The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging that the service failed to decide whether to protect an imperiled species of Appalachian salamander.
The yellow-spotted woodland salamander is a microhabitat specialist, meaning its environment is dependent upon very specific conditions within an ecosystem. The small amphibians make their homes in shale and sandstone rock faces in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. According to the Center, those same sites are targeted by mountaintop removal mining, which has destroyed more than 500 mountains and 1.4 million acres of Appalachian forest over the past 40 years.
Will Harlan, southeast regional director for the Center, said the species has faced endless obstacles since being recently discovered.
“It was only recently discovered back in 2018 as a separate species. As soon as it was recognized as a new species, it was also recognized that it was critically imperiled,” Harlan said. “The range of this species overlaps directly with the heart of mountaintop removal mining, so a lot of their habitat has already been blown up and destroyed.”
Harlan said there are 21 rock faces across the four state region where the salamanders can be found. He explained that only 12 of those sites are home to more than one individual salamander. Their population is estimated to be less than 300 animals.
“They rose to the top of our list as a species urgently needing petitioned and protections under the Endangered Species Act. They’re probably one of the most endangered species of salamanders on the planet,” Harlan said.
In 2022, the Center partnered with ten other organizations to petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to protect the yellow-spotted woodland salamander by listing it under the Endangered Species Act. In January, 2024, the Service found that the salamanders may warrant protection under the act following a preliminary assessment.
The next step in the process is a 12-month species status assessment, a document examining the scientific literature to determine the status of the species. Following that research period, the Service normally issues a decision.
“It’s been almost two years now, so we gave them an extra year, and still we don’t have any information, any communication, any indication that the research has even started,” Harlan said. “We’ve sought information but we aren’t getting any, so litigation was the last and only step left, but one we had to take because this species cannot wait any longer. It will spiral further toward extinction if it does not receive federal Endangered Species Act protections.”
If granted the protections under the Endangered Species Act, Harlan said the salamander’s future would not be secured. A proposal from the Trump administration would significantly limit the Act’s power by changing the definition of the word, “harm.”
The rule change would only prohibit actions that directly hurt or kill protected animals, not the habitats that they live in.
“As long as you didn’t directly kill the salamander, if you just blew up its rock face, that would ostensibly, potentially be legal under Trump’s new rules. That’s how absurd their proposed rescission of harm is,” Harlan said.
The proposed rule change is meant to ease regulations on logging and mining operations. In Appalachia, Harlan said that decision would be detrimental to the salamanders, and to countless species that make their homes on mountaintops, especially as new incentives for coal mines are introduced.
“These few remaining sites for the yellow-spotted woodland salamander will be increasingly targeted in the coming years as continued pressure for increased coal mining continues. At least three yellow-spotted woodland salamander populations have been wiped out in the last decade due to mining operations, so we’re already seeing those impacts,” he added.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to a request for comment on the litigation. The Service has 60 days to respond to the Center’s lawsuit.
Harlan said if action isn’t taken, the species will be completely wiped out by mining operations and road construction in the coming years.
