maintains that the system is arbitrary and unconstitutional and that the county has not even checked to see if there are jays on its land. However, he cannot appeal or reduce the rate under any circumstances. Jamie Scudera, the county’s project manager, responded in an email to Colosi that “Your only alternative would be to not buy anything in a jay zone, because there is no other option other than our plan at this time.”
Florida scrub jay
Two arguments for a historical case. Colosi filed a federal lawsuit in October 2024 with the aim of appealing the fee, but the case has implications that go beyond discussing the amount of the fee. This lawsuit launches two legal arguments that, if successful, they would change the landscape of environmental protection in the United States.
The first argument questions that the rate is proportionate and demands that it, at least, be directly related to the real impact of the planned construction. The second, and more controversial, is the argument that the Florida scrub jay should not be protected by federal legislation because it lives only in one state and does not affect interstate commerce which, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation that supports the millionaire, exceeds powers of Congress under the commerce clause of the Constitution.
A bird without “economic value” that moves tourists from all over the country. The lawsuit includes a claim that has raised eyebrows among biologists and conservationists: that the Florida scrub jay has “no commercial or economic value.” Wildlife defenders refute this thesis with concrete data. Aaron Bloom, attorney for Earthjustice, points out that more than 1,000 people outside of Florida used the app eBird from Cornell University to record jay sightings only in 2024. Biologists from Yale, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton have visited the Archbold Biological Station expressly to study the species, and Audubon Florida organizes bird-watching tours that bring visitors from all over the country to Florida to observe it.
The lawsuit’s argument is that, living only in Florida, the jay cannot affect interstate commerce and therefore does not deserve federal protection. The contradiction that conservationists point out is more than evident: under that logic, a species present in several states would be protected by the law, but one so localized that it only exists in a single territory would be unprotected precisely because it is rarer.
The weight of what is at stake. According to Bloom, Defenders of Wildlife has documented 1,229 threatened species in the same situation, so their situation could also change if they allow the Florida millionaire to continue with his lawsuit to save a few thousand dollars.
Charlotte County records show that at least 15 jays have been sighted in the Colosi neighborhood in the last year, and that hundreds of homeowners have paid protection fees without question over the last eleven years. The parcel’s own cadastral file warned with a note before the purchase: “The value of the land may be affected by the scrub jay habitat.” So, in theory, the millionaire was informed of the situation before purchasing the plot. What remains in doubt is whether he understood the meaning of that note.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, which supports the millionaire in his lawsuit, already led the battle two decades ago to eliminate the bald eagle protection When the bird lived in multiple states, the main difference with the case of the jay is that this species can only live in Florida and has nowhere to go if it loses its habitat.
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Image | Flickr (FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Dan Irizarry), unsplash (Alejandra Cifre González)
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