SAVING THE GIANT PALOUSE EARTHWORM

Once declared by Aristotle to be “the intestines of the earth,” earthworms have been recognized for centuries as essential to the health of our planet’s soil. But one of the most interesting earthworms of all — the giant Palouse earthworm, native to the Palouse prairie grassland — is literally being ousted from its home turf by modern agriculture and other human activities. Though this unique ecosystem once teemed with underground life, today a baffling 99.99 percent of the Palouse prairie has been dug up, disturbed, eroded, and polluted by farming, development, and pesticides. Numerous species dependent on the prairie have experienced dramatic population declines, and many plants are thought to have disappeared from the region altogether.

Determined to prevent the giant Palouse earthworm from falling to the same fate, the Center and our allies have worked hard to protect it under the Endangered Species Act. In 2006, a coalition of individuals and conservation groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the species as endangered, but the Service failed to respond until October 2007, after the petitioning groups — joined and led by the Center — filed a notice of intent to sue. The Service, however, rejected the petition based on lack on information. This finding was made despite the fact that earthworm has been found a mere three times in the past 40 years and there are well-known threats to its habitat.