13 rare species undergoing review

Don't yank that Cisco milkvetch or disturb the Hamlin Valley pyrg — you're messing with a potentially threatened or endangered species.

Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Utah are conducting a review of 13 types of plants, mollusks and one fish, assessing potential threats to see if "listing" may someday be warranted.

Although a local botanist says it's a sure bet most people in Utah don't even know if they've stumbled across a Gibbens' beardtongue, it's critical to take a look at the flower, its habitat and determine what threats may exist.

"Some of them we don't have a lot of information on or they are not very widespread," said Larry Crist, field supervisor with the Salt Lake office of the wildlife service. "We need to take a look at them and evaluate them for distribution and abundance."

The agency will begin a "status review" of each species and make a determination if listing as threatened or endangered is warranted, not warranted or warranted but precluded.

"It in no way means they are going to candidate status," said Larry England, a botanist with the agency. "This just means we are taking a closer look."

All told, 29 species in more than 20 states are undergoing the review, which is in response to a 2007 petition by WildEarth Guardians, an environmental watchdog organization. Initially, the group sought protections for more than 200 species of plants and animals, a list that was winnowed to 29, of which about half are found in Utah.

England said some of the species under review landed on the list because of highly unique and rare habitat.

The Frisco buckwheat, Ostler's pepperplant and Frisco clover, for example, only grow in the San Francisco Mountains in Beaver County.

"They occur in these mineralized soils that a hundred years ago were actively mined for silver and gold," England said. "They are a rare unique part of our botanical heritage and occur nowhere else in the world."

Flowers' penstemon grow in the Uintah Basin in a localized area, while Gibbens' beardtongue, a showy flower in the snapdragon family, take root on the boundary of Uintah and Duchesne counties.

"The concerns are energy development and its limited habitat," England said.

Limited habitat is also true for the Hamlin Valley pyrg, the longitudinal gland pyrg and the sub-globose pyrg, all members of the mollusk family endemic to springs in the western desert of Utah.

"That's the only place they hang out, a very limited area," he said. "A big concern is the exploitation of water resources out there."