ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A conservation group is demanding emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act for a lizard found only in isolated parts of New Mexico and Texas.
WildEarth Guardians argues in a petition filed Thursday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, D.C., that while the lizard is on the endangered species candidate list it could be a year before the agency decides whether the reptile warrants federal protection.
"Each month that passes without ESA protection for the sand dune lizard, this species angles farther over the cliff and closer to extinction," the group's petition said.
The group plans to sue if the agency fails to act within 60 days.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has received the petition and plans to respond in a letter, said Elizabeth Slown, a spokeswoman for the agency's southwestern region.
Slown said funding was awarded this year to do surveys and other research to determine whether the lizard should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The process usually takes about a year.
"We've been concerned about the sand dune lizard for some time," Slown said Thursday. "It's on the candidate list and we work with landowners in the area so that they know what the sand dune lizard needs, and an emergency listing lawsuit at this time is unnecessary and deters us from the process that we go through, the public process."
The lizard, which lives among the sand dunes and shinnery oak of southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas, has been a candidate for endangered species protection since 2001. In February, Fish and Wildlife director Dale Hall said the species was one of several dozen the agency would consider during its annual review.
But Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, said Thursday many species have languished on the candidate list for years.
Rosmarino argued that emergency listing is necessary because of mounting threats against the lizard, which she described as "quickly hurdling toward extinction."
In the petition, WildEarth Guardians claims that a quarter of the 587,632 acres of expected range for the sand dune lizard in New Mexico has a density of about 13 or more oil and gas wells per square mile. That, the group said, can result in lizard population reductions of about 25 percent.
The petition says oil and gas development in the Mescalero Sands area — described as the heart of the lizard's range — could fragment New Mexico's largest sand dune lizard population. It also points to herbicide treatments that destroy shinnery oak, saying the loss of the plant can lead to significant decreases in lizard populations.
Rosmarino said the lizard's range in New Mexico and Texas is small to begin with and studies have shown the reptile already is absent from a quarter of the places where it would normally be found.
"Scientists predicted over 10 years ago that it might be too late to save it from extinction," Rosmarino said. "We think it deserves the insurance policy of Endangered Species Act protection and it deserves that protection quickly."
On the Net:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/
WildEarth Guardians: http://www.wildearthguardians.org/ |