There’s a growing movement to save an Ice Age-era flower that’s growing in the Pacific Northwest.
It’s called the Columbia yellowcress, and they are surviving in only a few places in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
On Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect it under the Endangered Species Act.
It’s a U.S. law enacted in 1973 that provides a framework to protect endangered and threatened species.
“These tough little plants have survived since mammoths roamed the Pacific Northwest, but habitat destruction by people has pushed them to the edge of extinction,” said Jeremiah Scanlan, a legal fellow at the Center. “Without Endangered Species Act protections, these vibrant yellow flowers could slip away forever.”
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, damming along the Columbia River has caused many local populations of Columbia yellowcress to disappear, and many that remain have fewer than 50 individual plants.
The flower grows on riverbanks, lakeshores, and other wetland areas, and its lifecycle matches the natural water cycles of its habitat.
The plants grow low to the ground and produce clusters of small, yellow flowers in the late spring and summer.
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