Local Plant Leaves Endangered List

A plant native only to the Upper Cumberland is being removed from the Endangered Species List.

The Cumberland Sandwort is a pink, flowering perennial, is only found in parts of Fentress, Morgan, Scott, and Pickett Counties. The plant rebounded from only 11 plants in 1988 to over 70 today.

Geoff Call is an Endangered Species Recovery Coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It’s a huge deal,” Call said. “It’s something that unfortunately we are not able to do as often as we like with species under the Endangered Species Act, but in cases like this, it’s just a demonstration that the Endangered Species Act can work.”

Call said the species was placed on the endangered list 30 years ago because numbers of the plant were low and threatened.

“It was thought that those were threatened due to things like trampling from recreational activities that occur in some state parks and at Big South Fork,” Call said. “It was also thought it would be threatened from logging and from looting from people looking for artifacts in the rock house habitat where it occurs.”

The next step for the Cumberland Sandwort, Call said, allows the public to give input.

“We are publishing a proposed rule, and with that proposed rule making the case that the species is recovered and should be delisted, we open a 60 day public comment period,” Call said. “We will compile those public comments and consider any new information we receive before finalizing the rule making in a 12 month period.”

Call said that anytime a species is removed from the Endangered Species Act, it is the result of multiple state and federal agencies working together.

“One thing I really like to emphasize whenever we have a success like this the role of partnerships,” Call said. “So much of what we are able to celebrate in circumstances like this comes as the result of our partners in state agencies, other federal agencies, and the private sector.”

Call said anyone wanting to comment can find details in Monday’s Federal Resister found at https://www.federalregister.gov/ .