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

The federal district court for the District of Arizona granted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's cross-motion for summary judgment, affirming FWS's negative finding of endangerment for the Tucson shovel-nosed snake. The court found that the plaintiff's arguments provided no new or substantial information that would require FWS to reconsider its classification of the Arizona snake. The parties' arguments rested on whether the snake's habitat range should be based on the subspecies' genetic structure or traditionally known color pattern. FWS concluded, and the court affirmed, that the subspecies' habitats should be grouped together based on genetic structure, thus negating the plaintiff's argument for a narrower habitat and necessity of an endangerment finding.

Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Arizona alleging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by denying a 2020 listing petition for the Tucson shovel-nosed snake, which lives solely in two or three counties in Arizona. The complaint alleged that the FWS’s negative 90-day on the finding “failed to acknowledge new information regarding the continued and foreseeable threats to the species from urbanization and roads, agriculture, and climate change.”