TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— The Center for Biological Diversity notified the Trump administration today that it intends to sue over ongoing violations of the Endangered Species Act that are harming federally protected frosted flatwoods salamanders at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in north Florida.

Public records show that in late 2024, under the departing Biden administration, the refuge permitted a frosted flatwoods salamander breeding pond to be mowed over with heavy machinery and sprayed with toxic herbicides during the species’ breeding season, when salamanders are traveling from the pine forests into these ephemeral ponds to mate. This pond was protected as critical habitat for the salamander. The salamanders’ outlook will only get worse as more employees from the already understaffed refuge are fired under the Trump administration.

“The damage to one of the few known frosted flatwoods salamander breeding ponds is truly shocking, and I expect these horror stories will become more common as Trump keeps firing refuge caretakers,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and senior attorney at the Center. “It appears that this egregious mismanagement stemmed from a critical gap in experience and expert oversight at St. Marks. A chronic lack of funding and staff are putting these lovely, speckled frosties at imminent risk of extinction, and Trump’s slash-and-burn ideology will only make it worse.”

The Endangered Species Act prohibits federal agencies from authorizing activities that will jeopardize a protected species’ survival and recovery or destroy protected habitat they need to survive. To date, the Service has provided no records that it completed a required endangered species formal consultation to ensure it would not jeopardize the species or destroy critical habitat.

On Feb. 14, following the directives of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, approximately 420 staff were fired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including staff working to protect and list threatened and endangered species. This move further weakens Service staff and the National Wildlife Refuge System, which have been underfunded and understaffed for years.

The primary threats to the salamander are habitat degradation from inadequate management, extreme weather like extended droughts and powerful hurricanes driven by climate change and a lack of funding to address recovery actions needed to secure a future for the species.

Originally protected federally in 1999 as the “flatwoods salamander,” the frosted flatwoods salamander received threatened species protections in 2009 following a taxonomic reclassification. At the time, the frosted flatwoods salamander was found in 25 tenuous populations in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. By 2015 this estimate was reduced to only nine known populations scattered across these three states, though it is unclear whether the one historical population in South Carolina still persists.

Because of these precipitous declines, in 2019 Service biologists recommended reclassifying frosted flatwoods salamanders from threatened to endangered.

“Our legal notice highlights the steep cost of undercutting a federal workforce whose job is to protect the delicate fabric of life we all need to be happy and healthy,” said Bennett. “Americans care about protecting endangered species. We’re ready to stand up for the frosties if the Trump administration doesn’t take its job seriously.”

Frosted flatwoods salamanders (Ambystoma cingulatum) are black to chocolate-black amphibians with light gray lines and specks that form a cross-banded pattern across their backs.

The salamanders live in longleaf pine-slash pine flatwoods in a few places in the lower southeastern coastal plain. They spend most of their lives underground in crayfish burrows, root channels or burrows of their own making. They emerge in the early winter rains to breed in small, isolated seasonal wetlands. These ephemeral breeding pools are critical to the species’ life cycle.