BEATTY, Nev.— The Center for Biological Diversity filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today seeking protection for Amargosa toads under the Endangered Species Act.

The toads are threatened by multiple proposed gold-mining projects surrounding their habitat. The species lives only in southern Nevada’s Oasis Valley, a rare and biologically diverse wetland area along the Upper Amargosa River, on the crux of the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. Like other endemic species in Oasis Valley, these unique toads rely on consistent groundwater discharge in the Amargosa River for survival.

“Oasis Valley is set to become the epicenter of a vast new gold-mining district, putting huge stress on the delicate aquifer that sustains the Amargosa River and threatening rare species like Amargosa toads who don’t live anywhere else in the world,” said Krista Kemppinen, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Center. “The Fish and Wildlife Service really has to act now to give this embattled species a fighting chance at survival.”

The groundwater resources that sustain the Amargosa River and the toads’ habitat are imminently threatened by seven proposed gold-mining projects, including what is potentially the largest greenfield gold discovery in the United States in more than a decade.

North Bullfrog Project, which is currently in permitting, would withdraw up to 2,500 acre-feet per year from Oasis Valley and a likely connected aquifer in Sarcobatus Flat. This water consumption is modeled to cause significant declines on the Amargosa River and its toad habitats. Simulated pumping scenarios examining cumulative water withdrawals from the development of four mines show widespread drawdown across Oasis Valley.

Conservationists have long been concerned about Amargosa toads, who already face multiple threats including trampling by nonnative ungulates, invasive species, water abstraction and diversion leading to habitat degradation and destruction, off-road vehicles, and highways.

However, despite two previous petitions from the Center, Fish and Wildlife has so far declined to protect the species under the Endangered Species Act. Those decisions were largely justified by ongoing habitat conservation efforts in Oasis Valley.

“While these well-intentioned efforts by the local community and partners have had some successes, the threat of groundwater drawdown from gold mining poses an existential threat to the Amargosa toad,” said Kemppinen. “Only the Endangered Species Act can prevent its extinction.”

Amargosa toads are quiet, brownish toads, about 2 to 3 inches long. They have evolved to survive in one of the few locations where the Amargosa River has a reliable flow of surface water.