Rare giant earthworm drug into the Republican war on science
Biodiversity
Invertebrate conservation: •Center for Biological Diversity (31-Oct-07), Rare three-foot long, spitting earthworm denied legal protection; conservation groups to file suit, Environmental News Network, online at enn
The giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) reaches a whopping 3-feet in length and inhabits the Palouse prairie in the Pacific Northwest. Just remnants of this native prairie remain uncultivated by agriculture, but in those remnants, the giant worm is occasionally still seen.
In fact, Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, dug one up in 2005 – a sighting that jumpstarted the current movement to protect the worm and its habitat. A petition to list the worm as a threatened or endangered species, pursuant to the Endangered Species Act, was submitted in August 2006 to the Department of Interior for consideration by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
In October 2007 (nine months late), the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a determination and denied protection to the giant worm (Stansell 2007). The decision reads exactly as you would expect from a bureaucrat malignantly disinterested in the scientific information in front of him.
Information regarding the range, distribution, population size, and status of the giant Palouse earthworm is very limited, which curtails any assessment of population trends. This limits our ability to assess whether the species may be impacted by the threats listed in the petition. We evaluated the petition and the literature cited, and information available in our files. Based on our current understanding of the species' distribution and population numbers, our analysis, and a review of factors affecting the species as presented in the petition, we find that the petition does not present substantial information demonstrating that listing the giant Palouse earthworm as threatened or endangered may be warranted at this time.
Much about the biology and ecology of the giant earthworm remains unknown. Still, science can confidently infer the worm's current trajectory (trend) towards species extinction.
Frank Smith, the biologist who originally described the worm, reported in 1897 that in the prairie habitat of Eastern Washington and Western Idaho, "This species is very abundant in that region of the country and their burrows are sometimes seen extending to a depth of over 15 feet." We know that over the last 110 years the worm has failed to maintain the abundant populations that were seen by Smith because the worm is now infrequently captured by scientists, even when they possess the specialized training needed to do so.
In legal maneuvering to protect the worm, conservation organizations and individuals in the Pacific Northwest notified the Fish and Wildlife Service of their intent to sue in order to reverse the agency's negative decision – a decision that turns out to be typical of the Bush Administration's disregard for our country's biodiversity resources. The Center for Biological Diversity (2007) explains:
"The giant Palouse earthworm is extremely rare and faces substantial risk of extinction," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Denial of protection for the earthworm is all too typical of the Bush administration, which has protected the fewest number of species under the Endangered Species Act of any administration since the law was passed." To date, the Bush administration has only protected 58 species, compared to 522 under Clinton and 231 under the first Bush president.
Posted by 3Dsound at Sunday, January 06, 2008 3:21 PM 
Categories: soil ecology, war on science, prairie, biodiversity, endangered species, Bush administration
Categories: soil ecology, war on science, prairie, biodiversity, endangered species, Bush administration
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