Oregon’s red tree vole is back in federal court with environmentalists suing to protect the mouse-sized denizen of old-growth forests.
In the latest round of a long-running dispute relevant to the timber industry, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity and three allied organizations are challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision not to list the red tree vole’s north Oregon coast distinct population segment as either threatened or endangered.
“Red tree voles have graced Oregon’s coastal old-growth forests for thousands of years, but we could lose them forever if they don’t get Endangered Species Act protections soon,” Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney in the center’s endangered species program, said in a statement.
The Bird Alliance of Oregon, Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands joined the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The case has been assigned to Judge Adrienne Nelson, a former member of the Oregon Supreme Court who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden.
