Conservation Groups Threaten Lawsuit Over U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Failure to Protect Rare Snake Species

The Center for Biological Diversity, Hoosier Environmental Council, and Prairie Rivers Network sent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) a sixty-day notice of intent to challenge FWS’ 2017 decision to deny the Kirtland’s snake protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Kirtland’s snake, a rare wetlands species, is extinct in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and survives only in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. The advocacy organizations claim that FWS’ denial of protection for the Kirtland’s snake is “arbitrary and unlawful.”