Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The federal district court for the District of Arizona granted a joint motion to enter a settlement agreement resolving a lawsuit that sought to compel issuance of 12-month findings in response to petitions to list the southern bog turtle distinct population segment (DPS) and the roughhead shiner under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to review the status of the roughhead shiner (a small minnow that lives only in a single watershed in Virginia) and submit a 12-month finding on whether listing of the species was warranted by October 18, 2028 and to review the status of the southern bog turtle DPS and submit a 12-month finding by October 25, 2028.

Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Arizona to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a 12-month findings in response to CBD’s 2022 petitions to list the southern bog turtle distinct population segment (DPS) and the roughhead shiner under the Endangered Species Act. Regarding the roughhead shiner (a small minnow that lives only in the James River watershed in Virginia), CBD alleged that the primary extinction threat was displacement by a non-native shiner species but that the roughhead shiner was also threatened by climate change altering its freshwater habitat due to extreme heat, flooding, and heavy rainfall events. The Fish and Wildlife Service also identified climate change as a threat to the southern bog turtle DPS.