The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reviewed a petition to list the Black Hills mountainsnail (Oreohelix cooperi) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and has concluded the petition does not provide substantial information to indicate listing may be warranted at this time. The negative petition finding was published today in the Federal Register.
The Service made the determination in response to a petition received in 2003 from the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Native Ecosystems, Native Ecosystems Council, Prairie Hills Audubon Society, the Xerces Society and Mr. Jeremy Nichols to list the Black Hills mountainsnail as threatened or endangered and to designate critical habitat.
The Black Hills mountainsnail has a complex taxonomic history and considerable uncertainty exists as to whether the petitioned entity, Oreohelix cooperi, is a listable entity under the ESA. The snail is currently identified scientifically as a subspecies and assigned the nomenclature Oreohelix strigosa cooperi, more commonly known as Cooper's Rocky Mountain snail. The size of this subspecies varies; the largest size form was submitted by the petitioners as Oreohelix cooperi. Such a classification is not currently widely accepted or published in peer-reviewed literature. Nonetheless, the Service analyzed the petitioners? asserted threats to Oreohelix cooperi and found no substantial evidence to indicate that further review of the entity's status is necessary.
The Black Hills mountainsnail is a member of the family Oreohelicidae, which consists of numerous species and subspecies of mountainsnail ? air-breathing land snails found in the western United States. The snail appears to be limited to the Black Hills, occurring primarily within South Dakota with only a few recent records in the Bear Lodge Mountains of the Black Hills in northeast Wyoming. The species is most common within the Spearfish Creek drainage of South Dakota, but exists outside this drainage in the upper reaches of Rapid Creek, Higgins Gulch, Prospect Gulch, and Grand Canyon.
The Black Hills mountainsnail is a litter-dwelling mollusk thought to be herbivorous, feeding on partially decayed deciduous leaves and other degraded herbaceous vegetation and/or associated bacteria or fungi. The species potentially matures in one to three years, perhaps surviving in the wild two to six years. Documented occupied habitats include lowland wooded areas and slopes at the base of cliffs within Ponderosa pine communities that dominate much of the Black Hills.
The petitioners assert that the Black Hills mountainsnail is threatened by habitat changes and range reductions caused primarily by domestic livestock grazing, logging, road construction, herbicide and pesticide application, mining, spring development, groundwater extraction, and recreation.
While a variety of human activities likely affect the Black Hills mountainsnail and/or its habitat, the petition does not provide substantial scientific information indicating that listing the Black Hills mountainsnail due to these activities may be warranted under the ESA. With few exceptions, the petition fails to provide documentation to demonstrate that areas of habitat loss and degradation are also sites where Black Hills mountainsnail colonies occur or had previously occurred. Nor is it apparent that the species has experienced, or is currently threatened by, significant declines in populations, habitat and/or range.
The petitioners also assert land management by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of South Dakota, the State of Wyoming, and the City of Spearfish is currently inadequate and not protective of the Black Hills mountainsnail, contributing to a decline of the species. The Service did not find that activities affecting the Black Hills mountainsnail named in the petition pose a threat to the continued existence of the species throughout all or a significant portion of its range. In addition, the petitioners did not provide evidence that the Black Hills mountainsnail requires more specific management than currently exists to sustain it.
In making this determination, the Service reviewed the petition evidence and literature cited, as well as other pertinent information readily available.
his finding was prepared pursuant to a court-approved settlement resulting from a lawsuit filed against the Service by the petitioners.
The ESA provides for citizens to petition the Service to take listing actions, including adding species to the list of threatened and endangered wildlife and plants as well as removing species from the list. The Service is required to make a 90-day finding on whether the petition presents substantial information that the petitioned action may be warranted.
For more information about this finding please visit the Service's web site at 9http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov
