Endangered species clashes: far from extinct

Listing an endangered species is a serious business. Steve Damele was one Idahoan who did his best to protect a troubled Western plant. One of several private landowners with slickspot peppergrass, he followed other ranchers and joined a state-led effort to preserve the plant on his Mountain Home land by altering a number of his rangeland practices. Then last October, after a decade of scientific studies and lawsuits, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would list slickspot peppergrass as threatened. And Damele, along with the others, now asks why he should bother to help any species when it won’t make a difference. “It’s safe to say everything gets listed eventually,” said Damele’s fellow rancher Ted Hoffman. The Endangered Species Act isn’t that simple. But locals and state officials who have dealt with it daily argue that the peppergrass decision is the latest sign that something is wrong...read more