Two environmental groups that helped secure Endangered Species Act protections for turtles found in Southern states will now be getting reimbursed for their long-ago legal work.
In litigation that’s proceeded far more like a tortoise than a hare, a federal judge on Monday sided with the organizations Healthy Gulf and the Center for Biological Diversity in their quest for attorneys’ fees and costs for their work in a case that ended four years ago. The litigation centered on the map turtle.
The decision on attorneys’ fees issued Monday follows a July 2020 settlement in which the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to complete its determination as to whether the Pascagoula map turtle, found in Mississippi, and the Pearl River map turtle, found in both Mississippi and Louisiana, warrant ESA listing as endangered or threatened species.
“We are pleased by the court’s decision,” Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email Tuesday, adding that “I don’t know why it took this amount of time to rule on the matter, but I don’t foresee any problems.”
