Opinion: To recover endangered species, invest in plants

A secret to recovering high numbers of endangered and threatened species lies with the most overlooked among them: plants. Although endangered plants have historically received significantly less investment than endangered animals, 74% of recoveries in the last 5 years have been plants. Simply put, the Endangered Species Act is working for plants to a degree that it isn’t — yet — working for wildlife. By prioritizing plant recovery, we can produce record recovery numbers and reveal critical lessons for recovering other species cheaper and with less conflict.

While the ESA conjures images of bald eagles, grizzly bears and wolves, the majority of species covered by the act are plants, including the small whorled pogonia, Mead’s milkweed and the dwarf bear-poppy. Restoring healthy plant communities is often the key to recovering wildlife, from whitebark pine and grizzly bears to milkweed and monarch butterflies. Native plants also support agriculture, medicine, clean water and healthy landscapes — the very systems that hunters, anglers, ranchers and farmers depend on. 

Yet rare plants garner few headlines and similarly little conservation investment. Less than 5% of federal and state recovery spending goes to plants. So, how are they disproportionately recovering?

Plant recovery is often remarkably cost-effective, costing a small fraction of what it takes to recover wildlife. And, in many cases, the modest measures required for plants — a combination of securing habitat, seed collection, propagation, reintroduction and habitat management — are widely practiced and well understood. There may be no greater return on recovery investment than plants.

For instance, the Tennessee coneflower, once believed to be extinct, now studs the cedar glades of central Tennessee with its purple blooms every summer. Management practices that addressed habitat loss and fire suppression enabled successful reintroductions. Through partnerships between federal and state agencies, conservation groups and private landowners this species is now recovered and stable. The species was declared recovered in 2011 — with more than 100,000 flowering stems, and 22% of those from introduced colonies.

Plants also don’t trigger the regulations that drive so much conflict over animal conservation. Plant recovery is, therefore, a perfect fit for the conservation vision this administration has articulated. Last summer, President Trump ordered federal agencies to deemphasize regulation and, instead, to recover species “through proactive, voluntary, on-the-ground collaborative conservation efforts.”

That is how plant recovery has always worked. Congress has exempted plants from the prohibition against harming endangered species on private land, and thus conservation on these lands is undertaken voluntarily. For the last decade, the Georgia aster, whose vivid purple flowers bring color to southern prairies each fall, has been kept off the endangered species list through voluntary efforts to conserve the species, limit mowing during its blooming season and prevent forest encroachment. Through state, federal and private parties, an agreement was put in place to preclude listing. The federal government also rarely designates critical habitat for plants, finding, as it did recently for the ghost orchid, that it may encourage plant collection or habitat destruction. Consequently, money invested in plants funds science and on-the-ground efforts, rather than being diverted to regulatory fights or litigation. 

The lack of regulatory risks opens more opportunities to conserve plants on state and private lands. When a state or private landowner wants to reintroduce an imperiled plant, they have nothing to lose and the federal government is a supportive partner. Welcoming an endangered animal, however, triggers regulations that could upend private land use, and the government acts principally as a regulator, controlling how the reintroduction will occur and how states and landowners adapt to future challenges. 

The timing for a renewed emphasis on plant recovery could not be better. Across the country, small-scale plant projects have already proven what’s possible: rare orchids restored in the Southeast desert wildflowers safeguarded in the Southwest, and Hawaiian species recovered through community partnerships. These efforts support local economies and land management jobs without heavy-handed federal oversight. With modest support, these local solutions could be replicated nationwide.

Jonathan Wood is vice president of law and policy at the Property Environmental Research Center.

Emily E.D. Coffey is vice president of conservation and research at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Leah Oliver is the advocacy and policy lead at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.