KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today requiring the agency to reconsider protecting the Berry Cave salamander under the Endangered Species Act. The rare salamanders are only found in a handful of east Tennessee caves.

“This agreement is an important step toward securing long-overdue protections for the Berry Cave salamander and correcting a harmful mistake from the Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Liz Rasheed, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “We hope the agency will follow the science — as required by law — and give these one-of-a-kind salamanders the protections they need to have a shot at survival.”

The agreement requires the Service to reevaluate the Berry Cave salamanders’ status and determine by August 2029 whether they should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“I’m thrilled the Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider protections for these extraordinary, rare little salamanders,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Protecting Berry Cave salamanders under the Endangered Species Act also means funding to improve Tennessee’s drinking water quality. That’s a big win for both the salamander and for the people of Tennessee.”

Today’s agreement comes eight months after the conservation groups sued the Service, arguing that the agency violated federal law when it denied Endangered Species Act protections for the Berry Cave salamander in 2019. The surprising denial came after the agency’s regional leadership had directed staff to implement a quota system setting annual targets for denying species protections. This system may have inappropriately influenced the Berry Cave salamander decision.

Berry Cave salamanders have pink feathery gills, live their entire lives in caves and are incredibly rare. Populations have been found in just a small number of isolated caves, and in several of these caves only one salamander has ever been observed.

The already rare salamanders are under immense pressure from sprawl development in the region, and even the largest observed populations of the Berry Cave salamander are quickly declining. Survey results indicate that a population found in one cave, which was historically one of the salamander’s relative strongholds, fell by 65% between 2004 and 2019.