A small newt that lives only in Oregon’s Crater Lake is on the verge of extinction, advocates with the Center for Biological Diversity said this week.

Scientists could not find a single Mazama newt during a snorkel survey of the lake this summer, according to federal records obtained by the environmental nonprofit. A year earlier, surveys found four newts, and in 2023 they found 35.

Mazama newt populations have been plummeting in recent years as Crater Lake has warmed, bringing a boom in the population of non-native crayfish, which eat the native newt.

The Center for Biological Diversity has been pushing for Endangered Species Act protections for Mazama newts since 2023, including through a 2025 lawsuit against the Trump administration. As a result of that lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would decide by Nov. 20 whether to implement protections.

Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an endangered species attorney with the environmental group, criticized the Trump administration for its slow action on Mazama newt protections.

“Crater Lake newts needed protection long ago and it’s absolutely devastating that the Trump administration is allowing them to blink out of existence,” Stewart-Fusek said in a press release. “These cute little newts are paying the ultimate price for the short-sighted actions of people. If they’re lost for good, Crater Lake will be forever diminished.”

Trump administration officials representing the Fish and Wildlife Service have argued in court that they don’t see the Mazama newt as a distinct subspecies population of the rough-skinned newt.

But in a different branch of the U.S. Department of Interior, officials with the National Park Service are collaborating on efforts to preserve Crater Lake’s only native amphibian.

They’re working with the Oregon Zoo and students at Southern Oregon University to breed Mazama newts, and announced earlier this month that 26 larvae were developing in captivity as part of that program.

National Park Service biologist Dave Hering, an SOU affiliate, said in a press release that by breeding Mazama newts and working to limit crayfish populations, the imperiled amphibian could survive — though it may take decades of work to restore newt populations to healthier numbers.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/11/oregon-crater-lake-no-newts-found-survey-bad-environmental-news/