OUTDOOR CORNER: MISSOURI HAS ITS OWN ENDANGERED SPECIES

The Missouri Department of Conservation is responding to the decline of native plants and animals through a comprehensive Endangered Species Program. the program's strength lies in its Department-wide emphasis. It is integrated into MDC's Forestry, Wildlife, Fisheries and Natural History divisions. Among the highest priorities for the Department is a commitment to return self-sustaining viable populations of all plants and animals to their known historic ranges where biologically, economically and socially feasible.

There are 306 species of plants and animals listed as state endangered in Missouri. A small subset of these is federally listed: nine plants and 26 animals (eight have been extirpated from the state).

Federal status is derived from the provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 which is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Department of the Interior. Federal listing is a rigorous process that includes peer review, a published notice in the Federal Register and a period of public comment. It is a structured process that makes listing relatively slow and cautious.

The state listing process is less structured. In Missouri it is led by the endangered species coordinator with the participation of MDC biologists and managers as well as people form colleges, universities and participating organizations. In the past, committees of three to five people who are knowledgeable of the respective animal or plant group met to review and recommend protection status. The revised checklist is distributed to the interested public for comments.

Extinction of plants and animals resulting from human activities is a serious and increasing threat to the world's biota. Extinction rates in the United States have been slowed and many species are stable or increasing because of the Endangered Species Act and other laws that protect fish and wildlife habitat. Efforts to preserve, manage and restore remnant natural communities have also been integral to preventing additional species loss. The outlook in Missouri is not as bleak as the national trend and certainly not as ominous as the worldwide trend, but the state list provides some indication of the magnitude of the task.

Much of the species decline in Missouri can be traced back to the period of European settlement and the hundred years that followed. These changes had tremendous lasting impacts on native biota of Missouri, including the loss of some species. Animals like buffalo, elk, gray wolves and ivory-billed woodpeckers will never be represented on the Missouri landscape again as wild populations.

While many lost elements of our biological diversity cannot be recreated, there remains much to do to see that present levels of species diversity are protected and managed into the future, and that species currently listed `endangered' or `threatened' are stabilized and recovered.

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding endangered species on private lands is whether or not any landowners in Missouri lost their property because of the presence of endangered species. The answer to that is never. Many landowners have willingly sold their property to state and federal agencies. Other land has been donated, for example, a mining company in Iron County donated an endangered species site to avoid the continuing liability of an old mine and to protect endangered bats.

There are land acquisition goals for some endangered species that MDC has not been able to reach because there are no willing sellers. With only 7 percent of Missouri managed as public land, most endangered species populations will remain on private land. It is neither realistic nor desirable to purchase every endangered species site in Missouri. Missouri's private landowners are a critical component in preserving endangered species as well as other elements of the state's natural heritage.

Some species have no value to people except that they exist. Protecting endangered species is a quality of life issue that weighs differently for different people. Some listed species occur mostly on public land and the relationship with private landowners are negligible in Missouri. Other species occur mostly on private land and recovery actions necessarily involve participation from private landowners.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of examples of people living successfully with endangered species on their land: Niangua darter in Osage River Valley, Ozark cavefish in Southwest Missouri, Indian bat in Northeast Missouri, decurrent false aster in the Mississippi River valley, Western prairie fringed orchid in Northwest Missouri, Missouri bladderpod in Southwest Missouri and running buffalo clover and bald eagles in Southeast Missouri.

Some of the commonly cited reasons for protecting endangered species include: medicinal values, food for people (prior to decline). food for other fish and wildlife, important to the life cycle of other species, wildlife viewing, genetic resource and integral part of the ecosystem the live in.

Many are indicators of environmental quality, including: pallid sturgeons and the health of the big river system, cavefish and groundwater quality. As species decline they are an indication that the habitat of the species is declining as well.

And then, maybe we don't know why we should protect endangered species. . . yet. To paraphrase one of Aldo Leopold's quotes, "The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts."

Amy Salveter is a natural history regional biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.