An environmental advocacy group has sued the federal government over a rare fish and crawfish native to Alabama.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the Center for Biological Diversity contends the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has had four years to review its 2010 request to protect the holiday darter and slendercraw crayfish under the Endangered Species Act.
The suit says the holiday darter, found primarily in the Coosa River watershed, and the slendercraw crayfish, which has all but disappeared from the Tennessee River basin, are facing "steep population declines and myriad threats to their existence."
The Tucson, Ariz.-based center is asking a judge to force the Fish & Wildlife Service to rule on whether federal protection is warranted for the Alabama creatures plus seven other animals across the U.S. facing possible extinction.
The other animals named in the lawsuit are the Barrens darter, a small, speckled fish found only in central Tennessee; the Atlantic pigtoe freshwater mussel native to Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina; Alexander Archipelago wolf from Alaska; San Bernardino flying squirrel; Ichetucknee siltsnail from Florida; black-backed woodpecker from California and South Dakota; and Kirtland's snake from the Midwest.
The Center for Biological Diversity says the aquatic species named in the lawsuit face extinction mainly due to water pollution and dams. Most of the slendercraw crayfish's natural habitat was flooded when the Tennessee River was dammed in the 1930s to create Lake Guntersville.
"It's important that we save freshwater animals from extinction because protecting aquatic species, even the tiny ones, will help protect the clean water that both people and wildlife need to survive," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the center.
"The Southeast has an incredibly rich natural heritage, and we need to do everything we can to keep it intact for our children and for future generations," she added.