By admin 
AJO, AZ (AZFamily) — A new lawsuit aims to protect an endangered species that advocates say is threatened by Arizona border wall construction.
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The Center for Biological Diversity the Trump administration Thursday for allegedly failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for the Quitobaquito tryonia, a tiny springsnail found only on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
“Federal officials are stalling while one of North America’s rarest animals inches toward extinction,” said Russ McSpadden, a southwest conservation advocate at the center. “The Quitobaquito tryonia lives in a tiny ribbon of desert water that could be destroyed for the useless political theatre of Trump’s second border wall. These snails play an invaluable ecological role, and they urgently need protection.”
The lawsuit comes weeks after border wall contractors allegedly damaged part of the ancient Las Playas Intaglio, a roughly 1,000-year-old geoglyph in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge about 30 miles west of Quitobaquito Springs.
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The lawsuit seeks to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to comply with the Endangered Species Act and finalize protections for the Quitobaquito tryonia.
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