Some rare beetles and some homes may have to go on Calvert County's eroding Chesapeake Bay cliffs, a government panel has suggested.
A "steering committee" made up of federal, state and local agencies has proposed letting some cliffside homeowners shore up their patch of the crumbling bluffs, even if it means killing some legally protected Puritan tiger beetles. But the plan also calls for moving or buying those homes in imminent danger of falling into the bay, using a combination of federal and state funds.
This Solomonic proposal comes after eight months of talks about how to resolve conflicting concerns over the safety of Calvert's clifftop homeowners and the survival of the tiny beetles, which dwell in the cliffs below the human abodes. Brownish-bronze on top and blue on their bellies, Puritan tiger beetles are deemed threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and endangered under Maryland's similar species law - meaning they're so close to becoming extinct it's illegal to kill or disrupt them.
It's not clear yet how many homes might be targeted for possible relocation or buyout, or what it would cost taxpayers. The plan urges Calvert County to seek federal emergency-management funds to complete a risk assessment. It also talks about tapping Maryland's Program Open Space fund to buy the houses or substitute beetle habitat. That may concern some, since that fund was originally set up to buy parkland and recreation spaces for Marylanders, and the real estate slump has shrunk the property transfer tax revenues available for preserving land.