Mate, you're in luck! (if you can call it that...)
CHARLESTON, W.V.— The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for the agency’s failure to make a listing decision on a petition to protect the Big Sandy crayfish under the Endangered Species Act. The crayfish has been lost from up to 70 percent of its range because of water pollution from mountaintop-removal coal mining. It is nearly gone from West Virginia and has lost close to half of its range in Kentucky and Virginia.
“The Big Sandy crayfish is only found in Appalachia, where mountaintop removal and other sources of pollution are driving it extinct,” said Tierra Curry, a Center biologist and a native of southeastern Kentucky, where the crayfish is found. “Mountaintop-removal coal mining is ruining the water — both for wildlife and for people. If we protect streams for crayfish, we’ll also be protecting people.”
I know things are really tough economically and socially in Appalachia, and coal is important for the economy and employment. But there is a big price to pay in environmental degradation, and as you point out, terrible effects on infrastructure and quality-of-life for people in the area.
If you restore the streams, you restore the Big Sandy Crayfish, the knock-on effect is considerable.
Crayfish are also known as crawdads, crawfish, mudbugs and freshwater lobsters. They’re considered to be a keystone animal because the holes they dig create habitat used by more than 400 other species, including bass, catfish, frogs and small mammals. Crayfish keep streams cleaner by eating decaying plants and animals, and they are eaten in turn by fish, giant salamanders and raccoons, making them an important link in the food chain. Their burrowing activity helps maintain healthy soil by transferring nutrients between soil layers.
The Center for Biological Diversity is often supported by the Sierra Club in bringing law suits to save endangered species - though it's not clear if they are involved in this case.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2012/big-sandy-crayfish-05-30-2012.html
I have to thank AVGEEK for helping me find them - I searched for "Pierson's Milk Veitch" as he suggested, and Center for Biological Diversity was the group that took the action that protected the veitch in 2000. (that battle is ongoing -
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/plants/Peirsons_milk_vetch/action_timeline.html)
