PHOENIX — A Tucson-based environmental group is accusing the Trump administration of moving at a snail’s pace in determining whether a sesame-sized mollusk found only in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southwest Arizona should be listed as endangered.
Legal papers filed in federal court contend Fish and Wildlife Service has so far taken more than 10 years to consider the status of the Quitobaquito tryonia, also known as the desert springsnail. In that delay, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, the snail “has continued to suffer significant loss of habitat and population decline.”
The lawsuit asks a judge to set a date by which the agency has to list the species as endangered.
