Seven conservationist groups intend to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for denying protection from the Endangered Species Act to two rare desert flowers in Colorado and Utah. The formal notice of intent to sue was filed Tuesday.
In August 2013, the FWS had proposed that Graham's and White River beardtongues be given protection after it was determined that 91 percent of the Graham's variety and 100 percent of the White River population of beardtongues are being threatened by gas and oil development in the two states.
However, the proposal was reversed in August 2014, with the FWS claiming that threats to the two flowers can be mitigated by a conservation agreement the agency entered into with several others in the energy development sector and the Bureau of Land Management.
The 2013 proposal had the FWS deeming 84,000 acres of land as critical habitat necessary to the survival of Graham's and White River beardtongues. In the 2014 conservation agreement, the number dropped to just 49,000, reducing conservation areas by nearly 50 percent to exclude plots of land set aside for the development of fossil fuel. Additionally, the conservation areas would only be given voluntary protections from developers.
This just won't do, according to the conservationist groups.
"FWS's decision to withdraw endangered species protections for the Graham's and White River beardtongues violates the ESA by failing to rely on the best available science and by failing to ensure that adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to protect the plants," they wrote [pdf] in the formal notice.
"The American people have a right to expect government agencies to follow the law. The Service knows what it needs to do to protect these plants, but politics has trumped science once again. Conservation efforts by states and private energy interests are important, but this agreement falls far short of what the Service has said is needed to protect these beautiful wildflowers," said Robin Cooley from Earthjustice.
Graham's and White River beardtongues thrive only on oil shale areas in northwestern Colorado and the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. Dozens of other rare plants not found anywhere else in the globe call this badland region home, existing within a complex ecosystem with black bears, mountain lions, antelope, elk and deer so protecting the beardtongues also mean protecting a range of other species.
Protection was first petitioned for the Graham's variety in 1975 while the White River beardtongue followed in 1983.
