LAS VEGAS— In response to petitions from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that two rare species found in Nevada may qualify for Endangered Species Act protections.
The Service found that the Center’s petitions to protect the white-margined penstemon and the Railroad Valley toad present substantial scientific evidence that endangered species protections may be warranted.
“I’m relieved that these vulnerable species are moving one step closer to getting the life-saving protections they need,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center. “As climate change rages and habitat destruction devastates public lands, Nevada is on the front lines of the extinction crisis. If we don’t act to save the state’s rare plants and animals, they’ll disappear forever.”
The white-margined penstemon is a rare low-growing perennial wildflower that lives on sandy washes and stabilized dunes. The plant has pretty pink flowers and leaves with white margins. It occurs in four distinct population centers: Clark and Nye counties in Nevada; San Bernardino County in California; and Arizona’s Mohave County.
The white-margined penstemon’s Clark County population grows south of Las Vegas and is threatened with destruction by urban expansion from the proposed Clark County lands bill and Ivanpah airport. The Nye County population is found in the Amargosa Desert and is threatened by transmission line construction and irresponsible solar energy development.
The Railroad Valley toad is a small amphibian that lives in a single spring-fed wetland complex in Nye County, Nevada. It has an estimated distribution of only 445 acres and is isolated from other toads by miles of arid desert.
Railroad Valley is the epicenter of Nevada’s oil and gas extraction, and the toad’s habitat is threatened by fracking. The area also has a proposed lithium mining project, which would pump more than 32 billion gallons of water per year from the same aquifer that sustains the wetlands where the toads live, putting them in danger of extinction.
“The Bureau of Land Management and Nevada politicians are letting all manner of industries run roughshod over our public lands, putting the Silver State’s remarkable biodiversity in jeopardy,” said Donnelly. “The Endangered Species Act is the most successful conservation law in the world at preventing extinction, and it’s our best chance to save the white-margined penstemon and the Railroad Valley toad.”
Following today’s 90-day finding indicating that protection may be warranted, the Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a one-year status review that will result in either a listing proposal or denial.
