Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt

Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Arizona seeking to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to make a 12-month finding on the plaintiffs’ 2017 petition to revise the critical habitat for the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel, which the complaint alleged are found only in the Pinaleño Mountains in southeast Arizona. The complaint further alleged that “essentially all” of the critical habitat designated in 1990, which consisted of high elevation spruce-fir forest in the Pinaleño Mountains, “has been degraded or destroyed by telescope construction, wildfire … , drought, insect outbreaks, and other ecological changes influenced by climate change.” The plaintiffs contended that lower elevation mixed-conifer forests were now essential to the survival of the Mount Graham red squirrel. The plaintiffs previously sued to compel a 90-day finding on their petition, after which the FWS published a finding in September 2019 that revision of critical habitat might be warranted. In this new suit, the plaintiffs asked the court to enforce the Endangered Species Act mandatory deadline for making a finding on a petition after a positive 90-day finding.