December 8, 2004

Conservationists seek to protect snail

JACKSON (AP) — A coalition of give wildlife the same priority as drowning the species, according to scientists and conservationists have flood control and water storage. petitioners. The snail needs petitioned for federal protection of The Alliance, which joined the relatively shallow waters with high a rare freshwater snail living in petition, wants the bureau to oxygen levels. Jackson Lake. manage Jackson Lake more as a natural lake than a reservoir, he Snails also may have been wiped If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. out in the early 1990s when the lists the snail as threatened under bureau drew down the lake and the Endangered Species Act it “We have found that .125the bulldozed the lake bottom, Nichols could alter how the Bureau of bureau.375 won’t do it unless said. Reclamation manages the lake, they’re ordered to by another which is located in Grand Teton agency like the Fish and Wildlife In addition, the native springsnail National Park. The bureau would Service,” Nichols said. remains threatened by New have to account for it when Zealand mudsnails, an aggressive deciding lake levels and water Bureau Spokeswoman Diana nonnative species rapidly spreading releases from Jackson Lake . Cross said Thursday that it’s too throughout the region, including to soon to say whether the snail could Polecat Creek, according to The snail is related to other impact water operations at Jackson petitioners. endangered snails, including the Lake. If the Fish and Wildlife springsnail, the Harney Lake Service agrees to list the species, In addition to Bowler and the springsnail and the Columbia the bureau would consult with the Alliance, petitioners include springsnail, according to a recent service to determine what measures Western Watersheds Project, the study. should be taken to protect the snail, Center for Biological Diversity and she said. The Xerces Society. “The science clearly shows the Jackson Lake, Harney Lake, The Jackson Lake springsnail was Columbia, and Idaho springsnails once common in the lake and one are all threatened with extinction,” of its tributaries, Polecat Creek, said Peter Bowler, a University of according to the petition. The latest California ecologist, who has surveys, however, found snails only studied springsnails for over 25 in Polecat Creek, not Jackson years. Lake, Nichols said.

Jeremy Nichols, of the - The main reason for the snail’s based Biodiversity Conservation decline is habitat loss, he said. The Alliance, said listing the snail would Jackson Lake dam keeps water force the Bureau of Reclamation to levels artificially high, literally