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

Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed an Endangered Species Act citizen suit in federal court in Arizona challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s alleged failures to issue final rules on petitions to list a number of species, to issue a timely 12-month finding on one species, and to finalize critical habitat protection for another species. Species that are the subjects of the lawsuit include the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl (which CBD alleged is threatened by droughts driven by climate change); the Peñasco least chipmunk (which allegedly is threatened by climate change events such as drought and wildfires); six species of freshwater mussels threatened by climate change; the Mt. Rainer white-tailed ptarmigan (a bird adapted to frigid climates and whose alpine habitat is shrinking due to climate change); distinct population segments (DPSs) of the foothill yellow-legged frog (for which the complaint cited climate change as one threat); the tall western penstemon (a flower threatened by climate change); and the Pacific Marten coastal DPS (a carnivore of the weasel family whose habitat has been lost and fragmented due to logging and wildfires).