"Environmentalists on Monday accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of imperiling hundreds of vulnerable species when it expanded hunting and fishing on 147 national wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries under President Donald Trump.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) said in a lawsuit filed in Montana federal court that the expansion risked the survival of rare animals like grizzly bears and jaguars by increasing traffic and exposing the animals to toxic lead found in ammunition.
The complaint alleges the Service arbitrarily violated the Endangered Species Act when it determined that many protected species found in refuges would not be adversely affected by the expansion, which was formalized in a rule last August.
The administration at the time called it "the single largest expansion of hunting and fishing" in the Service's history. The hunting industry hailed the initiative, which made an additional 2.3 million acres available to them."
