LAS VEGAS— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for the critically imperiled Railroad Valley toad.

The toads live in a single spring-fed wetland complex in central Nevada and are threatened by the Trump administration’s push to expand oil drilling, fracking and mining near their habitat.

“This lawsuit is a final lifeline for Nevada’s embattled Railroad Valley toad,” said Megan Ortiz, staff attorney at the Center. “Trump’s reckless push to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ could wipe these little toads off the face of the Earth. The Endangered Species Act is the most successful conservation law in the world at preventing extinction, and we won’t rest until Railroad Valley toads get the protections they urgently need.”

In response to the Center’s 2022 petition, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined in January 2024 that the toads may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, the agency has missed a legally required deadline to finalize protections for the toads.

Railroad Valley is the site of dozens of oil wells and a refinery within miles of the toad’s 445-acre habitat. The Trump administration is leasing more parcels for oil drilling and considering expanding the refinery. Additionally, the toad now faces threats from proposed mining projects, livestock grazing and climate change.

“As the driest state in the country, Nevada needs its precious groundwater appropriately managed so the native flora and fauna that evolved here can keep thriving here,” said Ortiz. “Trump’s love affair with Big Oil will doom Railroad Valley toads and many other species to extinction unless we work urgently to protect them. Now’s the time to act.”