LAS VEGAS— The Center for Biological Diversity and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have reached a legal agreement that will bring a rare desert wildflower one step closer to protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The Tecopa bird’s beak, which grows in desert wetlands in Nevada and California, is threatened by groundwater pumping for mining, agriculture and energy development. Its vulnerable habitats could dry up if the species is not protected.

“I’m thrilled the Tecopa bird’s beak is closer to getting the protections it so urgently needs,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center. “Nevada’s unsustainable groundwater pumping threatens to annihilate the desert wetlands where these wildflowers live. If we want to save them from extinction we have to act now.”

The Center and a concerned botanist submitted an Endangered Species Act petition for the plant in 2023. In 2024 the Fish and Wildlife Service found that listing the plant may be warranted. In 2025 the Center sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its delay in reaching a final decision on the wildflower’s listing.

One population of Tecopa bird’s beak lives in Esmeralda County, Nevada, where irrigation for alfalfa has caused widespread drawdown of groundwater levels. The Rhyolite Ridge Mine, which the Center is challenging in court, would worsen this situation by introducing new pumping nearby.

The Oct. 15 agreement sets a date of Sept. 13, 2028, for the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a final decision on whether to list the Tecopa bird’s beak as threatened or endangered.

“The special wetland habitats that Tecopa bird’s beak needs to survive face threats from every direction,” said Donnelly. “The Endangered Species Act is the most successful law in the world at preventing extinction, and we’ll keep fighting to ensure these special desert wildflowers get the life-saving protections they need.”