State Praised For Keeping Species Alive But Many Plants, Animals Remain Endangered, Region’s Scientists Say

The Nature Conservancy is praising Washington for being the only state with no species of flora or fauna near extinction, but scientists say reality is not so rosy.

According to the environmental group, no native Washington species has vanished or neared extinction in the last 19 years, the best record of any state.

Idaho was close behind with only one species extinction: Indian Valley sedge, a grass-like plant in the westcentral region.

But biologists warn that the group’s study is too general and skips smaller categories of plants and animals.

Mark Sheehan of the Washington Natural Heritage Program said intensive agriculture has pushed many native Palouse bugs and flowers to the edge of extinction, a loss that may ultimately prove costly for wheat farmers.

The 3-foot-long Palouse hills giant earthworm, an important soil aerator, may never be seen again, Sheehan said.

Wheat also is choking out wild flowers, such as Jessica’s Aster, a blue sunflower, and yellowish-gray Spalding’s Silene. Both plants are now endangered.

Sheehan said these plants and animals are “bellwethers” for the entire Palouse ecosystem - signs that the native grassland may be on its last legs.

Other biologists agree. “These species are kind of a canary in a coal mine,” said Idaho biologist Michael Mancuso. “The warning is ‘beware.”’

Sheehan said protecting the ecosystem is important because the plants provide food and shelter for birds and insects that feed on wheat predators.

Some Palouse hills plants also create their own pesticides that are especially effective against the region’s pests. While biologists don’t know exactly which plants might have these internal pesticides, Sheehan said it’s foolish to let them die off.

“We don’t know what is important in the future, so we should save it today,” he said.

“Many of them are teetering on the edge. Given the fact that Washington is a rapidly growing state, we can assume we’ll have species going extinct in the future.”

Heavy farming has relegated many native Palouse plants to old cemeteries and ditches, Idaho ecologist Bob Moseley said.

“There is essentially nothing left of the Palouse grasslands with the exception of a few corners of fields or roadsides,” Moseley said. “The loss of a species may have a rippling effect throughout the community.”

Nationwide, Hawaii leads the Nature Conservancy’s count with 269 presumed or possibly extinct species. Alabama led the continental United States with 98 extinct species, many in dammed-up freshwater rivers and streams.

, DataTimes