Pristiloma Pilsbryi Crowned Tightcoil

Pristiloma pilsbryi Crowned tightcoil

Survey recommendations for the species in Washington state

Compiled for the Interagency Special Status Sensitive Species Program By Candace Fallon, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Reviewed by Rob Huff, Interagency Special Status Sensitive Species Program, and John Fleckenstein, Washington Natural Heritage Program

January 2015

Introduction The crowned tightcoil, Pristiloma pilsbryi, is a small terrestrial snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest. It is a Forest Service and BLM sensitive species in Oregon and strategic species in Washington. Xerces Society staff gathered all known records of this species in Washington State, mapped them, and determined their proximity lands managed by the US Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. The goal of this exercise was to determine if P. pilsbryi is likely to occur on Forest Service or BLM land in Washington, and if so, to make recommendations for future surveys.

Conservation Status Global status: G1 (last reviewed 8 Oct 2002) Rounded global status: G1 – Critically imperiled National Status (U.S.): N1 – Critically imperiled (last reviewed 8 Oct 2002) State Status: S1 (OR and WA) – Critically imperiled IUCN Red List: NE – Not evaluated

Methods In November and December 2014, Xerces staff gathered all available records of Pristiloma pilsbryi in Washington and Oregon. We consulted the following curators, collections databases, and mollusk experts to gather these records:

 Academy of Natural Sciences Malacology Collection online database  Barry Roth (mollusk expert)  California Academy of Sciences Invertebrate Zoology Collection online database  Casey Richart (PhD candidate at San Diego State University) (no reply)  Chris Marshall (Oregon State Arthropod Collection)  Darci Rivers-Pankratz (USFS)  Ed Johannes (Deixis Consultants)  Elizabeth Nesbitt (Burke Museum Mollusk Collection)  Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)  Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology online database  Illinois Natural History Survey online database  John Fleckenstein (Washington Natural Heritage Program)  Mark Siddall (American Museum of Natural History Mollusk Collection)  Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Invertebrate Zoology Collection online database  Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History online database  Tiffany Young (USFS)  Tim Pearce (Carnegie Museum of Natural History Collections)  Tom Burke (mollusk expert)  Taehwan Lee (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology)

All records were added to an Excel file and any records that did not have geographic coordinates were georeferenced and assigned an accuracy code, then mapped in ArcMap. We then overlaid a shapefile of Forest Service and BLM managed lands in Oregon and Washington to determine the proximity of these records to federal lands (see Fig. 1).

Results and Discussion Few historic records exist for the crowned tightcoil; however it is suspected that the historic range of this species probably echoed that of the closely related Pristiloma stearnsi, which ranged from southern Alaska to southern Oregon west of the Cascades (Frest & Johannes 2000, Stone & Huff 2010). P. pilsbryi appears to be coastal-associated, with documented occurrences in Pacific, Wahkiakum, Clallam, and Tillamook Counties, as well as a record from Multnomah County, OR (see Appendix). Current distribution is uncertain. In Washington, only five or so new records have been established in the last 20 years.

Baker (1931) describes the crowned tightcoil as being associated with old growth and riparian habitat, most abundant under dense thickets of salal near the coast; however, Frest and Johannes (2000) did not find salal to be very common at the sites where they encountered this species. In general, P. pilsbryi is found in very moist forests, including floodplains, in decaying leaf litter, commonly found under dense salal or vine maple, waterleaf, or other deciduous vegetation (Baker 1931, Frest & Johannes 2000).

Records from Washington State are not known from or adjacent to BLM or Forest Service land, with the potential exception of one record from Clallam County. The closest federal lands to known occurrences are the Olympic National Forest, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The latter two list this species as suspected (Stone & Huff 2010, ISSSSP 2014). It is also suspected in Grays Harbor, Cowlitz, and Clark Counties (Frest & Johannes 2000).

Past survey efforts for P. pilsbryi in the Pacific Northwest have occurred in the Oregon Cascades and Coast Range (Branson & Branson 1984), the Washington Cascades and Olympics (Branson 1977, 1980), and the Long Beach Peninsula (Frest & Johannes 2000), all of which failed to find this species. The Olympic surveys (Branson 1977) alone covered 122 sites. Recent surveys have been more successful; Frest and Johannes (2000) found this species in Clallam and Pacific Counties, and Richart made several collections in Tillamook, Clatsop, and Pacific Counties between 2004 and 2006.

Figure 1. Known and unconfirmed records and suspected distribution of crowned tightcoil (Pristiloma pilsbryi) in Oregon and Washington (all records dating back to 1929). Note that all records have varying levels of coordinate accuracy depending on the data source, and some (such as the unconfirmed Clallam locality) are only mapped to the county centroid. Local mollusk experts know of few other survey efforts or recent records in Washington. Barry Roth (2014, pers. comm.) does not have any records for this species in his database, nor is he aware of any survey efforts or other records. Ed Johannes (2014, pers. comm.) does not have any additional information on this species either. He has not surveyed for it since 1992 nor has he heard of any surveys conducted for it recently. Tom Burke (2014, pers. comm.) has not collected this species himself but he has identified several collections for others, including a Pacific County collection he identified for the Olympic National Forest. As there is no Forest Service land in Pacific County, Burke believes this collection must have been from a DNR plot.

