Houston toad lawsuit can proceed, judge rules
Center for Biological Diversity alleged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to update a plan to save the endangered amphibian
A federal judge on Thursday denied a motion from the federal government to dismiss a lawsuit seeking a new recovery plan for the endangered Houston toad.
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that filed the suit in February, estimates that fewer than 1,000 such toads may remain in the wild and they can only be found in the central coastal region of Texas. The organization alleged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to update a plan for conservation and survival of the amphibian, as mandated by the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden in the District of Columbia denied the government’s motion to toss the suit. McFadden rejected arguments that the conservation act doesn’t impose a mandatory duty to revise a 1984 plan for the toad and that the claims are untimely, according to Thursday’s ruling.
“The Houston toad has continued to decline despite being protected under the Endangered Species Act for 50 years, and we need to do all we can to ensure this unique creature doesn’t vanish,” Jenny Loda, a biologist and lawyer with the nonprofit, said in a statement. “A new recovery plan is long overdue and will provide the necessary roadmap for the toad’s survival.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the toad as “endangered” nearly 50 years ago, according to the lawsuit. Federal officials issued a document styled as a recovery plan in 1984 for the amphibian, but a five-year status review in 2011 found the document “did not contain any recovery criteria, did not address all five listing factors relevant to the species, and was no longer based on the best available science.” No new plan had been released by the time the suit was filed.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Interior declined to comment. The Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With the suit, the group seeks to, in part, urge the agency to issue a recovery plan.
The toad, which is about 2 to 3½ inches long, was historically found in the central coastal region of Texas but disappeared from its namesake in the 1960s “likely due to the combination of rapid urban expansion and a prolonged drought,” according to the suit. It is believed to now be “extirpated” from Harris, Fort Bend and Liberty counties.
Although the Houston toad no longer hops across its namesake city due to drought and growth, the Houston Zoo maintains a 1,200-square-foot facility where it breeds and rears Houston toads for release into the wild, part of an effort to save it from extinction.