A conservation group is suing the Trump administration over the protection of critical habitat for garter snakes in Arizona and New Mexico.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Tucson, accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of endangering the Northern Mexican garter snake and the narrow-headed garter snake.
In the filing, the organization says the populations of both snakes are at lower densities in both states.
Both became listed as threatened in 2014 under the Endangered Species Act.
An attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity says the Trump administration needs to safeguard the rivers the snakes rely on.
A spokesman for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately a message and email seeking comment.
