Long thought extinct, the worm was rediscovered in the past year, found to occupy tiny swatches of the heavily farmed Palouse region along the Washington-Idaho border.

It's too soon to know if anyone will object to the listing, or what lands might be considered critical habitat, [worm supporter] Paulson said. He suspected that only lands that have not been developed, which represent only a fraction of 1 percent of the Palouse prairie, would be preserved as habitat