Environmental groups have banded together in a lawsuit that seeks a higher level of Endangered Species Act protections for the silverspot butterfly.
Although the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the subspecies as threatened in February 2024, Friends of Animals and its allies contend in the lawsuit filed Thursday that the butterfly requires the stricter protections provided to species designated as endangered.
“An endangered listing automatically prohibits a wide range of activities, which make it difficult for one to meddle with an at-risk species, while a threatened listing doesn’t necessarily demand the same,” Jennifer Best, director of Friends of Animals’ Wildlife Law Program, said in a statement.
WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project joined in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Denver. WildEarth Guardians submitted the original petition in 2013 to list silverspots, which currently inhabit parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
