Canada lynx and trumpeter swans could be advertisements for threatened wildlife species in Minnesota. But a new study reminds people not to ignore crystal darters and slender madtoms.
Those two fish may not be as visible or as well-known, but their future here is just as precarious, according to the first comprehensive assessment of wildlife species in Minnesota, how those creatures are faring, and why.
The product of three years of work by state, federal and conservation researchers, the report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says the populations of 292 of 1,200 species native to the state are below levels needed to assure their long-term health and survival. The chief reasons, it stated, are habitat degradation and loss.
"The conservation goal here was to do a real assessment and see what we need to do to keep species off the endangered species list," said Lee Pfannmuller, director of the DNR's division of ecological services.
The Minnesota Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy breaks the state into 25 sections; lists the mammals, fish, insects, amphibians and such in each of them that are rare, declining or vulnerable to decline; analyzes what has happened to the habitats there, and then lists conservation strategies.
As part of the State Wildlife Grant program, which is funded by offshore oil and gas leases, the federal government required every state to put together a plan and to submit it simultaneously this fall. Minnesota has received $7.4 million under the program since it began.
"It is a real snapshot across the U.S," Pfannmuller said. "Everybody is doing it at the same time. That is really powerful."
The Minnesota report doesn't propose new regulations. Instead, planners hope groups, agencies and people use it to make decisions in their own backyards.
That will be especially important, Pfannmuller said, as more homes, businesses and roads are built in the state to meet a projected 25 percent population increase by 2030.
For the most part, the report's results weren't surprising. Loss of habitat, for example, has long been cited as the reason many creatures find it difficult to survive.
But some things weren't expected. The area with the greatest number of targeted species, for example, wasn't prairie, which has largely been plowed under, but the water-rich southeastern blufflands, home to a wide variety of important reptiles, mollusks and birds.
The study was designed for natural resources professionals, but is beginning to be circulated to the public.
The Rochester Area Builders Development Council, for example, took it up at a luncheon session Tuesday.
Jeffrey Broberg, vice president of McGhie & Betts Environmental Services in Rochester, said builders are increasingly interested in development that preserves open spaces or wildlife habitat, but have always been wary of state regulators.
"Those developers have not wanted to include the DNR because they are afraid that would clabber up the process," said Broberg, who put together the session.
Some builders, such as Joe Weis, weren't impressed with the study.
"There are certainly species we want to protect like the bald eagle," Weis said. "But some of these snakes and beetles, I mean, who cares?"
"It was a tough crowd," Broberg said. "Developers rarely have contact with ecologists. It's not really in our milieu." He added, however, that he believed many developers left the session with a better sense of how they can minimize habitat damage.
Emmett Mullin, the DNR's project manager, said other people reading the study will find different uses.
"People are going to be able to look at thisSt. Paul Pioneer Press
