Group Sues U.S. to Protect Tiger Salamander, 9 Other Species : Ecology: Activists want them listed as endangered animals and accuse Fish and Wildlife Service of delays.

An environmental group has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the California tiger salamander and nine other species in seven Western states.

The Center for Biological Diversity seeks to compel the service to list the animals under the federal Endangered Species Act. The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The center contends that in all 10 cases, the service has delayed action even though the Endangered Species Act requires that the agency make a final determination within two years of submission of a petition.

The center says the delay has reached nearly 15 years for some species.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed these species to reach the brink of extinction and still has not taken action to protect them,” said Peter Galvin, conservation biologist for the center.

Jane Hendron, spokeswoman at the service’s office in Ventura, said the agency had not yet seen the lawsuit, and she could not comment on the specifics of the case.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service gets these petitions every day, nationwide. . . . We try to go through these things as quickly as we can, but we still need to employ good science,” she said.

In addition to the tiger salamander, the lawsuit includes the Columbia spotted frog in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Oregon spotted frog in California, Oregon and Washington; Cagle’s map turtle in Texas; and six species of spring snails in New Mexico.

The tiger salamander is found in Central and Northern California, including the Stanford University campus.

According to the center, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined in 1993 that the salamander warranted protection, but there were higher priorities. The Endangered Species Act requires that a final determination be made within one year of such a finding.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a science-based environmental advocacy organization with 5,000 members nationwide.

Since 1989, the center has brought 128 lawsuits against various government agencies over environmental issues, with a primary focus on wildlife, Galvin said.