Posted: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 12:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A small land snail found in the Uinta mountains of northeast Utah may be uncommon, but it's not unique enough to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.
At least one conservation group in the region is promising to challenge the ruling, insisting the Uinta mountain snail is a separate subspecies that needs protection from logging, grazing, off-road vehicles and prescribed fires.
"I see no reason why we wouldn't challenge this, because the scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that it is a unique subspecies," said Kevin Mueller, of the Utah Environmental Congress, based in Salt Lake City.
Unseen for decades in the Uinta mountains, the snail was found alive in 2000 at a one-acre site in the Ashley National Forest. Several conservation groups petitioned for its protection in 2001, and the U.S. Forest Service limited human activities in the area.
On Tuesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the petition and other evidence failed to show that the snail is unique from other mountain snail populations scattered across western North America. The more common variety of the species has also been found in six locations representing four widely scattered populations across northern Utah.