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

Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’s) decision not to designate the striped newt as an endangered or threatened species. The complaint alleged that the newt, which occurs in north-central Florida and southern Georgia, was “highly imperiled in both regions due to a multitude of threats, including logging, agriculture, fire suppression, urbanization, climate change, disease, vehicle strikes, recreational activities, and the extinction risk inherent to small isolated populations.” FWS found that the newt did not warrant listing in 2018 and removed it from the candidate list after making annual determinations since 2011 that listing as threatened or endangered was warranted. The complaint alleged, among other issues, that FWS in 2018 “unlawfully assumed the best case scenario in the face of uncertainty” in its analysis of the newt’s viability, including by assuming in all viability scenarios that the newt would adapt to drought and most other climate change impacts, predictions that the complaint alleged were contrary to best available science.