Abrams Environmental Law Clinic Files Suit over Denial of Endangered Species Act Protections
Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Wetland-Dependent Midwestern Snake
The Center for Biological Diversity and Hoosier Environmental Council sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for denying Endangered Species Act protections to the imperiled Kirtland’s snake.
The small, nonpoisonous snakes boast red-to-pink undersides. They spend much of the year underground, frequently in crayfish burrows, and feed on earthworms, slugs and leeches. Kirtland’s snakes live in seven states — Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee — but have disappeared from 79 of the 139 counties where they were once found. They are gone completely from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“These pretty snakes are disappearing along with many other animals as wetlands are destroyed across America’s heartland, and they need federal protection,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “Saving the Kirtland’s snake will also benefit birds, butterflies and people by protecting areas that reduce flooding, store carbon and provide places to view the natural world teeming with life.”
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“U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s arbitrary and unlawful decision deprives the Kirtland’s snake of the protections it needs to survive,” said Mark Templeton, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, which is representing the Center for Biological Diversity and the Hoosier Environmental Council in the lawsuit.
Read more at Center for Biological Diversity