Recommendations There is little old growth and very little mature forest remaining in southwest Washington, and large stands of coastal salal and coastal forests are rare (Stone & Huff 2010). In addition, the Forest Service and BLM do not manage any lands in this region except on the Olympic Peninsula, from which only one (vague) record is known. Appropriate habitat may exist further inland in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest or Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, but no documented occurrences of this species have been made in that area to date. It is very possible that P. pilsbryi has been overlooked in past surveys due to its tiny size (3.4 mm) and the fact that it is usually found deep within a substrate of decaying leaves and forest debris. Additional, targeted surveys for this species are recommended in appropriate habitat on the Olympic National Forest. In addition, future general mollusk surveys on the Olympic NF as well as the Gifford Pinchot NF and Columbia River Gorge NSA should include P. pilsbryi as a potential target species so that surveyors are aware of it and search appropriate habitat in those areas.

Prior to surveys, an effort should be made to seek out additional information regarding the one unconfirmed Clallam County record (Frest & Johannes 2000) to see if this is a valid collection and, if so, to gather habitat and land ownership data. At the time of this report, Xerces staff members were unable to track down any additional information on this collection. Surveyors should also be aware that Casey Richart, a PhD student at San Diego State University, has made several collections of P. pilsbryi in recent years and is currently in the process of publishing his findings, which may shed more light on this species in Washington (Pearce 2014, pers. comm.). We include several of Richart’s collections in the Appendix; however, Xerces staff members were unable to get in touch with Richart directly for this project, and it is possible he has other records for this species in Washington.

References Baker, H.B. 1931. Nearctic vitreine land snails. Proceedings, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 73: 85-117.

Branson, B.A. 1977. Freshwater and terrestrial Mollusca of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. The Veliger 19: 310-330. Branson, B.A. 1980. Collections of gastropods from the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The Veliger 23: 171-176.

Branson, B.A. and M.L. Branson. 1984. Distributional records for terrestrial and freshwater Mollusca of the Cascade and Coast Ranges, Oregon. The Veliger 26: 248-257.

Burke, T. 2013. Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR. 344 pp.

Burke, T. 2014. Personal communication with Candace Fallon.

Fleckenstein, 2014. Personal communication with Candace Fallon.

Frest, T.J. and E.J. Johannes. 2000. A baseline mollusk survey of southwestern Oregon, with emphasis on the Rogue and Umpqua River Drainages. Deixis Consultants, Seattle, Washington. Prepared for Oregon Natural Heritage Program, Portland, Oregon.

[ISSSSP] US Forest Service / Bureau of Land Management. 2014. Interagency Special Status / Sensitive Species Program Strategic Species Lists. Available at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/agency- policy/ (last accessed 23 December 2014).

Johannes, E. 2014. Personal communication with Candace Fallon.

Pearce, T. 2014. Personal communication with Candace Fallon.

Roth, Barry. 2014. Personal communication with Candace Fallon.

Stone, T and R. Huff. 2010. Species fact sheet: Crowned tightcoil, Pristiloma pilsbryi (Vanatta, 1899). USDA Forest Service and USDOI Bureau of Land Management, Washington and Oregon.

Appendix: Known records for P. pilsbryi in Oregon and Washington

Loc Land Adjacent UTM_N UTM_E Datum Zone Acc Owner Federal State County Location Date Notes

Ziak-Gnat Cr Clatsop Ln jct US30, State Clatsop State Juvenile 5113715.6 459291.7 NAD83 10 GPS3 Forest OR Clatsop Forest 8-Feb-04 animal Type 5041152.9 525286.6 NAD83 10 MAN6 CRGNSA OR Multnomah Portland, OR UNK specimen. 12-Dec- 5012385.0 458848.0 NAD27 10 GPS3 SAL OR Tillamook Haag Pass 04 Adult shell

Hebo, Forest Rd 14, 2.2 mi 10-Dec- 5008265.4 434156.6 NAD83 10 GPS3 SIU OR Tillamook NE of SR22 05 Adult animal Unconfirmed record from Frest & Johannes 5321773.6 430593.7 WGS84 10 VAGUE WA Clallam 1997? 2000. A 3300 Road, WDFW Type N Basin 3576, Middle 5146492.4 437435.9 NAD83 10 MAN2 WA Pacific Nemah R 7-Jun-06 Adult animal Ellsworth 5137807.8 431979.3 WGS84 10 MAN6 WA Pacific Creek

5133734.5 418880.7 NAD83 10 MAN6 WA Pacific Long Beach 1929 Count: 6. Loc Land Adjacent UTM_N UTM_E Datum Zone Acc Owner Federal State County Location Date Notes

5133734.5 418880.7 NAD83 10 MAN6 WA Pacific Long Beach

Naselle (3.5mi S), Rt 401, Cement 15-Jan- 5131478.8 438408.9 NAD83 10 MAN4 WA Pacific Cr (near) 06 From Tom: Bill Leonard says Near the Casey Richart Astoria has a record 5121301.5 432507.5 WGS84 10 VAGUE WA Pacific Bridge from this area.

5121436.5 432639.5 NAD83 10 MAN5 WA Pacific Point Ellis 1929 Count: 3.

Raymond (6 horiz mi S), WDFW Type N Basin 3111, Willapa 2 adult, 3 5158836.9 444451.9 NAD83 10 MAN2 WA Pacific R (S Fk) 15-Jul-06 juvenile Tom says he Site Split B, identified this G4 [DNR 16-Dec- for the 5155708.8 445982.7 WGS84 10 VAGUE WA Pacific plot] 02 Olympic NF. From Tom: Bill Leonard says Casey Richart has a record 5126769.9 467099.6 WGS84 10 VAGUE WA Wahkiakum from this area.