Regardless of Size, Location, Species Share a Threat: Man

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008

In the Washington region, the dramas of disappearing plants and animals often play out on ridiculously small stages. One species lives only on three mountainsides. Another clings to cobblestones in three streams. Another survives, maybe, in the soil along a single river.

But despite their tiny scale, none of these stories lack suspense. Because entire lines of creatures are at risk, to say they are about life and death is probably understating it.

Across Maryland, Virginia and the District, 73 species are listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government. Dozens more are listed by the governments of those three jurisdictions.

They are a diverse group: dive-bombing falcons and sand-dwelling beetles, semi-famous squirrels and anonymous plants, a blind crustacean and a sea monster. But most share a common problem: us.

Last week, the Bush administration proposed giving federal agencies more leeway to decide whether their projects threaten protected species such as these. The agencies could bypass consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The government says the change would be trivial. Environmentalists say it would remove a crucial level of protection for the 1,353 plants and animals on the federal threatened and endangered lists.

"The rule-making will make it more difficult for species like the piping plover, the bog turtle, the Delmarva fox squirrel . . . to recover," said Michael Bean of the Environmental Defense Fund, naming three of the area's endangered or threatened species.

Some activists say the move could make it easier for highways or construction projects to destroy precious habitats.

"What this proposal really shows is the deep-seated and continuing hostility by this administration" toward endangered-species laws, said Bob Irvin of the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife. The Bush administration has already been criticized for using procedural rules to make it more difficult to add species to the protected list.

The federal proposal would change practices: Now, agencies often consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether a danger to protected species exists. If the rule is approved, the agencies could make more of the decisions on their own.

Tina Kreisher, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said agencies would face serious consequences if they harmed a protected plant or animal. "If they're wrong, they're liable," Kreisher said.

This week, The Washington Post will profile 17 of the region's endangered and threatened species. Nine capsules appear today, and others will appear daily.

The Washington area has far fewer endangered species than California, with 309 protected animals and plants, or Hawaii, with 344. One possible reason: Many of the most vulnerable species might have died out shortly after Europeans arrived, before anyone went looking for them.

But some plants and animals hang on, in niches among farms, suburbs and cities.

They might not all be familiar faces. The manatee, a tropical species, is so unfamiliar here that scientists think it might be responsible for some sightings of "Chessie," the mythical Chesapeake Bay sea monster. The Hay's spring amphipod, a blind shrimp-like creature, has been reduced to living in only a handful of springs in Rock Creek Park.

And the Virginia fringed mountain snail is found only along the New River in the western part of the state. Or, was found. Nobody has seen the snail in years.

Researchers say that, as relics of the natural world that once thrived here, all of these creatures are worth saving. When pollution and silt devastated the populations of tiny mussels across Virginia, for instance, small streams lost much of their natural water filter.

"They're all parts of a functioning system," said Gwen Brewer of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "When we lose things out of it, it may make us more likely to lose more things out of it" because the system won't work as well as it did.

The fates of species on this list are by no means hopeless. The bald eagle is proof of that: After a drastic decline caused by the eggshell-weakening pesticide DDT, it came back so strongly that it was removed last year from the federal threatened list.

The peregrine falcon, a bird of prey known for striking down at other birds at racecar speeds, has come almost as far. The banning of DDT began its return. Then scientists began re-introducing the birds in the mid-Atlantic -- and watching some leave their traditional cliff habitat behind for new, more dangerous perches on skyscrapers and bridges.

If a baby "bird hops out of a nest two or three thousand feet up in the mountains, it has a long way down, it can learn to glide," said Ray Fernald of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. But if a bird jumps out of a nest on a bridge "200 feet above the water, and it doesn't make it the first time, it's going to hit the water and drown."

He said researchers tried to intervene, removing chicks from nests on bridges and releasing them in the Appalachians, where their chances were better.

Other species seem to be making progress. The shortnose sturgeon, a dinosaur of a fish that was nearly wiped out by fishermen in the 19th century, has been visiting its old haunts in the Potomac River. The Delmarva fox squirrel, a fluffy symbol of the Eastern Shore, has been re-introduced to some areas by scientists.

Other species face a more grim future, losing their niche in an area now dominated by humans.

This is a problem even in remote caves in western Virginia. Cave explorers can disturb zonked-out Virginia big-eared bats, causing them to burn valuable calories as they startle and flee. Authorities now put up metal "bat gates" to keep spelunkers out during the winter hibernation.

But some of the worst-off species live on waterfronts, in the real estate people want most.

The seabeach amaranth, a sand-dune plant, has been smashed by 4x4 trucks and munched on by non-native Assateague Island ponies. The Puritan tiger beetle, which lives in the crumbling faces of beach cliffs, is losing its habitat, as human-built breakwaters and riprap stop Calvert County's cliffs from eroding.

"It's almost always habitat loss" that troubles the endangered and threatened animals around Washington, said Karen Mayne, a Fish and Wildlife official in Virginia. "We live where they live."