SALT LAKE CITY—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday turned down a request to provide endangered species protections for 165 plants and animals—including 85 that live in Utah—but said another 39 in the West might qualify.
The agency was responding to a 2007 petition by WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group asking that more than 200 species in 14 states be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Included in the request were beetles, flowers, mountain snails, fish and other species.
“For most of these species, we really were not provided much information at all,” said Diane Katzenberger, a spokeswoman for the agency in Denver.
Typical petitions offer details about species’ population, habitat and threats, she said. In some cases, the petition included only the name of a species and little else, she said.
But Jay Tutchton, an attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said it shouldn’t be necessary that the initial request provide a complete record of a species they believe needs protection. He also said that even though there’s scant information on some species, the fact that they’re rare should prompt the federal government to consider protection.
“Some of these are no-brainers where the species lives in six feet of a river,” he said.
Last month, the agency decided on a similar request from WildEarth Guardians. That one sought protection for 475 species across the Southwest, including a mayfly that hadn’t been seen for decades.
The agency said there wasn’t enough information on 270 species. The others will get a closer look.
WildEarth Guardians has told the Fish and Wildlife Service it plans to sue over eight species denied protections in that request.
“Those eight we feel warrant emergency protection,” Tutchton said.
He expects his group to file a similar notice on seven species related to Thursday’s decision.
In the meantime, the Fish and Wildlife Service will begin looking at 39 species that might warrant federal protections, said Ann Carlson, endangered species listing coordinator in Denver.
Among those will be the northern leatherside chub, a minnow that lives in Utah streams; six types of mountain snails in Montana, a caddisfly in Nebraska, pale blue-eyed grass in Oregon and Washington, and Yellowstone sand verbena, which has only ever been found in Yellowstone National Park.
The reviews could lead to more in-depth investigation and a formal decision about whether each species should be protected as a threatened or endangered species.
The 2007 petition included species in Arkansas, Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
——
On the Net:
