By Jeremy Nichols
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
August 19, 2003

Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) Photo by Walt Fertig

It's common sense that if you take away the foundation of a house, the house has nothing to stand on; the house falls into ruins. It's the same way with our natural world. Take away the means of survival for certain plants and animals and those species fall into ruins; they go extinct.

As common sense as this concept is though, it seems to have been thrown out the window in the case of the blowout penstemon - Nebraska's only endangered plant and purple, flowering, and fragrant jewel of the Sandhills.

Blowout Penstemon Drawing by Bellamy Jensen

Recent reports have touted the blowout penstemon as a "success story" because the plant's population has grown since it was listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1987. True, populations have grown, which is very encouraging. In fact, a new population was even discovered in the state of Wyoming, adding to the overall range of the species. Yet, what seems to have been overlooked is that population growth is only one part of the equation.

One of the primary reasons the plant was listed under the ESA was because of habitat loss in the Sandhills of Nebraska. As its name indicates, the penstemon grows in sandy blowouts that are created by wind erosion. The control of sand dunes for agriculture, fire suppression, and the absence of bison grazing in the Sandhills all contributed to the decline of blowouts and seriously limited the creation of new blowouts, leading to the plant's listing.

Yet, according to those familiar with the blowout penstemon in Nebraska, very little, if any, of the plant's habitat has actually been restored in the Sandhills since 1987. New blowouts are not being created and the processes that once created blowouts, such as bison grazing and prairie fires, are near absent. Complicating this, the Recovery Plan developed for the penstemon in 1992 doesn't even require habitat recovery. Without any habitat recovery, it is difficult to see how the plant is now at any less risk of extinction than it was in 1987.

But the lack of habitat recovery points to a much larger problem for the penstemon that seems to have been entirely overlooked. The ecosystem, or the web of life, that supports the blowout penstemon is also endangered.

The blowout penstemon is a part of the mixed grass prairie ecosystem of the Sandhills region, an area distinguished by its unique vegetation and environmental functions. Called the Nebraska Sandhills prairie, the ecosystem has developed on the largest stabilized sand dune complex in the western hemisphere. Blowout penstemon is a key part of the Nebraska Sandhills prairie, holding a place in the web of life that ultimately supports the health of the entire ecosystem.

However, with the onset of European-American settlement, the Sandhills region has dramatically changed, a fact most people can all agree with. One dramatic sign of this change is the loss of bison, which some speculate roamed the Sandhills for 11,000 years before being hunted out. Another sign of change is the development of agriculture as a major land use. The near extinction of the blowout penstemon is also a vivid sign of drastic change in the Sandhills ecosystem.

Indeed, according to research, only 72% of native Sandhills vegetation remains. Of that 72%, almost all of it has been degraded by a multitude of activities, such as fire suppression and excessive domestic livestock grazing. This in turn has radically changed important environmental functions, like the creation of blowouts.

And, just like a house that's lost its foundation, the loss and degradation of so much of the Sandhills ecosystem - the blowout penstemon's foundation for survival - has taken a terrible toll on the plant.

Clearly, recovery of the endangered blowout penstemon is directly tied to the recovery of the endangered Sandhills ecosystem.

This fundamental idea also gets to the heart of the ESA, whose purpose is to "provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved." Conservation, as defined by the ESA, means to take all measures necessary to make ESA protection unnecessary. In other words, to ensure recovery.

That the purpose of the ESA is ecosystem recovery should not be any surprise. It goes without saying that you can't protect a piece of the web of life unless you also protect the entire web. The blowout penstemon highlights this perfectly.

Given these principles then, we need to re-ask the question: Is the blowout penstemon really recovered?

Common sense and the ESA tell us that the blowout penstemon is far from recovery. The reason: Not only has there been little to no habitat recovery, but the Sandhills ecosystem the penstemon depends upon is also far from recovered. Although populations have grown, a feat that is to be applauded, without enough habitat and a healthy ecosystem, there is no foundation for long-term survival. Clearly, if the blowout penstemon is to recovered, so too must the Sandhills ecosystem it depends upon.

Recovering the Sandhills ecosystem not only benefits the blowout penstemon, but our own communities as well. The health of our natural world ultimately influences our own health, something that must be taken into careful account before the penstemon is considered to be recovered. While delisting is the ultimate goal of the ESA, we cannot have our blinders on to the true nature and benefits of full recovery.

For the health of the blowout penstemon, the Sandhills, and our own communities, we need to make absolutely sure we understand the full picture when it comes to endangered species recovery. Just as the web of life is larger than one species, so must our perspective on blowout penstemon recovery be larger than the plant itself.

Jeremy Nichols is a grasslands conservation advocate with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, a Laramie, Wyoming-based, grassroots conservation organization dedicated to protecting and restoring ecosystem health in the Northern Great Plains.