Federal wildlife managers on Thursday agreed to decide whether or not to list a rare fish in Nevada as an endangered or threatened species within the next year after failing to meet a federally required deadline.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to a court-ordered deadline that requires the agency to make a decision on the listing of the Fish Lake Valley tui chub under the Endangered Species Act by May 17, 2025.
The Fish Lake Valley tui chub, a small 5-inch fish, was once found in several isolated spring habitats in Esmeralda County but is now limited to one ranch spring in the Fish Lake Valley due to habitat loss as a result of groundwater depletion, threatening to dry up the springs that fish rely on.
In 2022, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a one-year status review to determine whether Fish Lake Valley tui chub ultimately qualify for federal protection after finding credible evidence that water levels of land in the valley has been depleted, endangering Nevada’s rare fish.
The agency, however, failed to meet the 2023 deadline, opening oneself up to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity for violating federal law by delaying action on endangered fish, threatened by groundwater pumping in a region experiencing severe drought.
Groundwater pumping in the Fish Lake Valley is done primarily to grow alfalfa, a water-intensive crop used to feed cattle and other livestock. Other possible threats to the tui chub’s water supply include proposed lithium mines and geothermal projects that have the potential to affect groundwater flow, conservationists say.
Thousands of acres in the Fish Lake Valley are subject to mining claims, including claims under Ioneer, an Australian mining company. Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine development in the Silver Peak Range east of the Fish Lake Valley.
According to the mine’s 2022 operations plan, mining operations consume approximately 2,500 gallons per minute of water, which equates to 4,032 acre feet per year. Ioneer said it eventually plans to take water for mining operations directly from the Fish Lake Valley and pump it through a pipeline to Rhyolite Ridge.
As part of the agreement announced Thursday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will also be required to decide final endangered species protection by the end of the year for nine other species, critical habitat designation for three, and whether those protection is required for two other species. .
Those species include the Southeast alligator snapping turtle, the Suwanee snapping turtle in Florida and Georgia, Washington’s Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan, New Mexico’s smallest chipmunk, and six species of Texas mussels.
“We are suffering an extinction crisis that threatens to destroy our way of life, so I am pleased that these 15 amazing species will get the protections they so desperately need,” said Noah Greenwald. , endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “From the muscular crocodiles that snap at turtles to the cute but ferocious martens, these are some of my favorite species and it would be so sad to see them disappear.”
