Non-profit sues feds in effort to get Olympic marmots listed as an endangered species

BY PEPPER FISHER

Olympic National Park – Should Olympic marmots, which live exclusively on the Olympic Peninsula, be listed as an endangered species?

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) thinks so, and last month they filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior of violating the Endangered Species Act by missing a mandatory deadline to determine whether the furry creatures should be protected under federal law.

The suit contends that the delay “increases the risk of extinction” for the Olympic marmot, whose colonies are primarily in the alpine meadows of Olympic National Park.

The animals hibernate for about eight months each year and emerge in summer to eat and procreate. Scientists say their populations have drop