TOAD THE LINE

Rare Nevada Toad Granted Emergency Protection After Development Project Lawsuit

The little Dixie Valley toad has been saved “in the nick of time” after a successful suit allowed it to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

This is one toad that hasn’t yet been licked. The Dixie Valley toad, a rare species found only in one 760-acre stretch of Nevada’s wetlands, has been granted emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency’s Monday announcement of the listing will allow the toad federal protection for at least the next 240 days. Its new status comes courtesy of a legal battle over a proposed geothermal development project in the area. A lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which had approved the project, was filed in December by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, whose ancestral home is Dixie Valley. “This decision comes just in the nick of time for the Dixie Valley toads, which are staring down the barrel of extinction,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ve been saying for five years that the Dixie Meadows geothermal project could wipe out these tiny toads, and I’m [thankful] those concerns have been heard.”