Utah is home to XYZ species listed as XYZ under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Passed in 1973, the federal legislation established protections for the plants, fish, and wildlife added to it. Those protections include conducting species research studies and recovery plans, protecting critical habitats, and providing financial assistance for these operations. The two lead federal agencies responsible for maintaining the ESA are the United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries is responsible for the majority of marine and anadromous species — fish, like salmon, are born in freshwater but spend most of their time in saltwater — while the USFWS oversees terrestrial and freshwater species. If that sounds complex, each state also has individual laws governing the protection of threatened and endangered plants and animals.
In Utah, the state’s Division of Wildlife Resources (WDR) maintains Utah’s Species Protection Account, formerly the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund, which protects the plant and animal species of greatest conservation and those listed under the ESA.
Additionally, Utah’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 17 animal and 25 plant species listed as threatened or endangered, and the Utah Ecological Services Field Office of the USFWS manages 44 listed plant, mammal, fish, and reptile species under the ESA. Most of these species are managed by several of these organizations working in conjunction.
Yet despite the combined support of these federal and state agencies and organizations, Utah still has a large number of endangered species. With climate change progressing, more species could soon be added to the list. Keep reading to learn about a few of Utah’s endangered and endangered animal species, how they ended up with those designations, and what’s being done to save them from extinction.
Utah Prairie Dog
Photo Courtesy Dean Biggins, USGS
Utah prairie dogs (Cynomys parvidens) are genetically and geographically distinct from other North American prairie dog species, surviving today in the southwestern corner of the state they are named after. The animals also have unique, striking black eyebrows, white-tipped tails, and brown to clay-colored fur. The social, small mammals live in colonies or towns, with complex underground burrows and tunnel systems that can reach 6 feet deep and 15 feet long.
The prairie dog was first listed as endangered under the ESA in 1973 and later reclassified to threatened with a seemingly bizarre special regulation in 1984. The unique caveat, as written by the USFWS, established “a special regulation that allows a maximum of 5,000 animals of this species to be taken annually between June 1 and December 31 in parts of the Cedar and Parowan Valleys in Utah under a permit system developed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.”
Prairie dog populations around those Utah valleys had been surging, and the habitats supporting the species were beginning to surpass their maximum limits.
Plus, overcrowded rodent populations increase the likelihood of deadly diseases, meaning the ruling was truly meant to save the species in those areas.
The animals remained threatened under the ESA in the following decades and retained that status even after the special ruling was amended in 2012 to add more restrictions and safeguards to the hunting permits. A collaboration between federal and state scientists began in 2017 to develop a vaccine for sylvatic plague, one of the major contributors to declining prairie dog populations.
In 2018, the USFWS teamed up with the Utah DWR and a few counties to launch a 10-year general conservation plan to save the threatened prairie dogs from major threats like habitat loss and the sylvatic plague. Various organizations and groups have also started their own conservations, including a translocation project from the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot.
California Condor
Photo Courtesy Gary Kramer, USFWS
The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is one of the rarest bird species in not just Utah but all of North America. The good news is that the remaining birds are easy to spot, considering their wingspans reach 9.5 feet wide, making them the largest land bird on the continent.
The condors have been listed as endangered for a very long time — longer than the ESA has been around. Federal legislation to protect certain wildlife began by regulating commercial animal markets through the Lacey Act of 1900. Even though several other conservation laws were passed in the following decades, the true cornerstone of the current ESA came when Congress passed the Endangered Species Protection Act of 1966.
The first endangered species list was published in 1967, and the California condor was on it. The USFWS then established the California Condor Recovery Program a few years later, though it got off to a slow start.
The massive birds once ranged from Western Canada to North Mexico, but their population had dropped to 22 by 1982.
The flying scavengers only lay one egg every other year — not exactly a good trait for sustaining populations. Add in a few decades of lead and cyanide poisoning from carrion, hunting, nest disturbances, and habitat destruction, and that’s a recipe for rapid population decline.
By 1987, all wild California condors were put into a captive breeding program. Less than two decades later, the international multi-entity recovery program had paid off in a big way: successfully hatching its first chick in the wild in 2004.
2008 marked the first time there were more condors in the wild than when the program began. Though still endangered today, the species’ population in the wild soars above 300, and that’s a comeback story we — humans, birds, and others — should all find inspiring.
Southern Willow Flycatcher
Photo Courtesy Jim Rorabaugh, USFWS
Just like the California condor the southern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) is also an endangered species of bird once populous to much of Utah. That covers the list of similarities between the two. Including the tail, average willow flycatchers are less than 6 inches long and eat small insects, seeds, and the occasional berry.
The bird can conjure a unique territorial song. It is most likely to be heard in their preferred breeding grounds: riparian habitat, lands that occur alongside rivers, streams, and other bodies of water.
The species migrates to Mexico, Central America, and northern parts of South America in the wintertime.
The birds get the “willow” in their name from their preference to nest in riparian trees like willows. Climate change and human-led activities have altered or destroyed many vital riparian habitats and trees over time.
Those factors led to species being classified as endangered under the ESA in 1995. In 2002, the USFWS published an official Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Recovery Plan, which estimated that approximately 1,000 pairs of the bird existed at the time. In 2013, the federal agency designated roughly 1,975 stream kilometers (1,227 stream miles) across federal, state, tribal, and private lands in the southwestern U.S. as critical habitat for the southern willow flycatcher.
The species remains endangered to this day, still receiving federal and state protection granted by the ESA and a critical habitat listing, which requires any federal programs or initiatives occurring in the protected area to check that their activities won’t adversely affect the animals. While the most recent population estimate is the not-very-recent 2007 report of 1,299 southern willow flycatchers, the USFWS initiated a five-year status review of the birds earlier this year, and no — that doesn’t mean the report will take five years to finish!
