Action timeline

1998 – The Center filed petitions to protect the Chiricahua leopard frog and Gila chub as endangered species. Instead of issuing findings in response to these petitions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dubbed the species “candidates” for listing with no explanation. Following a Center court win on the issue in 2001, the Service protected both species — and from that point on made sure to include more detail in its findings on candidate species.

2000-2002 – The Center petitioned for the Tahoe yellow cress, southern Idaho ground squirrel and dunes sagebrush lizard, to which the Service denied protection without even issuing individual findings. When the Center challenged that move in court, a judge found that even if the Service was relying on the more detailed findings in its annual candidate notice of review, it hadn’t justified delaying protection for the three species. But instead of protecting the species, the Service issued a new, more detailed finding that continued to put off protection. 

2004 – The Center petitioned for 225 candidate species, requiring the Service to include more detailed findings in its annual candidate notice of review — as well as applying additional pressure to protect all 225 species. The Center was joined in the petition by Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, Barbara Kingsolver and other luminaries. 

2006 – The Center and allies filed suit in Washington, D.C., arguing that the continued delay of protection for roughly 280 candidate species was illegal because the Service was failing to make expeditious progress listing any of these species. 

2007 – The Center worked out a deal in principle with the Service to make protection decisions for all candidate species, plus hundreds of other species for which petitions had been filed. The deal, however, was never enacted and was rumored to have been nixed by a top Interior Department lawyer.

2009 – The Center and allies sent a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service asking for new negotiations over all the candidate species and proposing a four-year schedule for listing them, as well as processing existing petitions.

2010 – The Center filed suit over the Service’s failure to respond to petitions to protect 93 species, including the California golden trout, plains bison, black-footed albatross, 42 Great Basin springsnails and dozens of other species. In response to litigation and pressure from the Center, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed protection for the dunes sagebrush lizard.

July 12, 2011 – The Center reached a landmark agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service that mandated protection decisions for 757 species, including the Pacific walrus, American wolverine, Mt. Charleston blue butterfly, Pacific fisher, yellow-billed cuckoo and Kittlitz’s murrelet.

July – August 2011 – In accordance with the agreement, the Service began moving species toward protection, including making rules for the Pagosa skyrocket, parachute beardtongue and DeBeque phacelia. The agency also proposed protection for 23 Hawaii species (19 being part of our agreement) the Chupadera springsnail and five southeastern fish species.

August 9, 2011 – The Service issued an emergency order protecting the Miami blue butterfly, in accordance with our agreement and in response to our 2011 petition.

September 9, 2011 – A federal judge approved the landmark 757 species legal agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

September 2011 – The Service determined that 32 springsnail species in Nevada, Utah and California may qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Service also issued a final rule protecting Casey’s June beetle as an endangered species and designating 587 acres of critical habitat for it in Riverside County, Calif. Both actions were in accordance to our agreement and in response to petitions we filed.

September 26, 2011 – In response to our 2010 petition and 2011 notice of intent to sue for more than 400 Southeast species, the Service found that protection of 374 freshwater species in 12 southeastern states may be warranted under the Endangered Species Act.
October 3, 2011 – The Service proposed to protect eight species of freshwater mussels in Alabama and Florida and proposed to designate nearly 1,500 miles of streams and rivers as critical habitat for the species. The eight proposed mussels were included in our legal settlement.

October 4, 2011 – The Service determined that 26 species of Pacific Northwest snails and slugs might warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act due to our settlement. The 26 species were some of the 32 imperiled Northwest mollusks we’d petitioned to list in 2008.

October 5, 2011 – The Service issued a final rule listing the Ozark hellbender as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act as part of our 757 species agreement. 

October 7, 2011 – The Service designated the Altamaha spinymussel as endangered and proposed to protect 148 river miles of critical habitat as the result of our legal settlement.

October 12, 2011 – The Service proposed to protect a rare, recently discovered Puerto Rican tree frog named the coquí llanero as an endangered species and to designate more than 600 acres of freshwater wetland as critical habitat. The decision came out of our landmark 757 species settlement.

October 25, 2011 – Due to our settlement, the Obama administration issued a new “candidate notice of review” identifying 244 plants and animals that need the protections of the Endangered Species Act to avoid extinction. 

January 23, 2012 – In response to our 2010 petition and as part of the settlement, the Service announced that Endangered Species Act protection might be warranted for the scarlet Hawaiian honeycreeper, or ‘i‘iwi.

February 22, 2012 – Under our settlement, the Service announced that it would evaluate whether to protect the Oregon spotted frog under the Endangered Species Act and requested information from experts and the public. 

March 12, 2012 – In accordance with our settlement, the Service protected two colorfully named mussel species, the sheepnose and the spectaclecase, under the Endangered Species Act. Both mussels were once common across the eastern United States but are now found in only a handful of rivers. 

May 14, 2012 – Due to our settlement, the Service proposed Endangered Species Act protection for two plants, the Umtanum desert buckwheat and White Bluffs bladderpod, found only in Washington’s Hanford Reach National Monument, as well as proposing to designate critical habitat.