SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today of its intent to sue the agency for failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for the Kern Canyon and relictual slender salamanders. The salamanders are threatened by livestock grazing, logging, development and climate change.

The Center first petitioned for the salamanders’ protection in 2012. The Service proposed protecting the Kern Canyon salamander as threatened and the relictual slender salamander as endangered in October 2022. This triggered a one-year deadline for the agency to finalize protections.

“These little salamanders needed protection years ago,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate at the Center. “It’s a shame the Fish and Wildlife Service so often delays protecting species who’re on the brink of extinction like these two precious salamanders. It’s unacceptable for the agency to keep dragging its feet while these animals are getting wiped out.”

The salamanders were first identified as needing protection in 1994, but the Service failed to act until after the Center filed its petition and then sued to force a decision. A 2016 study found that it takes the agency an average of 12 years to protect plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act even though it’s supposed to take just two.

The Kern Canyon slender salamander and relictual slender salamander have small ranges in the southern Sierra Nevada, where decades of livestock grazing, logging and development — including construction of the Isabella Dam and State Route 178 — have taken their toll. The Kern Canyon slender salamander is believed to survive at just nine sites and the relictual slender salamander at 12 sites. The latter species has been lost from the Lower Kern River Canyon.

Both species are lungless, breathing through their skin. They’re terrestrial salamanders that catch invertebrates with projectile tongues. The salamanders are found close to water, including seeps and streams, and under objects such as logs, leaf litter and rocks. They’re thought to be highly sedentary, not moving far from where they were born.