Anita Firebaugh
Contributing Writer
More than 115 conservation groups urged Congress on April 17, 2024 to significantly increase the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s budget for endangered species conservation from $329 million to $857 million — nearly a three-fold increase over the fiscal year 2024 budget that would more accurately reflect the severity of the joint biodiversity and climate crises and the needs of the agency.
Some of this money, if approved, eventually could funnel down to Craig County, which has at least 15 different species of endangered wildlife, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Craig County is also home to a large portion of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, where many of the animal species live.
“It’s gut wrenching to watch our natural world collapse and our most imperiled animals and plants decline knowing Congress could stop the extinction crisis if it just mustered the political will,” said Stephanie Kurose, government affairs deputy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Fully funding our most successful conservation law is a small price to pay for saving life on earth.”
The Endangered Species Act mandates that governments protect and work to recover listed species. The additional funding could assist in ensuring that federally protected species receive necessary funding in order to help them recover.
“An investment in the Endangered Species Act today is an investment in our shared tomorrow,” said Mary Beth Beetham, legislative director for Defenders of Wildlife. “Shortchanging our ability to respond to the emergent needs of the joint biodiversity and climate crises is not worth the political points some members of Congress think they are scoring. The Endangered Species Act is our best tool for preventing extinction and we must invest in its proven track record of saving species and the ecosystems we all depend on from the brink.”
The listing program has been chronically underfunded for decades, according to the Center, and as a result more than 300 species are still waiting for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Nearly 50 species have been declared extinct while waiting for protections because of these funding shortfalls.
The conservation of endangered species in Craig County necessitates a collaborative approach involving government agencies, non-profit organizations, academia, and local communities. Strategies such as habitat restoration, land conservation, and public outreach are integral to safeguarding these imperiled species. Funding from the federal government could help with this effort.
Some of the notable species that are listed as endangered in Craig County include the Northern Long-Eared Bat, the James Spinymussel Clam, Small Whorled Pogonia (an orchid species), and Swamp Pink (a plant) that grows in wetlands such as Fenwick Mines.
Other species listed as endangered in Craig County and neighboring jurisdictions include Atlantic pigtoe, candy darter, gray bat, Indiana bat, monarch butterfly, northeastern bulrush, red knot, shale barren rock cress, smooth coneflower, tricolored bat, Virginia big-eared bat, and yellow lance.
There could be more species that are endangered. For example, in 2022, the Center sought Endangered Species Act protection for the roughhead shiner, an olive-colored minnow found only in the upper James River watershed in western Virginia, including tributaries in Craig County that feed into the James River.
The 3-inch fish, named for the bumps on its head, lives in the Cowpasture River and its tributary creeks in Alleghany, Bath and Craig counties, where it’s being displaced by the telescope shiner, an invasive fish.
“The roughhead shiner is an emblem of the quiet extinction crisis unfolding in our nation’s rivers,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. “Endangered Species Act protection will bring a recovery plan to pull it back from the brink.”
The shiner was first identified as threatened 50 years ago and was put on a waiting list for federal protection in 1994. The state of Virginia has identified it as a species of critical concern but doesn’t have the necessary funding for monitoring or restoration.
“There’s still time to save the roughhead shiner so that it doesn’t become another ‘don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ fish,” said Curry. “Endangered Species Act protection is the surest way to make sure it’s still here for future generations.”
Another example is the Atlantic pigtoe is a 2-inch-long, yellow to dark-brown mussel that often has beautiful streaks across the back of the shell. It is unique in that its shell is rhomboid in shape, and the outer surface has an odd texture like cloth or parchment.
The pigtoe is sensitive to pollution and has been wiped out in areas with poor water quality. It was once widespread along the southern Atlantic slope, ranging from the Ogeechee River basin in Georgia north to the James River basin in Virginia, but has been completely eradicated from Georgia and South Carolina. It is now only found in North Carolina and Virginia, including Craig County. Only a few individual mussels now survive in most locations, and just three populations are considered healthy.
Mussels improve water quality by filtering small particles from the water as they eat. More species of freshwater mussels are found in the Southeast than anywhere else in the world, but 75% of the region’s freshwater mussels are now imperiled. Thirty-six species have already been lost to extinction.
While the species currently thought to be endangered may not garner much attention, their conservation is vital for maintaining Craig County’s ecological integrity.
