Fish and Wildlife Service proposes endangered status for Nevada desert flower

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing an endangered species status for the Nevada desert flower Tiehm’s buckwheat.

In a notice published in the Federal Register, the agency said that the flower is “primarily at risk of extinction due to the destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat.”

The notice added that “existing regulatory mechanisms may be inadequate to protect the species.”

The proposed designation is a win for the Center for Biological Diversity, which had been trying to protect the plant amid a planned lithium mine from Australian-based miner Ioneer.

Tiehm’s buckwheat was first discovered in 1983. It grows between 5,906 and 6,234 feet in elevation and on dry, upland sites.

The Center submitted a proposal in 2019 to add the flower to the Endangered Species Act. Last year, the organization sued over damage done to the buckwheat’s habitat.

In April, a Nevada federal judge ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service had to decide whether to list the buckwheat as endangered.

In its notice, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the planned mine would reduce the Tiehm’s buckwheat population by 70 percent to 88 percent and remove 30 percent of its total habitat.

Ioneer has offered to remove and salvage remaining plants, but the agency said it is “uncertain of the potential for success of translocation efforts,” the notice states.

Ioneer’s managing director Bernard Rowe told The Associated Press that the company “fully support the decisions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the work it and the [Bureau of Land Management] are undertaking to safeguard Tiehm’s buckwheat.” 

Patrick Donnelly, Nevada’s state director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that the decision marked a “banner day for native plant conservation.”

“Extinction is a political choice, and the Biden administration made the right call to prevent this special plant from disappearing forever,” Donnelly said.