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

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 (FWS) to issue a final listing rule for the eastern hellbender, the largest amphibian in North America. It inhabits streams of the eastern and midwestern United States and reaches nearly two feet in length. The complaint alleged that the species’ abundance has “drastically declined” in most areas of its range, driven by “myriad human-caused impacts,” including sedimentation from multiple sources, dam construction and other stream impoundments, mining, and direct mortality for purposes such as scientific collections or from careless human behavior. The complaint alleged that climate change is expected to exacerbate trends with negative impacts on the hellbender such as warming stream temperatures and lower flow regimes, and that more frequent and intense flooding exacerbated by climate change are an additional threat. In response to a 2010 listing petition and multiple lawsuits, FWS proposed to list the eastern hellbender as endangered in December 13, 2024. CBD alleged that the deadline for the final rule was December 13, 2025, and asked the court to set a deadline for publication of a final rule.