The Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday proposed removing Endangered Species Act protections from the Ute ladies’-tresses, a perennial Western orchid that’s played a bit part in a dispute over a proposed natural gas pipeline.
Citing population improvements and other positive trends, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the plant listed as threatened in 1992 can now stand on its own.
“Recovery efforts, particularly survey efforts that have identified many more occurrences, have increased Ute ladies’-tresses’ known resiliency, redundancy, and representation such that the species is now better able to recover from impacts noted at the time of listing,” the agency stated.
The Fish and Wildlife Service originally identified “habitat loss and modification due to water development and urbanization” as the primary threats to the species. Some environmentalists also identified the proposed Crow Creek pipeline as a potential threat.
