Action timeline

January 26, 1995 – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Hine’s emerald dragonfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, but failed to designate a single acre of critical habitat for the species.

February 4, 2004 – The Center and a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit resulting in an order for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the Hine’s emerald dragonfly.

September 5, 2007 – The Service designated critical habitat, but slashed the area in its own proposal by more than half.

March 10, 2008 – The Center and allies sued the Service for failing to include key national forest lands in the dragonfly’s critical habitat designation.

April 23, 2010 – In response to our suit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doubled the area of the Hine’s emerald’s protected habitat, upping the acreage from 13,221 to 26,532 and adding lands within Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest and Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest.