Environmentalists petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday to provide Endangered Species Act protections for the Cascade red fox, a denizen of Washington state that’s said to be facing multiple existential threats.
Citing climate change impacts in particular, the Center for Biological Diversity asked the federal agency to list the fox as either threatened or endangered under the ESA.
“The cold, snowy landscapes where Cascade red foxes live are melting away before our very eyes and these animals and their homes need to be protected,” Noah Greenwald, the center’s endangered species director, said in a statement.
Greenwald added that “for these foxes to have any future, we have to curb greenhouse gas pollution and protect more of the natural world, not only for their sake but for ours.”
