Environmentalists are suing the Fish and Wildlife Service over the omission of critical habitat for the Sierra Nevada red fox, amplifying an already robust Endangered Species Act debate.
Citing existential threats from climate change to snowmobiles, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit Monday over the agency’s 2021 determination that it was “not prudent” to designate critical habitat for the endangered fox.
“There’s just no way to save these precious foxes without protecting the places they live,” Noah Greenwald, the center’s endangered species director, said in a statement, adding that “the human footprint has gotten so huge that not even the high-elevation and snow-covered mountains where these foxes live are safe.”
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California focuses in part on the application of certain ESA regulations. With Congress unable or unwilling to revise the underlying environmental law enacted in 1973, considerable weight falls on these myriad regulations set by Fish and Wildlife for how the law is implemented.
