Environmentalists filed suit versus the federal government, hoping to force cutbacks in staffing at the Army’s Fort Huachuca, water use in the Sierra Vista area or both, to protect the San Pedro River and four imperiled species.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion that found the fort’s operations would not jeopardize the existence of the species or destroy the critical habitat they depend on.

The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity and two other groups filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

The lawsuit comes after efforts at setting up rare negotiations between Center for Biological Diversity and Fort Huachuca officials collapsed before talks commenced.

It is the latest of several lawsuits that the center and other groups have filed to contest a series of wildlife service biological opinions on the fort dating to the 1990s. Each time, the center has prevailed in court or before the suits came to trial to get the opinions overturned. But the wildlife service has responded by writing new opinions that the center continues to say are inadequate.