Protect the southern hognose snake from extinction
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Threatened Species Status With Section 4(d) Rule for Southern Hognose Snake
Fish and Wildlife ServiceFederal Register 2026-11414 ↗
Federal wildlife officials are deciding whether to give the southern hognose snake legal protection before it disappears.
What’s at risk
The southern hognose snake lives in coastal plains and sandhills across the southeastern United States and faces enough pressure that the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing it as threatened. Without federal protection, the species has no guaranteed legal safeguard against further harm.
If we stay silent
If the threatened listing is finalized, the southern hognose snake gains federal protections under the Endangered Species Act, making it harder for development or other activities to push the species closer to extinction.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
4 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I support this action and urge the agency to advance it.
- I support listing the southern hognose snake as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, which would give this small fossorial snake formal federal protection.
- The southern hognose snake lives in the coastal plains and sandhills of the southeastern United States, a specific habitat that needs recognized protection through this rule.
- The proposed section 4(d) rule would establish tailored protective regulations for this species, giving landowners and conservation managers clear guidance on how to treat it.
- Fish and Wildlife Service should finalize this listing so the southern hognose snake gets the ESA protections it needs before its habitat and population decline further.
Show all 6 points from the document
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are reopening the comment period on our August 29, 2025, proposed rule to list the southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus), a small, fossorial snake species from the coastal plains and sandhills across the southeastern United States, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act) with protective regulations under section 4(d) of the Act (proposed rule). We are taking this action to conduct a public hearing and to allow all interested parties an additional opportunity to comment on the proposed rule. Comments previously submitte…
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