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Eriogonum tiehmii

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Eriogonum tiehmii

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Eriogonum
Species:
E. tiehmii
Binomial name
Eriogonum tiehmii
Reveal

Eriogonum tiehmii, known as Tiehm's buckwheat, is a species of flowering plant endemic to the Silver Peak Range of Esmeralda County, Nevada, in the United States.[4][5] Its only known population is at high risk of destruction due to proposed mining for lithium (used for batteries in electric vehicles)[6] by Australian company Ioneer.[4][6] In 2020, a noticeable decline in the known population was attributed to herbivory.[6][7]

Taxonomy

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It was first formally named by American botanist James L. Reveal in 1985 in The Great Basin Naturalist.[8][9] Reveal named the plant for Arnold "Jerry" Tiehm who first collected the species in 1983,[8] while working at the New York Botanical Garden and hiking through the American West in search of new plants.[6]

Description

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Eriogonum tiehmii is a small, perennial herbaceous plant, growing about 30 cm (12 in) across and up to 16 cm (6 in) tall with blue-grey leaves. The leaves are 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) long and 5 to 8 mm (0.2 to 0.3 in) across with white or grey hairs on both surfaces, sometimes losing the hairs on the upper surface as it ages.[8] It flowers briefly in the spring, after rains, with a small round yellow bloom.[6]

Conservation status

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Tiehm's buckwheat is considered critically imperiled ("at very high risk of extinction or elimination") due to its small population, highly localized and specialized habitat, and threat from a proposed lithium mine. Tiehm was once quoted as saying "you could wipe the buckwheat out with a bulldozer in a couple of hours".[10] Mining exploration has increased the prevalence of invasive species in its habitat. As of 2022, a planned 640-acre (260 ha) open-pit lithium mine by Ioneer is expected to destroy up to 90% of the habitat and approximately 50–70% of the known population.[4][6] There have been efforts by conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, to gain federal protection for the species and to block lithium exploration in its habitat[11][12]. Research funded by Ioneer has been conducted to investigate a possible relocation of the plants, but results have shown that the buckwheat does not react well to soil from other locations,[13] having evolved for the combination of lithium, boron, and clay in its current habitat.[4][6]

Dan Patterson, a whistleblower from the Bureau of Land Management who previously worked for the Centre for Biological Diversity, accused Ioneer of applying for exploration permits in a manner designed to avoid environmental reviews, which can be time-consuming and costly.[6] Patterson filed a larger complaint arguing that the BLM district office had a pattern of rapid approval of projects without appropriate concern for environmental laws,[6][10] turning the region into a "clearinghouse for federal permits" and under-staffed mining inspections,[10] perhaps related to a Trump administration directive to "increase activity at all levels of the supply chain" relating to critical minerals such as lithium that, As of 2022, is predominantly imported to the United States rather than produced domestically.[6][10] In a 2020 interview, Patterson said that, since 2017, the BLM had permitted "far more development on public lands than the agency could ever monitor or enforce",[10] having himself been the sole environmental protection specialist at the BLM field office in Tonopah, Nevada, responsible for compliance oversight of roughly 6,000,000 acres (2,400,000 ha) of public lands.[10]

Between July and September 2020, estimates ranging from "a few thousand" (Ioneer Chairman James Calaway, quoted in Sonner, 2020) to as much as 17,000 plants (Center for Biological Diversity, or up to 40% of the population, were damaged or destroyed in a very short period of time.[14] Conservation biologists at the University of Nevada, Reno, land management agencies, including the BLM and USFWS, and Ioneer concluded that the damage was caused by burrowing rodents, supported by evidence from an environmental DNA ("eDNA") analysis conducted by the US Fish & Wildlife Service,[7] in addition to other wildlife surveys that included the use of game cameras. Others, including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Eriogonum researcher and Assistant Professor Benjamin Grady, PhD, support a theory that systematic, targeted human vandalism was the cause of the losses[15][16]. Botanist Naomi Fraga agreed with the CBD and Dr. Grady noting that curiously it was only the Eriogonum that had been torn up and "strewn about—thousands and thousands of plants all across the habitat ... it wasn't happening to any other plants".[6] Subsequent surveys have noted similar damage to storage organs (roots) in nearby desert plants, presumably caused by rodents seeking water in an exceptionally dry year.[17] The extensive damage to the critically endangered plants has prompted calls for increased protection of the plants, rehabilitation of the depredated area, and cessation of lithium exploration in the area.[15]

In 2021, conservationists, including Grady and Fraga, petitioned the USFWS to list Eriogonum tiehmii under the Endangered Species Act, stating that the lithium mining project at Rhyolite Ridge could have "an immense impact on the overall resiliency and continued viability of the species," as the subpopulation threatened by the mine is also the most productive at recruitment.[18] The Fish and Wildlife Service failed to issue a final rule on the proposal within a year, as required by federal law.[19] The plant was declared endangered in December 2022,[20] effective 17 January 2023.[3] Since the listing of Tiehm's buckwheat as an endangered species, Ioneer has established a conservation center with a dedicated greenhouse to grow Tiehm's buckwheat and has modified its mine plan to fence off the known populations of the plant and to disturb no more than about 38% of the known critical habitat for the plant[21].

References

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  1. ^ "NatureServe Explorer". NatureServe Explorer Eriogonum tiehmii. NatureServe. 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Tiehm's buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii)". Environmental Conservation Online System. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b 87 FR 77368
  4. ^ a b c d "Eriogonum tiehmii". explorer.natureserve.org. NatureServe. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  5. ^ Reveal, James L. (2005). "Eriogonum tiehmii". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 5. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 July 2020 – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Peters, Adele (25 January 2022). "In a battle between this endangered flower and a lithium mine, who should win?". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  7. ^ a b Grant, Jacqualine (11 November 2020). "Genetic methods to detect vertebrate herbivory on Thiem's buckwheat". Archived from the original on 17 March 2024.
  8. ^ a b c Reveal, James L. (1985). "New Nevada entities and combinations in Eriogonum (Polygonaceae)". The Great Basin Naturalist. 45 (2). Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  9. ^ "Eriogonum tiehmii Reveal". ipni.org. International Plant Names Index. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Federman, Adam (9 February 2020). "'This is the Wild West Out Here'. How Washington is bending over backward for mining companies in Nevada at the expense of environmental rules". Politico. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  11. ^ Morse, Ian. "Rare plant may prevent the first lithium quarry in the US from opening". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Conservation group seeks to protect rare buckwheat near proposed lithium mine". thenevadaindependent.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  13. ^ Barber, Gregory (17 June 2021). "The Lithium Mine Versus the Wildflower". WIRED. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  14. ^ Aridi, Rasha (17 September 2020). "'Unfathomable destruction': thousands of rare wildflowers wiped out in Nevada". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  15. ^ a b "More Than 17,000 Rare Nevada Wildflowers Destroyed". Center for Biological Diversity. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  16. ^ Sonner, Scott (18 September 2020). "Massive damage of rare plants probed at Nevada mine site". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  17. ^ Boone, Jim (10 October 2020). "Rodents Seek Moisture from Sensitive Plants During a Severe Drought Year". Archived from the original on 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  18. ^ "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Tiehm's Buckwheat. A Proposed Rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service". Federal Register. 7 October 2021. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  19. ^ Sonner, Scott (October 28, 2022). "Groups to US: Protect Nevada flower from mine or face court". AP News.
  20. ^ Sonner, Scott (2022-12-14). "Nevada flower listed as endangered at lithium mine site". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  21. ^ Solis, Jeniffer (5 May 2023). "Lithium mining company hopes to plow ahead by growing endangered plant in greenhouse".
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