Environmentalists clawed the Fish and Wildlife Service back into court Thursday in an effort to get a belated Endangered Species Act decision on a plant called the gray cat’s eye.
Citing a variety of threats to the Washington state species that clings to dunes along the Columbia River, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in search of an answer to its ESA listing petition submitted in May 2024.
“The pretty gray cat’s eye will soon go extinct without our help,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s terribly unfortunate that the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the Fish and Wildlife Service and hasn’t taken action to protect these plants and the Columbia River ecosystem they need to survive.”
Under the ESA, the Fish and Wildlife Service had 90 days from the date of submission to make a preliminary assessment of the petition’s merits. If the agency determines the information provided in the petition is substantial enough to warrant further study, it then has one year from the petition filing to decide whether or not to propose listing the species as threatened or endangered.
