Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Protection Sought for Ultra-rare Pocket Gopher in Wyoming’s Red Desert

Wyoming Pocket Gopher Threatened by Industrial-Scale Habitat Destruction
Contact: Erik Molvar (307) 399-7910 emolvar@wildearthguardians.org

Additional Contact:

TaylorJones, 303-353-1490 or tjones@wildearthguardians.org

LARAMIE, Wyo. – TodayWildEarth Guardians petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toprotect the rare and increasingly imperiled Wyoming pocket gopher under theEndangered Species Act (ESA). One of America’s most rare land animals, thepocket gopher lives in the remote corners of Wyoming’s Red Desert on lands coveredalmost entirely by industrial-scale energy projects. In the past 100 years, scientistshave identified just 79 Wyoming pocket gophers.

“This species isso rare that scientists have only documented only 79 of them throughoutrecorded history, and yet almost the entire known range of the species fallswithin the boundaries of planned oil and gas fields, wind farms, and uraniummines,” said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with WildEarth Guardians. “It’slong past time this unique species received protections.”

Oil, gas, andcoalbed methane drilling and uranium mining have already degraded much of theknown habitat for the Wyoming pocket gopher. Because known populations ofWyoming pocket gophers are isolated and fragmented, and the species has alreadydisappeared from many of the historical locations it once inhabited, this rare animalis at grave risk of extinction.

The Wyomingpocket gopher appears to be restricted to isolated and fragmented patches ofGardner’s saltbush habitat amid the sagebrush steppes of the Red Desert ofsouth-central Wyoming. Living a solitary life underground in individual burrowsystems, it emerges only at night on or cloudy days to forage for plants or totravel to find a new home. Populations of Wyoming pocket gophers occur in smalland isolated colonies of one to a few acres in size. Thus even a small industrialproject could wipe out an entire population.

“Oil and gasdrilling is destroying habitat and decimating wildlife populations across theAmerican West, driving some rare species like the Wyoming pocket gopher to thebrink of extinction,” saidTaylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “To protectvulnerable species like the pocket gopher we must rein in oil and gasdrilling.”

A recentscientific study classified the Wyoming pocket gopher as being at the greatestrisk of any Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Wyoming, based onsensitivity and exposure to habitat destruction. For comparison, this riskrating based on new studies is substantially greater than the risk rating givento the black-footed ferret, which is already protected as an endangered speciesunder the ESA. The Wyoming pocket gopher warrants the same protections.

A small amountof Wyoming pocket gopher habitat may be protected by recently completed federalplans that increase protections for greater sage grouse habitat. However,Wyoming pocket gopher habitat falls almost entirely outside the sage grouse PriorityHabitat Management Areas targeted for greater conservation emphasis by theplans. Instead, this tiny mammal inhabits lands prioritized for industrial use.

“The protectionsof the Endangered Species Act are the Wyoming pocket gopher’s best hope forsurvival,” said Molvar.

Protection underthe ESA is an effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percentof plants and animals protected by the law exist today. The law is especiallyimportant as a defense against the current extinction crisis; species aredisappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due tohuman activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinctby 2006 if not for ESA protections.