SOS Files Suit to Protect the Endangered Pedernales River Springs Salamander

​Last Friday, the nonprofit Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS) filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the Western District of Texas. The suit is based upon the USFWS’s failure to make a timely decision on listing the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in violation of the statute’s requirements.

​The Pedernales River springs salamander, a species endemic to the Texas Hill Country, has only been found in a few locations, most of which were within a 0.5 square mile area. Its survival depends on the clean spring water, spring fed streams, and water-bearing karst formations. Videos and more information about the habitat where the salamanders have been found are at https://roycreekcanyon.org. 

The Pedernales River springs salamander faces extinction due to its extremely limited range, small population, water quality degradation, surface habitat destruction, and inadequate regulatory protections. 

The majority of the salamander’s habitat is degraded or in imminent danger of degradation due to increasing urbanization. Proposed developments, such as Dallas billionaire Steve Winn’s proposed Mirasol Springs development and University of Texas Hill Country Field Station threaten to harm the species and destroy its critical habitat.

Biologist Crystal Datri, author of the petition to list the salamander as endangered, expressed that “While the area near the salamander’s known habitat is fortunate to have conservation easements and preserve lands, the majority of the salamander’s range is still gravely threatened by groundwater pumping and wastewater pollution from the Winn-UT research station development.”

On September 20, 2021, SOS filed a petition, urging USFWS to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered. 

“The Endangered Species Act is intended to provide species critical protections to avoid extinction,” explained SOS Attorney Victoria Rose, who is the lead counsel for the suit. “USFWS have missed the statutory required deadlines for a response. With so many threats, like the Winn development, occurring right now, the salamanders don’t have much time left.”
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The USFWS’s delay in making the 90 day finding and failure to make a timely 12-month finding on SOS’s petition to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered constitutes a violation of the ESA and additional delay on the part of the agency further imperils the species.