TUCSON, Ariz.— A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to make a long-overdue decision on whether to expand critical habitat for Arizona’s highly endangered Mount Graham red squirrels. The squirrels are the most endangered terrestrial animal in the United States.
The ruling, issued late Monday, found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unreasonably delayed its decision on a December 2017 petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society seeking critical habitat expansion for the squirrels, who’ve been pushed out of their original southern Arizona habitat.
“This ruling is a victory for the squirrels and more evidence that the Fish and Wildlife Service has been failing miserably at its job to protect them,” said Robin Silver, a cofounder of the Center. “It’s pathetic that these folks couldn’t be bothered to save a species they’ve known for 30 years has been hanging on by a thread. The squirrels were forced out of their original homes while federal officials have been asleep at the wheel, but hopefully this ruling forces them to get back to work and save these animals before it’s too late.”
U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins gave the Fish and Wildlife Service until Jan. 30, 2027, to decide whether to update the squirrels’ critical habitat or deny the 2017 petition, nearly a decade after it was submitted. An updated recovery plan for the squirrels is supposed to be completed four months earlier, by Sept. 30.
Mount Graham red squirrels live only in the Pinaleño Mountains, an isolated “sky island” range in southeastern Arizona. Nearly all the squirrels now live outside the currently designated critical habitat areas, which only include spruce-fir forests above 9,200 feet elevation. The squirrels’ original critical habitat was destroyed by construction of mountaintop telescopes, wildfires and fires set unnecessarily to protect the telescopes. A census from the fall of 2024 found just 233 squirrels, after the population fell to only 35 animals in 2017.
“Thirty years ago Fish and Wildlife officials acknowledged that the squirrels were in jeopardy, but now with fewer squirrels and much less surviving habitat these same officials refuse to even recognize that the squirrels are in even more jeopardy,” said Charles Babbitt, Maricopa Bird Alliance conservation chair. “These officials now see their job as protecting the status quo instead of protecting endangered species and their habitat.”
The groups’ petition asked the Service to update critical habitat for the squirrels to include lower-elevation, mixed-conifer forests where the squirrels are now living. Although leading scientists said 35 years ago that these forest areas were essential to the squirrel’s survival and recovery, the Service refused to include them in the original 1990 critical habitat designation.
The groups sued in April 2019 and again in November 2020 to compel the agency to make a decision about their petition to expand the habitat, as required under the Endangered Species Act. After three more years of delay the groups filed a third lawsuit in March 2024 that led to Monday’s ruling to force a final decision.
