Feds accused of failing to protect freshwater species

(CN) — As the Trump administration moves the goalposts of what constitutes harm to animals protected by the Endangered Species Act, conservationists pushed Thursday to protect the Alvord chub and Great Basin ramshorn — two of five freshwater species at the center of a new suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Center for Biological Diversity says Fish and Wildlife failed to issue timely findings on the welfare of the two aforementioned species, as well as the cinnamon juga, Donner und Blitzen pebblesnail and banded juga.

“Freshwater species are disappearing faster than almost any other group of animals on Earth,” stated Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate for the center. “Yet despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they’re in crisis, the Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to meet basic deadlines mandated to prevent extinction.”

The group details threats to the five species posed by cattle grazing, climate change and pollution, logging, recreation, water diversion and habitat degradation.

Throughout 2024, the center petitioned Fish and Wildlife to protect the marine animals, four of which are freshwater snails and one, the Alvord chub, being a rare desert fish found only in southeastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada.

The agency found protections may be warranted for four of the species, but failed to issue 12-month findings as mandated by the Endangered Species Act. The banded juga went ignored entirely, the center says, as the service didn’t take the first step of publishing an initial 90-day finding addressing that petition.

“The Endangered Species Act doesn’t allow the Fish and Wildlife Service to put these imperiled Great Basin species on an indefinite waiting list,” Zuardo said. “Every month of delay leaves these rare freshwater species without the safeguards they urgently need, increasing the risk that they could be lost forever.”

The center wants a federal judge to find Fish and Wildlife violated the Endangered Species Act and to compel the service to issue the findings by a certain date.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is also listed as a defendant, alongside Fish and Wildlife Director Brian Nesvik.

President Donald Trump’s second term has seen a major withdrawal from legal precedent when it comes to the Endangered Species Act. In a press release, the center noted the listing procedure for potentially threatened species had not been delayed in this manner since 1982, during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Fish and Wildlife declined to comment on pending litigation.