PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity has reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that requires the agency to decide by October 2026 whether critically imperiled Crater Lake newts warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“Crater Lake newts are on the brink and I’m hopeful this agreement leads to swift protection,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an endangered species attorney at the Center. “These special little newts are an integral part of Crater Lake’s ecosystem and are part of what makes the lake so important to Oregonians and to everyone who visits.”

The newts live only in Oregon’s Crater Lake. Their population has crashed in recent years because of the introduction of signal crayfish and warming lake temperatures from climate change.

Following the Center’s legal petition in 2023, the Service announced that the Crater Lake newt may qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Today’s agreement resolves a February 2025 Center lawsuit over the agency’s failure to reach a decision by November 2024 as legally required.

Crater Lake newts, also known as Mazama newts, are a subspecies of the more widely distributed rough-skinned newt. The Crater Lake newt is adapted to being at the top of the lake’s aquatic food chain and lacks any predator defense mechanisms.

In the late 1800s fish were introduced to the lake to attract visitors. In 1915 park managers introduced signal crayfish as a food source for the fish. Both fish and crayfish prey upon the newts but it wasn’t until lake temperatures warmed because of climate change that the number of crayfish exploded, devastating newt populations. Crayfish now occupy more than 95% of the lake’s shoreline. Surveys in 2023 detected 35 newts and in 2024 scientists found just 13.

Crater Lake is celebrated for being one of the world’s deepest and clearest lakes. Scientists have found that by preying on the lake’s native plankton-consuming invertebrates, crayfish are also increasing algae growth in the lake, threatening its famous clarity. If the newts are protected under the Endangered Species Act, federal funding could help with captive breeding efforts and crayfish removal.

“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 Stewart-Fusek. “Nearly half of the world’s amphibians are at risk of extinction, and three out of five salamander and newt species are at risk. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is busy cutting funding to the agencies we rely on to protect our public lands and wildlife while doing everything it can to appease industry.”

The Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies and mass firings have made it difficult for employees to carry out their missions, which include protecting species under the Endangered Species Act. The first Trump administration protected the lowest number of species of any president since the law went into effect, and the second Trump administration has yet to protect any species.

National parks are also suffering. Last year the administration fired thousands of national park employees, and just last month it proposed even more cuts, including a more than 25% reduction in funding for park operations amid record park attendance and overwhelming support among Americans for adequately funding parks.