PENSACOLA - Two environmental groups are suing the federal government to protect secondary and scrub dunes in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama that they argue are vital to the survival of two subspecies of endangered beach mice.
The Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity filed the suit Tuesday against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court at Mobile, Ala.
The agency has failed to take any action more than a year after determining that Perdido and Choctawhatchee beach mice seek refuge in dunes behind their primary habitat along the beachfront during hurricanes and other disturbances.
The mice need the secondary and scrub dunes to survive such storms, said Robert Wiygul, a lawyer for the environmental groups.
"This suit will make (Fish and Wildlife Service officials) do what they said they were going to do," he said.
Perdido beach mice inhabit both sides of the Florida-Alabama state line. The Choctawhatchee subspecies is found in the Panhandle near Choctawhatchee Bay, about 50 miles east of Pensacola.
Past efforts by the Gulf Islands National Seashore to protect the Perdido mouse habitat by fencing off a portion of its Johnson Beach area in 2000 drew public opposition. As a result, Seashore agreed to keep the area open by building more walkovers so people could use the beach without damaging the dunes.
Fish and Wildlife service spokeswoman Christine Eustis said the agency could not comment because it had not yet received the suit.
