Denver — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced its Critical Habitat Designation for the highly imperiled Colorado butterfly plant, slashing the protected habitat by more than half from the proposal published last year. Although the Service admits that many of the excluded lands are essential to the conservation of the butterfly plant, they reduced the proposal by 4,948 acres (58%).

"We are quickly losing the last of our healthy stream habitats across Colorado and Wyoming," explained Erin Robertson, Staff Biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "Water quality, native fish, and native plants like the Colorado butterfly plant are all suffering."

This native wildflower has completely vanished from Boulder and Douglas Counties, largely due to habitat loss and degradation. Now it is found only along streams near the I-25 corridor from Wheatland, Wyoming to a few miles past the Colorado border in addition to one isolated population along the Wyoming-Nebraska border east of Cheyenne. The Colorado butterfly plant has already disappeared from all but one site in Colorado, and even this area was dropped from protection. The Colorado butterfly plant was listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2000 because of loss of healthy stream habitat due to Front Range urban development, water diversions, and conversion to agricultural use.

"The only thing that will save this native plant is protecting its habitat," said Erik Molvar, a biologist with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "But instead of protecting enough habitat to allow butterfly plant populations to recover, the Service just slashed its habitat protection plan by more than half."

The Service relied heavily on voluntary "Wildlife Extension Agreements" in its decision to gut the habitat plan. Critics contend that these agreements, while useful for monitoring the status of the plant populations, provide virtually no protection. Specifically, these plans:

• are non-binding;
• ask landowners to report on land use activities;
• allow the Service to conduct surveys on private land;
• expire after a fixed time period regardless of the status of the plant; and
• only restrict herbicide use within 100 feet of the plant (all other aspects of the plan are negotiable, and there are no consequences if a participant violates any part of the agreement).

"We think it's great that the Service and private landowners are working together," said Jacob Smith Executive Director of Center for Native Ecosystems. "But we still need to make sure that we protect and recover this native wildflower."

Critical Habitat is an essential part of protecting, recovering, and ultimately removing species from the Endangered Species Act list. Although the Service claims that Critical Habitat does little to protect species, their own data demonstrate precisely the opposite. Listed species with Critical Habitat are less likely to be in decline and are more than twice as likely to be recovering.

The Colorado butterfly plant, which is listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, is related to evening primroses, has whitish-pink flowers, and grows up to three feet tall.

"The Service gave away the farm and is getting almost nothing in return," noted Robertson. "The public is getting a raw deal."

For more information, visit: www.nativeecosystems.org/butterflyplant/.