PORTLAND, Ore.— In response to advocacy from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced positive 90-day findings on petitions to protect the southern Cascades Sierra Nevada red fox and three mollusks — cinnamon juga, Great Basin ramshorn and montane peaclam — under the Endangered Species Act. The Service now has one year to decide whether to protect these animals, who have suffered extreme population declines.

The Service today also denied protections for the Northern California-southern Oregon population of fishers despite drastic threats facing the rare forest carnivores.

“I’m ecstatic that this population of red foxes and these freshwater mollusks are one step closer to receiving vital protection in our rapidly warming world,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate at the Center. “I’m also deeply concerned about the fisher and the old-growth forests they call home. These carnivores needed Endangered Species Act protection decades ago.”

Like other freshwater species facing extinction, the mollusks have small habitats with highly restricted ranges. They are threatened by pollution, overuse of water, warming stream temperatures because of climate change, and habitat degradation from livestock grazing, agriculture and development. Their very limited ranges make them especially vulnerable to any habitat disturbances.

The southern Cascades population of the Sierra Nevada red fox once ranged throughout high-elevation areas of the Cascades in forests and alpine meadows. However, the species has been lost from large portions of their range, including Mt. Shasta. Today the fox is threatened by habitat loss caused by fires, logging, livestock grazing and development, as well as increased recreation and climate change which are destroying the foxes’ mountaintop habitat.

Fishers are mid-sized forest carnivores. The Northern California-southern Oregon distinct population segment of the fisher is now limited to two native populations in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, plus another in Northern California and southwestern Oregon. Their range has been significantly reduced due to logging, historic trapping, rodenticide poisoning and climate change.

The Service also announced today that two foreign species — the painted woolly bat of South and Southeast Asia and a freshwater turtle from Indonesia — may warrant protections due to trade. Known for their striking orange and black wings, painted woolly bats are in demand for goth décor in the United States.