Feds agree to decide on endangered species protections for Crater Lake newt by October

An imperiled newt only found in and around southern Oregon’s Crater Lake may soon be protected under the Endangered Species Act following a three-year legal battle.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed in a recent settlement with the nonprofit conservation group Center for Biological Diversity to decide by October whether to list the Crater Lake newt, also known as the Mazama newt, on the federal endangered list and to invest in its survival.

The Center first petitioned the agency to list the species in 2023, and agency officials in response agreed the newts might qualify for protections. But the agency missed the legal deadline to undertake research and make a decision by November 2024, leading the Center to sue.

“It’s extremely frustrating that in the midst of a global extinction crisis it still takes a lawsuit to get animals like the Crater Lake newt the help they need,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an endangered species attorney at the Center.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/05/27/repub/feds-agree-to-decide-on-endangered-species-protections-for-crater-lake-newt-by-october/