Agency Protects Two Texas Plants

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Texas golden gladecress as endangered and the Neches River rose-mallow as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and designated more than 1500 acres of critical habitat for them. The listing was prompted by a 2011 court settlement between the USFWS and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) that resulted in a court-approved five-year workplan requiring the agency to speed protection decisions for hundreds of species across the country, according to a CBD press release. The gladecress faces threats from quarrying, gas and oil development, nonnative species, pine tree plantings near occupied glades, herbicides, and the installation of utility lines. These threats are worsened by climate change and low population numbers, the listing stated. The rose mallow, a Hibiscus family perennial, grows to 7.5 feet tall, has large white flowers and grows in water-saturated soils. Each plant can have hundreds of flowers in the summer. The agency determined that the mallow's habitat is lost or degraded due nonnative species, herbicide use, livestock trampling, road construction and seasonal flooding due to the alteration of natural water flows. Climate change and inadequate regulatory mechanisms add to the threat level, the agency said...more

You humans are really terrible, wanting energy and power for your homes and businesses, roads to travel on and meat on the table.  You're the primary cause of global warming too.  But "inadequate regulatory mechanisms"?  They've got to be kidding.  Oh, wait a minute, I'll bet that's aimed at Texas.  Its run by Republicans don't you know.