The U.S. government agreed Tuesday to decide over the next several years if federal protections are needed to help a small, fanged predator of the Northern Rockies, massive alligator snapping turtles in the South and seven other troubled species that in some cases have awaited action for years.
Deadlines for the decisions were detailed in a legal settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The Center for Biological Diversity had sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March, alleging agency officials repeatedly missed previous deadlines despite determining protections may be warranted.
Representatives of the Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately comment on the settlement. It must be approved by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan before it goes into effect.
One of the first species to be decided on, by October 2017, is the Northern Rockies fisher. The cat-sized predator once ranged across at least five states. It's now limited to a much smaller area straddling the Montana-Idaho border.
Montana allows the trapping of seven fishers annually --activity banned elsewhere in the West.
The Fish and Wildlife Service rejected protections in 2011, concluding that trapping by humans did not appear to be harming the overall population, though their precise numbers are unknown. But they agreed to take another look earlier this year after wildlife advocates provided details on fishers killed by trappers seeking other species.
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"Alongside habitat loss, trapping is one of the primary threats to Northern Rockies fishers," said Andrea Santarsiere, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. She said federal protections "are the only way to curb this ongoing threat."
Fishers remain relatively abundant in parts of the Midwest and New England.
A decision on the alligator snapping turtle is due in 2020. The hard-biting, spike-studded a turtle can grow to more than 2 feet long and top 200 pounds, making it North America's largest freshwater turtle.
Other species included in the settlement were the California spotted owl, an Alabama mussel called the Canoe Creek pigtoe and the Beaverpond marstonia, a tiny freshwater snail that advocates say is found only in one Georgia creek.
Two fish were included -- the Virgin River spinedace, a desert minnow once common in the Virgin River basin in northwestern Arizona, southeastern Nevada and southwestern Utah, and the Barrens topminnow in Tennessee's Barrens Plateau.
There was one amphibian, the foothill yellow-legged frog, once found from Oregon to possibly as far south as Baja California, Mexico, and an insect, the cobblestone tiger beetle, which survives only in handful of rivers from New England to Alabama.
Alligator snapping turtle
- Historic range: Mississippi River watershed, from Georgia and northwestern Florida to eastern Texas, and as far north as southeast Kansas, southeast Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. Common in all but extreme north and eastern parts of its range.
- Now: Likely gone from Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, reduced by estimated 95 percent over much of its range.
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2020
Barrens topminnow
- Historic range: Caney Fork, Duck and Elk rivers in Tennessee's Barrens Plateau; population estimated at 4,500 to 5,000 in 1983.
- Now: found in four spots, with maximum total population estimated in the hundreds.
- Decision deadline: Dec. 31, 2017
Beaverpond marstonia (tiny freshwater snail)
- Historic range: Cedar Creek in the Flint River watershed in Crisp County, Georgia.
- Now: Surveys in recent years have failed to find even one.
- Decision deadline: April 1, 2017
California spotted owl
- Historic range: California and Nevada.
- Now: "The population dropped by as much as 22 percent in the southern Cascades in the last 18 years, and scientists estimate the population was cut in half since 1990 in the central Sierra Nevada."
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2019;
Canoe Creek pigtoe
- Historic and current range: Big Canoe Creek, in Alabama's Mobile Basin.
- "The mussel was only discovered as a distinct species in 2006, and fewer than two dozen individuals have ever been seen."
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2020
Cobblestone tiger beetle
- Historic range: Alabama to Vermont
- Now: Winooski River in Vermont, Connecticut River in New Hampshire and Vermont, Sciota River in Ohio, Delaware River in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Whitewater River in Indiana and Coosa River in Alabama.
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2019;
Foothill yellow-legged frog
- Historic range: Oregon and California, from Marion County in northern Oregon to Los Angeles County, and from the foothills of the western Sierra Nevada to the San Gabriel Mountains -- and possibly into Baja California, Mexico.
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2020
Northern Rockies fisher (a housecat-sized member of the weasel family with a fox-like face)
- Historic range: eastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta through northeastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, northwest Wyoming, and north-central Utah.
- Now: small populations found only along the border of Montana and northern Idaho
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2017
Virgin River spinedace (desert minnow)
- Historic: throughout the Virgin River basin in northwestern Arizona, southeastern Nevada, and southwestern Utah
- Now: its range is now reduced by 55 percent.
- Decision deadline: Sept. 30, 2021
