Tahoe yellow cress spared from endangered list
Tahoe yellow cress only grows in the basin. Photo/USFS
By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazette-Journal
A tiny plant that grows only along the shoreline of Lake Tahoe does not need federal protection after years of successful efforts to prevent its extinction, officials announced Wednesday.
It appears the Tahoe yellow cress now has a promising future and does not need to be listed as an endangered or threatened species, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
Fifteen years of work by a coalition of land managers, conservationists and private property owners has “truly exemplified” the most basic function of the Endangered Species Act – cooperation toward conservation of sensitive ecosystems and the plants and animals that depend upon them to survive, said Ted Koch, supervisor of U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Reno office.